DWP: Do you know what CFP owns? Probably many of their share buyers have no idea. They own shares in OTHER CEFs. Their largest holding at 2013 YE was the crappy Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund.
You are correct. Who needs to pay them a premium and fees to do that?
Top Holdings As of 12/31/2013 reported by Fund Sponsor
Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend $8.19M 4.85%
Cohen & Steers REIT & Preferred Income $7.22M 4.27%
Reaves Utility Income $5.48M 3.24%
BlackRock International Growth & Income $5.38M 3.19%
BlackRock Global Opportunities Equity $5.26M 3.11%
BlackRock Real Asset Equity $5.21M 3.08%
CBRE Clarion Global Real Estate Income $5.06M 3.00%
Calamos Strategic Total Return Common $4.77M 2.82%
LOL What does that fat premium and 1.3% expense ratio get CFP buyers?
Below is a chart of CFP versus S&P500 Index for past 5 years. CFP's pathetic performance looks better when you include dividends, but not much better. S&P also pays dividends.
I agree this has been the practice in the past, but they seem to have gotten their act together lately. Check out the Latest Distributions table on their Morningstar page...
Their last three dividends have come entirely from income. I started buying CFP in September 2010 and bought on most of their secondary offerings. My investment in the principle is up almost 11% in that time plus I've received dividends of around 17% each year. I'd call that pretty good. I'm planning on cashing in on their new offering as well. Even if my principle had no appreciation I'd still have to lose more than 17% to realize a true loss.
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