JPI

Nuveen Preferred & Income Term Fund (JPI) declares $0.1305/share monthly dividend, in line with previous.Forward yield 6.12%Payable June 1; for shareholders of record May 14; ex-div May 13.See JPI Dividend

The preferreds sector has come nearly full circle with yields spiking in March and now falling back to their levels earlier in the year.Expensive sector valuation means that fund fees are taking a bigger chunk of underlying yields while passive investments are holding an increasing number of negative yield-to-call stocks.These trends suggest investors should look at ways to mitigate the impact of fees as well as rotating into actively managed funds or individual preferreds.We highlight a number of securities that dovetail with some of these trends such as PFFD, PREF, WFC.PL, NLY.PD, some of which we hold in our Income Portfolios.

Steadily lower yields and heightened volatility make relative value opportunities an attractive alpha generation strategy in CEFs.We take a look at the relative value opportunities on offer in the preferreds CEF sector.A couple of rotation opportunities within the Flaherty fund suite are FLC over DFP and PFO over PFD.Additional frequent opportunities come up for John Hancock as well as Nuveen term CEFs.

Energy holdings have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.A zero-interest-rate environment might persist until at least 2023.Preferred securities should continue to perform well during the low-interest-rate environment.

Now could be the time to scoop up some of the shares, with yields ranging from around 5% to more than 6%. But be mindful of the call dates.

I'd be scared if I thought that interest rates would shoot up across the board and that the creditworthiness of borrowers is wilting. But I just don't see it.