Principal Spectrum Preferred Securities Active ETF
$18.59−0.07 (−0.40%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.55%
- Fund size
- $1.8B
- 1Y return
- +2.7%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 5.39%
- Holdings
- 159
- Volume · 30D
- 0.2M sh
- NAV per share
- $18.63
- 52W range
The ETF.net PREF Grade
Score 57 of 100 sits in the B 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.DScore 38Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.CScore 50Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.AScore 80Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 82Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.BScore 62Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.BScore 62Category rank
Our read on PREF
BMost preferred ETFs shop the $25-par retail aisle. PREF goes where the institutions trade: $1,000-par preferreds, hand-picked by an active team since 2017, with income paid out monthly.
The fund is actively managed and does not seek to track a specified index.
Why people hold it
- Targets $1,000 par preferreds, the institutional-lot corner most preferred funds skip, with a mandate built around current income rather than index replication.principalam.com
- No benchmark to hug. Managers hold roughly 160 positions in preferred stock and junior subordinated debt from US and non-US issuers, and can shift as the market shifts.principalam.com
- Income lands monthly, not quarterly.
- Trading since 2017 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund: a seasoned strategy with a real book of assets behind it, not a launch-week experiment.
Worth knowing
- Active pricing: 0.55% a year against a 0.44% peer-group median, and broad financials index funds like VFH and XLF charge under a tenth of a percent for a very different job.
- There is no index to check the work against, so outcomes ride on the team's security selection.
- Preferreds rank below bonds in the capital stack and the issuers skew financial, so stress in banks and insurers shows up here.principalam.com
PREF Holdings
- Bonds
- 159
- 20%
- BANK OF AMERICA CORP JR SUBORDINA 12/99 VAR
Sectors
- Financials100.0%
Geography
- United States66.97%
- Canada23.67%
- Japan5.05%
- United Kingdom2.57%
- France1.47%
- Germany0.27%
PREF 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 | PREF |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +1.4% |
| 1 month | −0.5% |
| 3 months | −0.5% |
| 1 year | +2.7% |
| 3 years | +8.5% |
| 5 years | +2.5% |
| 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 | PREF |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +1.4% | |
| 2025 | +7.6% | |
| 2024 | +11.4% | |
| 2023 | +7.4% | |
| 2022 | −11.8% | |
| 2021 | +2.1% | |
| 2020 | +7.5% |
PREF in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on PREF yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
PREF Dividends
- 5.39%
- $1.01
- $0.09 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | Sep 3, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Aug 5, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | Jul 6, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | Jun 3, 2026 | $0.08 |
| May 1, 2026 | May 5, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | Apr 6, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 4, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Feb 4, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Dec 29, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.08 |
| Dec 1, 2025 | Dec 3, 2025 | $0.08 |
| Nov 3, 2025 | Nov 5, 2025 | $0.08 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | Oct 3, 2025 | $0.08 |
PREF Risk
- 4.6%
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.
- 0.83
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.
- −16.9%
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.
- 0.58
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
PREF Cost
- The middle half of Preferred Securities funds
- Median 0.50%
17 of the 31 Preferred Securities funds charge less.