iShares iBonds 2026 high-yield fund still shows a 5.53% yield it is not earning
Cash and/or derivatives are 79% of the portfolio, the 30-day SEC yield is 3.93%, and the last trading day is Dec. 15.
Key takeaways
iShares still shows a 12-month trailing yield of 5.53%, as of Oct. 29, for iShares iBonds 2026 Term High Yield and Income ETF IBHF. It looks back over a year of payments, and it is not what the fund has been earning.
The 30-day SEC yield was 3.93% the same day. It annualizes what the fund earned over the past 30 days, after fees, and the gap between that yield and the trailing yield is 1.6 percentage points.
Cash and/or derivatives were 79% of the portfolio that day, and the last day of trading is Dec. 15. On the fund page, iShares says the liquidation proceeds are currently scheduled for Dec. 18. The final net asset value, calculated Dec. 15, will include any liquidation costs the fund bears.
A cash fund is 78.2% of IBHF; leftover bonds are under 4%
Monday, Nov. 2, is the ex-dividend date and the record date. A holder has to have owned the shares through the close on Friday, Oct. 30, to receive the $0.076 a share, payable Nov. 5. iShares lists that payment entirely as income, with no return of capital.
Monday's $0.076 is a little above October's $0.073. Over the past year the check has come down in steps. It was $0.108 in June and $0.083 in July, and it is now 41% below the $0.128 IBHF paid last November.
iShares says the yield in these final months "will tend to move toward prevailing money market rates, and may be lower than the yields of the bonds previously held by the Fund and lower than prevailing yields in the bond market."
The 1-month Treasury yield was 4.06% on Oct. 30, and the 3.93% SEC yield, as of the day before, is already just under that.
The investment-grade fund that also stops trading Dec. 15 does not have the gap between the trailing yield and the SEC yield. iShares iBonds Dec 2026 Term Corporate ETF IBDR was 74% cash and/or derivatives as of Oct. 29, and its trailing yield and SEC yield were already 4.03% and 4.02%. On IBHF, the trailing yield still counts a year of higher payments, the difference iShares describes between the yield now and the bonds previously held.
The 5.53% is that year of payments. What IBHF earns now is the 3.93%, and it stops trading Dec. 15.
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