Nuveen's securitized-income ETF returned 4.2% in year one, almost all from coupons
The Nuveen Securitized Income ETF listed September 23, 2025. From the first close, September 25, through September 22, 2026, NSCI returned 4.2% total; the share price fell 0.16%.
A year to the day after Nuveen listed an actively managed fund of mortgage- and asset-backed credit, the share is at $25.00 this morning. The 52-week range is $24.98 to $25.47.
Eleven monthly payments totaling $1.075 a share, 4.3% of the $25 net asset value, did the work a bond fund is supposed to do. Coupons began on November 3; the latest, $0.1068, went ex-dividend on September 1. The fund listed Tuesday, September 23, 2025. The first close is Thursday, September 25, two sessions later, and returns run from that close through Tuesday, September 22, 2026.
What the 4.2% was made of
Over that same September-to-September window, Janus Henderson's securitized-income fund JSI returned 2.6% and an index fund of U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities, MBB, returned 0.48%. A broad U.S. investment-grade bond fund, AGG, returned 0.17%. The difference was the price. Agency mortgages and the aggregate market each gave back about 3.7% in the share price. NSCI did not.
NSCI held its share price as MBB and AGG sold off
- Total return
- Price change
- NSCI
- Total return +4.2%
- Price change −0.2%
- JSI
- Total return +2.6%
- Price change −3.2%
- MBB
- Total return +0.5%
- Price change −3.7%
- AGG
- Total return +0.2%
- Price change −3.7%
Nuveen's March 31 fact sheet had the portfolio at 49% commercial mortgage-backed securities, roughly 22% asset-backed securities, 18% non-agency mortgages, and a combined 10% in CLOs, cash and agency MBS. The same document attributed first-quarter outperformance versus the Bloomberg U.S. Securitized Bond Index to overweights in CMBS and ABS, an underweight in MBS, a shorter duration profile, and floating-rate instruments. That is the issuer's account of one quarter.
Nuveen prints a 5.48% 30-day SEC yield as of Monday, September 21, the standardized income figure after expenses. The 10-year Treasury closed Tuesday at 4.96%. Effective duration was 3.24 years at August 31, with 5.95 years of average effective maturity. Several of the largest lines are variable-rate notes. Put those next to a 52-week price cage of less than 50 cents and the year reads as income collection, not a duration bet.
A 236-name credit book
Nuveen reported $270.8 million of net assets as of Tuesday, September 22. The share price is where it started, so that size is money that came in. The fund charges 0.38%. The portfolio held 236 positions as of September 20, with the top ten at 11.9% of assets, including Fannie Mae credit-risk transfer, JP Morgan mortgage trusts, and Freddie and Fannie pass-throughs.
Shares have averaged about $1.35 million of daily turnover, against $6.72 million for JSI.
The largest peak-to-trough decline in the available price history is 1.8%, in a year that did not supply a commercial-mortgage or consumer-credit shock, or a 2022-style rate move.
The sleeve filled in around it
The multi-sector securitized category now holds 11 funds. T. Rowe Price listed a 0.20% version this month, TSCZ, which has $21 million after three weeks. PGIM's securitized-income ETF PINC arrived in June at 0.39% and $26 million. JSI remains the established book, at $1.55 billion and 0.51%.
Anyone buying NSCI this morning is paying 0.38% for that active 236-name book, next to cheaper funds that have not yet had a year, and with no evidence yet of how the credit behaves when it has to.
Frequently asked
Where did the 4.2% come from?
Eleven monthly payments totaling $1.075 a share, 4.3% of the $25 net asset value, with the share price down 0.16%.
How did it compare with other bond funds over the same year?
Janus Henderson's JSI returned 2.6%, an agency MBS index fund 0.48% and a broad investment-grade bond fund 0.17%, and each of those gave back more than 3% in price.
What is in the portfolio?
Nuveen's March 31 fact sheet showed 49% commercial mortgage-backed securities, about 22% asset-backed, 18% non-agency mortgages and a combined 10% in CLOs, cash and agency MBS, across 236 positions as of September 20.
What does it cost next to the newer rivals?
NSCI charges 0.38%, against 0.20% for T. Rowe Price's TSCZ, 0.39% for PGIM's PINC and 0.51% for the $1.55 billion JSI.