Putnam BDC Income ETF
$27.25−0.28 (−1.00%)
- Expense ratio
- 11.77%
- Fund size
- $301M
- 1Y return
- −5.9%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 11.09%
- Holdings
- 24
- Volume · 30D
- 0.1M sh
- NAV per share
- $27.64
- 52W range
The ETF.net PBDC Grade
Score 37 of 100 sits in the D band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.FScore 3Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 79Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 57Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 69Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.CScore 52Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.BScore 69Category rank
Our read on PBDC
DPrivate credit in one ticker. PBDC owns exchange-listed business development companies, the lenders to mid-size private America, with a manager choosing which ones. Its 13.49% headline fee is mostly the BDCs' own costs, not Putnam's.
The fund seeks current income and invests mainly in exchange-listed business development companies (BDCs).
Why people hold it
- Active by design: the mandate is current income from exchange-listed BDCs, with a manager deciding which lenders make the cut rather than buying the whole basket. Live since 2022.
- The 13.49% headline is not the manager's fee. SEC rules make the fund stack the underlying BDCs' own expense ratios on top of its direct fees, and those costs are already netted out inside each BDC.franklintempleton.com
- Income is the whole point: the fund collects what its BDC holdings pay out and distributes to shareholders quarterly.
- Not a bank fund. Broad financials ETFs like XLF and VFH hold banks and insurers; this one holds the direct lenders to private companies.
Worth knowing
- Cost is the sore spot. The all-in reported 13.49% dwarfs the roughly 0.44% median for financials sector ETFs, and it is the main reason the fund sits near the back of that peer group.
- The fund's own disclosures flag the BDC risk stack: credit, interest rate, liquidity, small company and leverage risk. Private lending is where those show up first.franklintempleton.com
- Payouts ride on what the underlying lenders earn, so the quarterly amount moves around instead of arriving as a fixed check.
PBDC Holdings
- Stocks
- 24
- 69%
- OBDC
Geography
- United States100.00%
PBDC Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | PBDC |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −5.2% |
| 1 month | −1.9% |
| 3 months | +7.3% |
| 1 year | −5.9% |
| 3 years | +5.9% |
| 5 years | — |
| 10 years | — |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | PBDC |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −5.2% | |
| 2025 | −1.5% | |
| 2024 | +19.4% | |
| 2023 | +30.4% | |
| 2022 | +10.9% |
PBDC in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on PBDC yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
PBDC Dividends
- 11.09%
- $3.05
- $0.70 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 7, 2026 | Jul 14, 2026 | $0.70 |
| Apr 7, 2026 | Apr 14, 2026 | $0.71 |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.83 |
| Oct 6, 2025 | Oct 17, 2025 | $0.82 |
| Jul 7, 2025 | Jul 18, 2025 | $0.79 |
| Apr 4, 2025 | Apr 17, 2025 | $0.79 |
| Dec 27, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.79 |
| Oct 4, 2024 | Oct 18, 2024 | $0.86 |
| Jul 5, 2024 | Jul 18, 2024 | $0.79 |
| Apr 4, 2024 | Apr 18, 2024 | $0.76 |
| Dec 26, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.85 |
| Oct 5, 2023 | Oct 18, 2023 | $0.78 |
PBDC Risk
- 13.8%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.27
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −20.3%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.30
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
PBDC Cost
- The middle half of Listed Private Markets funds
- Median 0.95%
Every other Listed Private Markets fund charges less.