5 Best CEFs To Buy This Month (January 2023)

Summary

• For income investors, closed-end funds remain an attractive investment class that covers a variety of asset classes and promises high distributions and reasonable total returns.
• Closed-end funds are generally characterized by higher volatility and deeper drawdowns than the broad market. For these reasons, they are not suited for everyone.
• In this monthly series, we highlight five CEFs that have solid track records, pay high distributions, and are offering "excess" discounts. We try to separate the wheat from the chaff using our filtering process to select just five CEFs every month from around 500 closed-end funds.
• Looking for a portfolio of ideas like this one? Members of High Income DIY Portfolios get exclusive access to our subscriber-only portfolios. Learn More »

Olivier Le Moal

In this monthly article, we try to identify five closed-end funds ("CEFs") that have a solid past history, pay high-enough distributions, and offer reasonable valuations at the current time.

Author's Note: This article is part of our monthly series that tries to discover the five best buys in the CEF arena at that point in time. Certain parts of the introduction, definitions, and sections describing selection criteria/process may have some commonality and repetitiveness with our other articles in this series. This is unavoidable as well as intentional to keep the entire series consistent and easy to follow for new readers. Regular readers who follow the series from month to month could skip the general introduction and sections describing the selection process. Further, a version of this article is made available a few days early to the subscribers of the HIDIY Marketplace service.

Why Invest In CEFs?

For income-focused investors, closed-end funds remain an attractive investment class that offers high income (generally in the range of 6%-10%, often 8% plus), broad diversification (in terms of the number of holdings and variety of asset classes), and market-matching total returns in the long term, if selected carefully and acquired at reasonable price points. A $500K CEF portfolio can generate nearly $40,000 a year, compared to a paltry $7,500 from the S&P 500. Now, if you were a retiree and needed to use all of that income, the portfolio probably might not grow as much, but it may still grow enough to beat the rate of inflation. That certainly beats investment vehicles like annuities without some of their downsides. However, if you are in a position to withdraw 5% (or under 6%), the rest of the yield can be reinvested in the original fund or a new fund to ensure reasonable growth of the capital. In our view, if managed with some due diligence and care, a CEF portfolio could deliver 10% (or better) long-term total returns.

All that said, it's important to be aware of the risks and challenges that come with investing in CEFs. We list various risk factors at the end of this article. These investments are not suitable for everyone, so please consider your goals, income needs, and risk tolerance carefully before you invest in CEFs.

With that in view, one should buy selectively and in small and multiple lots. No one can predict the future direction of the market with any degree of certainty. So, we continue to be on the lookout for good investment candidates that have a solid track record, offer good yields, and when they are offering great discounts.

How to Structure a High-Quality CEF Portfolio?

It is very important that we should invest in funds that have a proven history of good performance and buy them when they are offered at reasonable discounts (discount to NAV). In addition, it is of utmost importance that we make our CEF portfolio a diversified one in terms of underlying asset classes. This is the reason we recommend having at least ten positions in a CEF portfolio. Besides, income investors need to measure the attractiveness of a closed-end fund in terms of the income yield and its reliability and sustainability.

Market uncertainties will always remain with us, but that should not prevent us from acting on our long-term investing goals. It's best to keep the focus on our long-term goals and strategies that have proven to work in good times and bad. If you are a new investor and/or starting a brand new CEF portfolio, our recommendation would be to start small and build the positions over time. We believe, for most investors, a 20%-25% allocation to closed-end and high-income funds should be enough.

Last year, most funds lost value in sync with the broader market. However, not all funds are created equal, and some have fared better than others. For reference and full disclosure, from Jan. 2022 until 01/13/2023, our "8%-CEF-Income" portfolio lost roughly 7%, compared to -15% of the S&P 500.

Our Five Best CEFs To Consider Every Month

This series of articles attempts to separate the wheat from the chaff by applying a broad-based screening process to 500 CEF funds followed by an eight-criteria weighting system. In the end, we're presented with about 30-40 of the most attractive funds in order to select the best five. However, please note that we do not consider funds that have a history of fewer than five years. We use our multi-step filtering process to select just five CEFs from around 500 available funds. For readers who are looking for a wider selection and diversification, we also include a list of the top 10 funds.

This is our regular series on CEFs, where we highlight five CEFs that are relatively cheap, offer "excess" discounts to their NAVs, pay reasonably high distributions, and have a solid track record. We also write a monthly series to identify "5 Safe and Cheap DGI" stocks. You can read our most recent article here.

The selected five CEFs this month, as a group, are offering an average distribution rate of 8.6% (as of 01/13/2023). Besides, these five funds have a proven past record and collectively returned 7.25%, 8.19%, and 8.92% in the last three, five, and ten years. Please keep in mind that these returns are much lower than what they were last year and should be measured in comparison to the broader market. The average leverage for the group is very low at about 6%, with an average discount of -10%. Since this is a monthly series, there may be some selections that could overlap from month to month.

Please note that these are not recommendations to buy but should be considered as a starting point for further research.

Goals For the Selection Process

Our goals are simple and are aligned with most conservative income investors, including retirees who wish to dabble in CEFs. We want to shortlist five closed-end funds that are relatively cheap, offer good discounts to their NAVs, pay relatively high distributions, and have a solid and substantial past track record in maintaining and growing their NAVs. Please note that we are not necessarily going for the cheapest funds (in terms of discounts or highest yields), but we also require our funds to stand out qualitatively. We adopt a systematic approach to filter down the 500-plus funds into a small subset.

Here's a summary of our primary goals:

• High income/distributions.
• Reasonable long-term performance in terms of total return on NAV: We also try to measure if there has been an excess NAV return over and above the distribution rate.
• Cheaper valuation at the time of buying, determined by the absolute discount to NAV and the "excess" discount offered compared to their history.
• Coverage ratio: We try to measure to what extent the income generated by the fund covers the distribution. Not all CEFs fully cover the distribution, especially the equity, and specialty funds, as they depend on capital gains to cover their distributions. We adjust this weight according to the type and nature of the fund.

We believe that a well-diversified CEF portfolio should consist of at least 10 CEFs, preferably from different asset classes. It's also advisable to build the portfolio over a period rather than invest in one lump sum. If you were to invest in one CEF every month for a year, you would have a well-diversified CEF portfolio by the year's end. What we provide here every month is a list of five probable candidates for further research. We think a CEF portfolio can be an important component in the overall portfolio strategy. One should preferably have a DGI portfolio as the foundation, and the CEF portfolio could be used to boost the income level to the desired level. How much should one allocate to CEFs? Each investor needs to answer this question himself/herself based on his/her personal situation and factors like the size of the portfolio, income needs, risk appetite, or risk tolerance.

Selection Process

We have more than 500 CEF funds to choose from, which come from different asset classes like equity, preferred stocks, mortgage bonds, government and corporate bonds, energy MLPs, utilities, infrastructure, and municipal income. Just like in other life situations, even though the broader choice always is good, it does make it more difficult to make a final selection. The first thing we want to do is to shorten this list of 500 CEFs to a more manageable subset of around 75-100 funds. We can apply some criteria to shorten our list, but the criteria need to be broad and loose enough at this stage to keep all the potentially good candidates. Also, the criteria that we build should revolve around our original goals. We also demand at least a five-year history for the funds that we consider. However, we do take into account the 10-year history, if available.

Criteria to Shortlist:

Criteria	Brings down the number of funds to...	Reason for the Criteria
Baseline expense < 2.5% and Avg. Daily Volume > 10,000	Approx. 435 Funds	We do not want funds that charge excessive fees. Also, we want funds that have fair liquidity.
Market capitalization> 100 Million	Approx. 400 Funds	We do not want funds that are too small.
Track record/ History longer than five years (inception date 2016 or earlier)	Approx. 375 Funds	We want funds that have a reasonably long track record.
Discount/Premium < +7%	Approx. 350 Funds	We do not want to pay too high a premium; in fact, we want bigger discounts.
Distribution (dividend) Rate > 5%	Approx. 260-290 Funds	The current distribution (income) to be reasonably high.
5-Year Annualized Return on NAV > 0% AND 3-Year Annualized Return on NAV >0%	Approx. 220-250 Funds	We want funds that have a reasonably good past track record in maintaining their NAVs.

Click to enlarge

After we applied the above criteria this month, we were left with roughly 220 funds on our list. But it's too long a list to present here or meaningfully select five funds.

Note: All tables in this article have been created by the author (unless explicitly specified). Most of the data in this article are sourced from Cefconnect.com, Cefa.com, and Morningstar.com.

Narrowing Down To 50 Funds

To bring down the number of funds to a more manageable count, we will shortlist ten funds based on each of the following criteria. After that, we will apply certain qualitative criteria to each fund and rank them to select the top five.

At this stage, we also eliminate certain funds that have had substantial negative NAV returns for both three-year and five-year periods.

Seven Broad Criteria:

• Excess discount/premium (explained below).
• Distribution rate.
• Return on NAV, last three years (medium-term).
• Return on NAV, last five years (long term).
• Coverage ratio.
• Excess return over distributions.
• The total weight (calculated up to this point).

Excess Discount/Premium:

We certainly like funds that are offering large discounts (not premiums) to their NAVs. But sometimes, we may consider paying near zero or a small premium if the fund is otherwise great. So, what's important is to look at the "excess discount/premium" and not at the absolute value. We want to see the discount (or premium) on a relative basis to their record, say 52-week average.

Subtracting the 52-week average discount/premium from the current discount/premium will give us the excess discount/premium. For example, if the fund has the current discount of -5%, but the 52-week average was +1.5% (premium), the excess discount/premium would be -6.5%.

Excess Discount/Premium = Current Discount/Premium (Minus) 52-Wk Avg. Discount/ Premium.

So, what's the difference between the 12-month Z-score and this measurement of Excess Discount/Premium? The two measurements are quite similar, maybe with a subtle difference. The 12-month Z-score would indicate how expensive (or cheap) the CEF is in comparison to the 12 months. Z-score also takes into account the standard deviation of the discount/premium. Our measurement (excess discount/premium) compares the current valuation with the last 12-month average.

We sort our list (of 214 funds) on the "excess discount/premium" in descending order. For this criterion, the lower the value, the better it is. So, we select the top 10 funds (most negative values) from this sorted list.

(All data as of 01/13/2023.)

Table 1:

Author

High Current Distribution Rate:

After all, most investors invest in CEF funds for their juicy distributions. We sort our list on the current distribution rate (descending order, highest at the top) and select the top 10 funds from this sorted list.

Table 2:

Author

Medium-Term Return on NAV (last three years):

We then sort our list on a three-year return on NAV (in descending order, highest at the top) and select the top 10 funds.

Table 3:

Author

Five-Year Annualized Return on NAV:

We then sort our list on the five-year return on NAV (in descending order, highest at the top) and select the top 10 funds.

Table 4:

Author

Coverage Ratio (Distributions Vs. Earnings):

We then sort our list on the coverage ratio and select the top 10 funds. The coverage ratio is derived by dividing the earnings per share by the distribution amount for a specific period. Please note that in some cases, the coverage ratio may not be very accurate since the "earnings per share" may be three to six months old. But in most cases, it's fairly accurate.

Table 5:

Author

Excess Return Over Distribution:

This is the "excess return" provided by the fund over the distribution rate. It's calculated by subtracting the distribution rate from the three-year NAV return.

Table 6:

Author

Total Weight (Quality Score) Calculated Up to This Point:

Note: The Total Weight calculation is not fully completed at this point since we have not taken into account the 10-year NAV return. Also, we would adjust the weight for the coverage ratio at a later stage. However, we select the top 15 names on this basis.

Table 7:

Author

Now we have 75 funds in total from the above selections.

We will see if there are any duplicates. In our current list of 75 funds, there were 26 duplicates, meaning there are funds that appeared more than once. The following names appear twice (or more):

Appeared two times:

BME, BUI, CHW, ETJ, ETO, FUND, PML, RIV (8 duplicates)

Appeared three times:

ASG, BCX, BGR, CET, HFRO, MCI, MPV, STK (16 duplicates)

Appeared four times:

THQ (3 duplicates)

So, once we remove 25 duplicate rows, we are left with 48 (75 - 27) funds.

Note: It may be worthwhile to mention here that just because a fund has appeared multiple times does not necessarily make it an attractive candidate. Sometimes, a fund may appear multiple times simply for the wrong reasons, like a high current discount, high excess discount, or a very high distribution rate that may not be sustainable. But during the second stage of filtering, it may not score well on the overall quality score due to other factors like poor track record. That said, if a fund has appeared four times or more, it may be worth a second look.

Narrowing Down To Just 10 Funds

In our list of funds, we already may have some of the best probable candidates. However, so far, they have been selected based on one single criterion that each of them may be good at. That's not nearly enough. So, we will apply a combination of criteria by applying weights to eight factors to calculate the total quality score and filter out the best ones.

We will apply weights to each of the eight criteria:

• Baseline expense (Max weight 5)
• Current distribution rate (Max weight 7.5)
• Excess discount/premium (Max weight 5)
• 3-YR NAV return (Max weight 5)
• 5-YR NAV return (Max weight 5)
• 10-YR NAV return (Max weight 5, if less than ten years history, an average of three-year and five-year)
• Excess NAV return over distribution rate (Max weight 5)
• Adjusted Coverage Ratio (Max weight 7.5): This weight is adjusted based on the type of fund to provide fair treatment to certain types like equity and sector funds. We assign some bonus points to certain types of funds, which by their make-up, depend on capital gains to fund their distributions, to bring them at par with fixed-income funds. These fund types include Equity/ Sector equity (two bonus points), real estate (two points), covered call (two points), and MLP funds (variable). However, please note that this is just one of nine criteria that are being used to calculate the total quality score.

Once we have calculated the weights, we combine them to calculate the "Total Combined Weight," also called the "Quality Score."

The sorted list (spreadsheet) of 50 funds on the "combined total weight" is attached here:

File-for-export_-_5_Best_CEFs_-_Jan_2023.xlsx

10-Positions Portfolio of The Month

If you were to select ten picks, we could simply pick the top one from each of the above categories. That said, due diligence on each name is still highly recommended. Also, in our final selections, we tend to give priority to funds that pay regular and consistent distributions on a monthly or quarterly basis. Funds that may have inconsistent dividends (even if they are high) generally do not make it to our top list. Also, be aware that many times, single-country funds score high in our rankings. Many of them pay variable dividends. In addition, being single-country funds, they can be inherently riskier since their future returns are tied to just one country, be it economic, regulatory, or geopolitical factors.

Here's the list of the top 10 selections (from different asset classes):

(CET), (THQ), (ETO), (OTCPK:DNIF), (HFRO), (ETJ), (BUI), (RMT), (MCI), (ACV).

Table 8:

Author

Final Selection: Our List Of Final Top 5

5-Positions Portfolio of the Month:

Now, if we had only five slots for investment and needed to select just five funds, we would need to make some subjective choices. We think our list of 10 selections above is quite compelling, and there are certainly more than five names that we like. While we narrow down this list, we should be careful to keep the list as diversified as possible in terms of asset classes. Since this step is mostly subjective, the choice would differ from person to person. Nonetheless, here are the selections for this month, based on our perspective:

• (CET)
• (THQ)
• (ETJ)
• (BUI)
• (MCI)

Table: The Final 5 Funds:

Table 9:

Author

Some information about the selections:

• We recommend that readers look at both the top 10 and top 5 lists. The top-10 list offers much more of a diversified lot (compared to the top 5) for the current market environment. The distribution amount per share for both groups is very respectable at 8% plus.
• BUI (BlackRock Util, Infra/Power fund), as the name suggests, invests in equity securities issued by companies that are engaged in the Utilities, Infrastructure, and Power business segments. The fund employs almost zero leverage but writes call options on the part of its positions to generate income. Distribution is very stable, and the current yield is 6.5%, while the current discount is over 5%.

• CET is our U.S. equity fund selection for this month. This fund is not the typical income fund as the distributions are semiannual and uneven. In fact, most of the distribution comes at the year-end, which includes a special distribution from capital gains. So, expect the distribution to be variable from year to year. In that sense, folks who are looking for consistent monthly (or quarterly) income need to avoid this fund. That said, CET has a very long history, uses almost no leverage, and generally trades at a large discount to NAV. Nevertheless, its history is pretty impressive. It would beat (or nearly match) the performance of the S&P 500, whichever year you began the investment. We checked with starting years of 1985, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Annualized gains for CET vs. S&P 500:

Table-10

Author

Note: At times, CET can trade with larger than the normal bid/ask spread (due to low volume), so it is recommended to use limit orders.

• MCI has a long history of success and was incepted over 50 years ago in 1971. Overall, it has returned roughly 12% per annum since inception, which is quite a feat in itself. Since 1985, and until Dec.2022 (37 years), the fund has returned a CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 18.97% compared to 10.92% from the S&P 500. Since Jan. 2001, the growth (or CAGR) has been a bit less at 9.33%, still a lot better than that of the S&P500 at 6.89%. However, the growth has lagged that of the S&P500 during the last decade or so. Fund's investments are privately placed, below-investment-grade, long-term corporate debt obligations with equity features such as warrants, conversion rights, and at times, preferred shares. It usually makes these investments directly from its issuers. Please note that the NAV of the fund is updated only on a quarterly basis.
• THQ (Tekla Healthcare Fund) is our pick for this month from the Healthcare sector. The healthcare sector is likely to do well in the medium to long term. To top it, we are getting nearly a 10.6% discount and a 3.4% excess discount right now (compared to the 52-week average). The yield is not very high but reasonable at 6.75%.
• ETJ (Eaton Vance Tax-Adv Equity Income): This fund invests in a diversified portfolio of common stocks and employs a variety of options strategies. The Fund seeks to earn high levels of tax-advantaged income and gains. To generate income, it employs PUT and CALL options as well as a collared options strategy (purchasing short-dated index put options and selling call options of the same term). Currently, the fund is yielding almost 9% income and offering an attractive excess discount (discount over 52-avg discount).

CEF-Specific Investment Risks

It goes without saying that CEFs, in general, have some additional risks. This section is specifically relevant for investors who are new to CEF investing, but in general, all CEF investors should be aware of it.

• Leverage and high fees:

They generally use some amount of leverage, which adds to the risk. The leverage can be hugely beneficial in good times but can be detrimental during tough times. The leverage also causes higher fees because of the interest expense in addition to the baseline expense. In the tables above, we have used the baseline expense only. If a fund is using significant leverage, we want to make sure that the leverage is used effectively by the management team - the best way to know this is to look at the long-term returns on the NAV. NAV is the "net asset value" of the fund after counting all expenses and after paying the distributions. So, if a fund is paying high distributions and maintaining or growing its NAV over time, it should bode well for its investors.

• Volatility:

Due to leverage, the market prices of CEFs can be more volatile as they can go from premium pricing to discount pricing (and vice versa) in a relatively short period. Especially during corrections, the market prices can drop much faster than the NAV (the underlying assets). Investors who do not have an appetite for higher volatility should generally stay away from CEFs or at least avoid the leveraged CEFs.

• Premium over NAVs:

CEFs have market prices that are different from their NAVs (net asset values). They can trade either at discounts or at premiums to their NAVs. Generally, we should stay away from paying any significant premiums over the NAV prices unless there are some very compelling reasons.

• Asset-specific risk:

Another risk factor may come from asset concentration risk. Many funds may hold similar underlying assets. However, this is easy to mitigate by diversifying into different types of CEFs ranging from equity, equity-covered calls, preferred stocks, mortgage bonds, government and corporate bonds, energy MLPs, utilities, and municipal income.

Concluding Thoughts

We use our screening process to highlight five likely best closed-end funds for investment each month. We also provide a larger list of ten CEFs, with some of the top candidates from each of the asset classes. As always, our filtering process demands that our selections have an excellent long-term record, maintain decent earnings to cover the distributions (in certain categories), offer an average of 7%-8% distributions, and are cheaper on a relative basis with a reasonable discount. Also, we ensure that the selected five funds are from a diverse group in terms of the types of assets. Please note that these selections are based on our proprietary rating system and are dynamic in nature. So, they can change from month to month (or even week to week). At the same time, some of the funds can repeat from month to month if they remain attractive over an extended period. Also, note that not every good fund would make it to this list because they may not be attractively priced or trading at a significant premium at the time of running our filtering process.

The selected five CEFs this month, as a group, are offering an average distribution rate of 8.6% (as of 01/13/2023). Besides, these five funds have a proven past record and collectively returned 7.25%, 8.19%, and 8.92% in the last three, five, and ten years. Please keep in mind that these returns are much lower than what they were last year and should be measured in comparison to the broader market. The average leverage for the group is very low at about 6%, with an average discount of -10%. Since this is a monthly series, there may be some selections that could overlap from month to month.

When it comes to CEF investing, we always recommend that it's best to be a bit conservative and build your positions by adding in small and multiple lots to take advantage of dollar-cost averaging. We believe that the above group of CEFs makes a great watchlist for further research.

Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of ABT, ABBV, CI, JNJ, PFE, NVS, NVO, AZN, UNH, CL, CLX, UL, NSRGY, PG, TSN, ADM, MO, PM, KO, PEP, EXC, D, DEA, DEO, ENB, MCD, BAC, PRU, UPS, WMT, WBA, CVS, LOW, AAPL, IBM, CSCO, MSFT, INTC, T, VZ, CVX, XOM, VLO, ABB, ITW, MMM, LMT, LYB, RIO, O, NNN, WPC, ARCC, ARDC, AWF, CHI, DNP, EVT, FFC, GOF, HQH, HTA, IFN, HYB, JPC, JPS, JRI, LGI, KYN, MAIN, NBB, MCI, NLY, OHI, PDI, PCM, PTY, RFI, RNP, RQI, STAG, STK, USA, UTF, UTG, TLT either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.