BlackRock Income Trust Inc. (The)
Find Ratings Reports- Last Ratings Update:02/29/2024
- Price as of 02/29/2024 :$11.87
- Net Assets:$279.04 Million
- NAV:$12.34
- Premium-3.81%
- Peer Rank:17 of 19
- Investment Rating:D
- Performance:D-
- RiskC+
We rate BlackRock Income Trust at D. Negative factors that influence this rating include a high price volatility and high expense structure. The fund invests approximately 99% of its assets in bonds and may be considered for investors seeking a General Mortgage strategy.
Total return ranks well below peers over the last three years. The BlackRock Income Trust has returned an annual rate of 5.38% since inception. More recently, the fund has generated a total return of -0.23% in the last five years, -5.70% in the last three years, and 4.70% in the last year. How does that compare to other equity funds? In the last five years, it has outperformed 12% of them. It has also outpaced 13% of its competitors on a three year basis and 26% of them over the last year for the period ending 2/29/2024. On a year to date basis, BKT has returned -1.29%.
Downside risk has been below average. BKT has a draw down risk of -35.41%, which is the largest price decline experienced over the last three years. This fund has a three year standard deviation of 13.7%. This fund has had moderate volatility in its monthly performance over the last 36 months.
High expense ratio hinders performance. On total assets of $279.04 million, BKT maintains a high expense ratio compared to its General Mortgage peers of 1.64% to cover all operating costs. Brokerage costs for the fund to buy and sell shares are not included in the expense ratio. As BKT is a closed end fund, it has no front end or back end load.
Manager tenure and performance record are net positives. Substandard fund managers tend to be replaced, so a long tenure is usually a good sign that a fund is achieving its objectives. The BlackRock Income Trust has been managed by Matthew Kraeger for the last 8 years. Over that period, the manager was able to capture more actual gains in excess of the expected return than 75% of other fund managers.