Last week, in my monthly deep dive stock report for my Dividend Hunter Insiders, I dug into a closed-end fund. For this monthly member benefit, I solicit stock ideas from our subscribers and then pick one for an in-depth report. My research goes in many directions, and this one took me to some very compelling information.
The CEF in question in this most recent report covered is managed by Eaton Vance. It turns out that Eaton Vance manages an even dozen of similar CEFs, including the one I featured. Each focuses on income from a combination of dividend investments and covered call cash flow.
Below, I’m listing the fund names, stock symbols, current yields, and five-year average annual returns for fun. All yields and returns are as of June 30, 2021. As I look through the list, my question is, which ones are the current best opportunities? None of these are recommended investments for my Dividend Hunter subscribers.
- Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund (EOI):
Current yield: 5.8%
Five-year average annual return: 14.82% - Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund II (EOS):
Current yield: 5.1%
Five-year average annual return: 19.14% - Eaton Vance Risk-Managed Diversified Equity Income Fund (ETJ):
Current yield: 8.76%
Five-year average annual return: 10.67% - Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund (EVT):
Current yield: 6.25%
Five-year average annual return: 14.19% - Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Opportunities Fund (ETO):
Current yield: 5.68%
Five-year average annual return: 16.18% - Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Income Fund (ETB):
Current yield: 8.18%
Five-year average annual return: 9.71% - Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Opportunities Fund (ETV):
Current yield: 8.52%
Five-year average annual return: 12.25% - Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Diversified Equity Income Fund (ETY):
Current yield: 7.33%
Five-year average annual return: 13.64% - Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Buy-Write Opportunities Fund (ETW):
Current yield: 8.03%
Five-year average annual return: 10.03% - Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Income (ETG):
Current yield: 5.61%
Five-year average annual return: 14.95% - Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity Income Fund (EXG):
Current yield: 7.24%
Five-year average annual return: 12.62% - Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Buy-Write Strategy Fund (EXD):
Current yield: 7.38%
Five-year average annual return: 5.30%
I wonder about the investment management firm strategy to have so many CEFs with apparently similar investment strategies. The Eaton Vance website gives very little information (close to zero) to help investors select two or three of these out of the dozen.
Investors should be aware of the very different investment results from funds with very similar names. I do not see any patterns that would help investors make sound decisions among the Eaton Vance CEFs.
To pick from these funds would require deep-dive research, including reading through each prospectus. As I noted above, these are not Dividend Hunter recommendations, but I find the family of Eaton Vance income-focused CEFs provide an interesting picture of the closed-end fund world, which I often refer to as the junkyard of Wall Street.
