Closed-End Target Date Muni Bond Funds Have A Good Yield And Low Interest Rate Risk
Blackrock and Nuveen target date funds pay back upon maturity. These funds hold pretty safe municipal bonds. These fund have decent yields. Blackrock (NYSE: BLK ) and Nuveen have a series of closed-end municipal bond funds that have a target date maturity. These funds have a nice yield and pay back principal in just a few years. We will look at the Blackrock Municipal 2018 Term Trust (NYSE: BPK ). As of today, it is trading at $15.50 and is almost at par with its net asset value (NAV). That means that the underlying portfolio of cash and bonds are worth what the market capitalization is. The portfolio holds 124 different issues of municipal bonds. They appear to be revenue bonds with names like: New York State Dormitory, California Waste, and Maryland Transportation. Revenue bonds are backed by the revenues generated from a certain project like a toll road or student housing. The bonds are rated: 6.9% AAA, 21.4% AA, 41% A, 18.9% BBB, 5.2% BB, 3.3% not rated, and 3.3% cash. The portfolio is only 1.5% leveraged, meaning that in a closed-end fund, that is all that has been borrowed. The fund has returned 5.8% since it was taken public in October 2001. Most of the time, it trades at par to NAV except when the markets went crazy in ’08 and then recovered. The trust yield 4.7¢ a month, so the total yield is 56.4¢ a year divided by today’s market price of $15.50 for a yield of 3.64%. The bonds will be liquidated or will have matured by December 31, 2018. That’s a pretty good yield for a bond that matures in about three years. The maturity price is $15. I assume that there could be some cash left over. The internal fee is 0.64%. It does not appear that there are many funky bonds that could go under. These include Detroit, Illinois, and Puerto Rico government obligations. As the bonds in the portfolio are backed by specific projects, they appear to be pretty safe. I must say, it’s seems like a pretty good investment for certain circumstances. As bonds are sold in $1,000 increments and the minimum that most bond brokers require is to buy in a $5,000 a lot, an investor must have quite a bit of money to hold a diversified portfolio. These Blackrock funds are good to hold smaller amounts of cash that are low risk, provided that the trade fees don’t negate the returns. These funds are traded like stocks. Other funds that fit in this category include: the Blackrock Municipal 2020 Term Trust (NYSE: BKK ), the BlackRock New York Municipal 2018 Term Trust (NYSE: BLH ), the Nuveen Intermediate Duration Quality Muni (NYSE: NIQ ), and another Nuveen Intermediate Duration Municipal Term Fund (NYSE: NID ). I have not done the research on these as I have on the Blackrock listed above. I have also not looked at the prospectus and just looked at the fact sheet. The particular closed-end fund seems to have a decent return and should do well in a rising interest rate environment. It would be nice if the fees were a little lower but what can you do? A yield of over 3% with a maturing of three years is pretty good in this environment.