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No Trading Today–Markets Need a Break

Of course markets are closed today for the MLK holiday–but after the last week or two a breather is likely welcome.

Friday the 10 year treasury closed at 1.77%–down from the high of the week at 1.81%, but right at the same level as last weeks close.

Economic crosscurrents are strong—weak retail and falling consumer confidence, yet hot inflation.

The next few months will be interesting as the FED tries to taper QE, then raise interest rates and finally run off the balance sheet. 2022 will be a very interesting year!

Hold On to Your Hats – CPI in 3 Hours

Hold onto your hats since we have the Consumer Price Index (CPI) being released in just 3 hours.

Expectations are for a reading of 7% on the headline number (year over year) with core CPI at 5.4% year over year.

So the 10 year treasury closed at 1.75% yesterday after meeting resistance at 1.81% on Monday–if we see a CPI release that is lower than 6.7% on the down side or more than 7.3% we could see fireworks. On the low end the narrative will be “the Fed can delay interest rate hikes”. On the upside we could hear ‘talk’ of larger interest rate hikes (for instance between 37.5 and 50 basis points in March instead of 25 basis points) or an accelerated run off of the balance sheet.

Of course there is nothing an investor can reasonably do in preparation for the number release except buckle up and wait. As always we hope for interest rates increases to occur at a slow pace–what really happens we have no control over.

Right now equity futures are just a little ‘green’ with no real movement in interest rates–but no doubt these numbers will be more volatile in a few hours.

Some Priority Income Fund Data

I see there is some discussion surrounding untraded closed end fund Priority Income Fund.

As most of us know Priority Income Fund has numerous ‘term preferred’ stock issues outstanding and 1 ‘perpetual preferred’ issue outstanding. Of course the difference is the ‘term preferreds’ have a ‘date certain’ for redemption (assuming the company remains solvent) while the ‘perpetual’ issue will remain outstanding until at least 2026–and maybe forever as there is no mandatory redemption date.

You can see all of the issues outstanding here.

The problem expressed by many is the lack of information from the company–mainly to preferred shareholders. I will say that owning 2 or 3 issues of the preferreds I have noted a lack of information–BUT there has been no issue whatsoever in receipt of dividends on a timely basis.

If a stockholder would look for any normal announcements of dividend declaration–good luck. It appears that the company has substantial difficulty with their investor relations–at least as far as ‘senior security’ holders go recently.

Here you can find the company’s press releases. You will find plenty of information–but little related to preferred stock dividends. They did announce a declaration in May, 2021 and previous to that they announced for all of the quarters in 2020.

On the other hand if you dig you can find the information–just not with a traditional press release.

Here is how I get my info on the company–and no one should have to dig this hard–but I do it because I need to know before I invest in a company.

Go to the menu for Priority Income Fund on the SEC Edgar website–here. The first item on the list is the N-2 Registration for the new proposed preferred stock offering. THIS DOCUMENT HAS EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW.

Click here and you have a summary of 7 years worth of financials. For me the net asset values at the beginning and end of each year are of interest.

If you scroll 30 pages down from the above information you will find information on the preferred shares. Included in this information is the fact that they have $68 in assets for each $25 preferred share outstanding–a leverage coverage ratio in the 270% area (as of 6/30/2021) and slightly better as of 9/30/2021. As a preferred holder you want his as high as possible and it is required to be not less than 200%.

If you go all the way down to page F-15 (I can’t link this page) you will find the ‘audit’ letter from BDO for the year ending 6/30/22021—AND the audited financials statements –balance sheet, statement of operations, cash flow statements etc. for the year ending 6/30/2021. You will note that the company has performed well over the years (although they pay Prospect Capital, their manager, plenty).

The company does publish a semi-annual and annual report each year. For some this may be an easier ‘read’. The last one was filed on 8/27/2021 for the year ending 6/30/2021. Like the N-2 registration statement noted above this annual report has a plethora of information.

So in summary you won’t find official announcements very often from Priority, but the documents mentioned above will give you substantial had data to review.

Of Interest

A couple items of interest from comments today.

mbg posted a link to a shipping recap from Fitch. Given that shippers have some preferreds this may be of interest to some here.

ESW3 posted a twitter link to SEC commissioner Hester Peirce with references to 15C2-11 (expert markets). Obviously there is some discussion taking place relative to the mess the SEC has made of OTC markets and the affect this silly rule is having on all investors.