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Yields for preferred stocks are at their highest level in more than a decade, and investors can use exchange traded funds to capture that income as well as any potential upside, according to Bank of America. Preferred stocks are a type of security that is above common stock in a company’s capital structure and often pay higher dividend yields. Jared Woodard, investment and ETF strategist at Bank of America, said in a note to clients on Tuesday that investors searching for yield may have a hard time finding a better deal that preferreds. “Preferred stock yields are hovering around 7% for the first time since 2010 … Current yields are in the 82nd percentile, offering good entry points for investors looking to harvest quality yield. Preferred ETFs offer the most attractive yield relative to bond ETFs in our coverage,” the note said. Bank of America gave buy-equivalent ratings to three funds in this category: the iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF (PFF) , the Global X U.S. Preferred ETF (PFFD) and the VanEck Preferred ex-Financials ETF (PFXF) . Those funds have an average yield of 6.7%, according to Bank of America. Of the three, Global X’s PFFD has the lowest expense ratio at 0.23%, and VanEck’s PFXF has performed the best this year with a total return of about 6.7% according to FactSet. That is in part because the Van Eck fund excludes preferreds from financial companies, which came under pressure after a string of regional bank failures earlier this year. However, history shows that those securities can rebound, according to Bank of America. “During the 2008/9 great financial crisis (GFC), high exposure to financials weighed heavily on preferred stock returns, as it has done today. After 2009, preferreds outperformed bonds by 8%/year … and matched the risk-adjusted returns of equities … We anticipate upside potential analogous to history,” Woodard wrote. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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