This 12.1% Payout is Trash (But This 6.3% Yield is Safe, With Upside)

Most income investors find their way to business development companies (BDCs) by screening or searching for big yields. And there’s no doubt these listed payouts do appear impressive! Here are the five largest BDCs (ranked by assets under management): A first-level look at this table may have you wondering why anyone would buy MAIN when they could nearly double their dividend by choosing another ticker. Well, there’s a good reason that we’ll get to in a minute. First, let’s talk about what BDCs actually do so that we can understand what is driving these big dividends. It all started in 1940, when Congress passed the Investment Company Act.… Read more