Blackrock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund Inc
Find Ratings Reports- Last Ratings Update:02/29/2024
- Price as of 02/29/2024 :$12.79
- Net Assets:$451.19 Million
- NAV:$13.22
- Premium-3.25%
- Peer Rank:9 of 28
- Investment Rating:B
- Performance:B
- RiskC+
We rate BlackRock Floating Rate Inc Strat at B. Positive factors that influence this rating include a well above average total return and low price volatility. The fund invests approximately 99% of its assets in bonds and may be considered for investors seeking a Loan Participation strategy.
Total return ranks very high in comparison with peers over the last three years. The BlackRock Floating Rate Inc Strat has returned an annual rate of 5.18% since inception. More recently, the fund has generated a total return of 8.64% in the last five years, 9.08% in the last three years, and 21.84% in the last year. How does that compare to other equity funds? In the last five years, it has outperformed 66% of them. It has also outpaced 79% of its competitors on a three year basis and 81% of them over the last year for the period ending 2/29/2024. On a year to date basis, FRA has returned 3.50%.
Downside risk has been below average. FRA has a draw down risk of -18.98%, which is the largest price decline experienced over the last three years. This fund has a three year standard deviation of 12.6%. This fund has had moderate volatility in its monthly performance over the last 36 months.
Low expense ratio helps performance. On total assets of $451.19 million, FRA maintains a low expense ratio compared to its Loan Participation peers of just 2.17% to cover all operating costs. Brokerage costs for the fund to buy and sell shares are not included in the expense ratio. As FRA is a closed end fund, it has no front end or back end load.
Manager tenure is a net positive but performance record lags managerial peers. 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 Floating Rate Inc Strat has been managed by Abigail Apistolas for the last 6 years. Over that period, the manager was able to capture more actual gains in excess of the expected return than just 42% of other fund managers.