John Hancock Closed End Funds

[Dawg52]

Moved per Martha's recommendation.

Not a recommendation but wondered if anyone is invested in any of these funds? Some are selling at a discount with respectable yields.

John Hancock Funds - Closed-End Funds - Daily Prices
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[terminator]

I looked at some of those dividend/income ones last year. I still have HTD in one of my tracking lists.

CEFs often look attractive because of the discounts, but unless they are dissolved/distributed the chances are they will continue to trade at a discount and not close the gap between price and NAV. It's nice to pay less for the assets and get an enhanced yield . . . but then again you're paying management fees to managers who don't have a lot of incentive to minimize those fees. HTD for instance has a .75% management fee and other costs that bring it up to about 1%. I think HTD was trading at 16 or 17 last year with a yield more like 7% or 8%, but the reduction in yield is just the result of increasing stock prices.

I don't think they are bad investments. Just not for me as I don't like to transfer 1% of my assets annually to anyone whether it is a CEF or ETF or regular old mutual fund . . .

[brewer12345]

Thanks for the reminder on these, dog. PDT, PGD, PDF and DIV are virtual clones of each other. They are leveraged baskets of moderately credit-risky preferreds and high div paying equities with an expense ratio of ~1.7% and have a heavy weighting to the utilities industry. At a 12% or better discount to NAV, they look attractive in a taxable account. I especially like PDT and PGD because there is an insurance company the owns a big wad of these things (46% and 25% respectively). The insurer tends to buy when the discount is attractive, providing a floor. They also have a history a few years back of forcing liquidation if the discount gets too wide.

[justin]

I bought UTF - a utilities closed end fund by Cohen Steers. Leveraged a bit, pays a nice dividend. Selling at 12-15% discount to NAV.

[Anansi]

I own several CEFs including HTD, all of which have done consistently well in the last year or two. I plan on keeping my position there, but I have to admit that HTD has probably been the worst performer amoung the few CEFs I own.