Two High Yield Ideas in Closed End Funds

Scott Burns: A couple of high-yield in ideas from the closed-end fund space. Hi
there. I'm Scott Burns, director of ETF and closed-end fund
research with Morningstar. Joining me today is Mike Taggart, our
closed-end fund strategist. Mike thanks for joining me.

Mike Taggart: Good to be here.

Scott Burns: First of all, when we talk about yield with closed-end funds, there's
a common mistake that so many investors make. Maybe you can
talk a little bit about what the composition of that yield is, and
what they should look for?

Mike Taggart: Sure, Scott. When you look at the distribution that you're receiving
from a closed-end fund, it's really important to look at the source
of that distribution. There are three areas where that income can
come from. It can come from the net investment income. That
would be the bond's interest payments that had been made to the
portfolio or stock dividends. Then you have realized capital gains.

Then the third one is where kind of creates all the mistakes to
return a capital where they are actually returning your invested
capital to you.

Scott Burns: So it's not really a true yield. It's just your money back.

Mike Taggart: Exactly. If there's a return of capital component to it, it's not a true
yield. Investors really don't understand this fully, I don't believe.
So a lot of times you'll see money flowing heavily towards like
investors just kind of flocking towards the funds with the highest
headline yield, when it's not really a yield at all.

Scott Burns: Right. Where you actually wrote a great piece of that in your most
recent closed-end fund weekly, so watchers can check on that and
look at that link for a more further description into how to really
assess a closed-end fund's yield.

But anyway, onto the moment. You've got a couple of ideas for us
here. Investors yield is top of every investor's mind right now.
Closed-end funds are great vehicles for delivering yield. What
have you got for us here?

Mike Taggart: First of all, both of these ideas, neither of them have the return of
capital component to them. So that's one thing we screened out. So
the first idea is Dreyfus High Yield Strategies Fund. It's a 3-star
rated fund. Its ticker symbol is DHF. The fund is trading right now
around $4.00 a share, when we came in here. That equates to about
a 2% discount of its NAV, and that's just a little over 13% yield on
the fund. It pays out 4.3 cents per share every month.

One of the reasons I like this fund is that just in March the board of
directors hiked the payout by 23%. The second reason is with
closed-end funds when they're paying these out monthly, they have
undistributed net investment income. So if it's a positive balance, it
can act as a cushion to the payout. So right now, The UN—it's
called UNI, and the UNI balance is eight cents a share.

Scott Burns: That will help keep the dividend streams smooth if there's a little
volatility in the underlying.

Mike Taggart: If there's a little volatility, if they're a cent short one month, they
can just take it out of the UNI.

Scott Burns: Okay. Well that sounds great editor. Are there any risks people
should think about with this? What's the credit quality of the
portfolio?

Mike Taggart: The credit quality of the portfolio right now is a single B, average
credit quality.

Scott Burns: So it's definitely junk?

Mike Taggart: Oh yes. Both of these are going to be high-yielding funds. That's
where you're getting your yield from. You're definitely taking on
some more risk. In addition to that single B credit rating, which
they get from investing right now, about 100% in U.S. non-
investment grade corporate bonds. In addition to that, you have a
pretty high headline expense ratio.

Closed-end funds have to report the cost of their leverage as part of
their expenses. So last year or in the last full annual year for them,
their expense ratio was like 2.7%. Half of that came from leverage.

Scott Burns: Their costs of borrowing?

Mike Taggart: Right. As an investor, you say, "Wow, I'm paying like 1.35% for
my leverage." Yes, well you're also getting the benefit of that in
the additional yield, hopefully, if the managers are doing their job
right. It's 29% levered, so that can increase its volatility. And like
most closed-end funds, it's not highly liquid. Over the last year, its
average trading volume is about 270,000 shares a day.

Scott Burns: So definitely something for the risk part of an investor's portfolio.
This isn't really a core holding.

Mike Taggart: No, you don't want this as a core holding. This is something
satellite maybe, for an opportunity to give your overall portfolio a
little boost.

Scott Burns: A little yield enhancement.

Mike Taggart: Right.

Scott Burns: What about the other fund?

Mike Taggart: Yes. The second one's the same way. You don't want this as a core
holding. It's the John Hancock Investors Trust. It's a 4-star rated
fund. Ticker symbol is JHI. This one actually has an average credit
quality of double B.

Scott Burns: So it's a little higher up the credit chain.

Mike Taggart: A little higher up the credit chain. It does have some overseas risk.
85% of its assets at the end of February were invested in U.S.
entities. It's trading right now about $20.25 a share. It's actually
trading at a bit of a premium, but we don't think it's overvalued
compared to its long-term historic average discount. It's a 4.4%
premium, but it's offering a 10.3% yield.

Scott Burns: Is there any leverage on the fund?

Mike Taggart: Yes. Similar with the Dreyfus fund, 26% leverage on the fund.

Scott Burns: Okay. Again, this is not really a core holding, but its a little higher
credit quality. A little lower yield, a little lower leverage.

Mike Taggart: Right. The actual expense ratio is quite a bit lower 1.45% and that
would include the costs of leverage. About 40% of that expense
ratio comes from the costs of leverage.

Scott Burns: Got you, Well Mike, thanks for sharing that insight on just how
investors should look at the distribution yields from a closed-end
fund, and also for those great ideas. Just want to make sure once
again; investors understand that risk and return are equal. So when
you want that extra yield, there is going to be some extra risk to
take on. But it's suitable depending on the situation. Thanks for
joining me.

Mike Taggart: Thanks very much.

Scott Burns: I'm Scott Burns, director of ETF and closed-end fund research for
Morningstar. For this and other ETF and closed-end fund news and
information, please check out morningstar.com's ETF and closed-
end fund tab.