“We have been very pleased with the price action we have seen in shares of our Top Dividend and Income Pick for 2012, the Hambrecht & Quist Life Sciences Fund (HQL - yield 7.90%), so far this year. HQL is a closed-end fund that invests in both publicly traded and privately held companies doing work in the life sciences arena, and in addition to giving investors an easy way to make a fairly diversified investment in the biotech sector with a single purchase, the fund also has a policy of paying out 2% of its net asset value each quarter.
“To be sure, investors can probably get more bang for their buck by owning individual biotech stocks over the long haul; however, HQL’s payout policy means that shareholders also receive a nice quarterly dividend while they wait for the market to work its magic on the individual stocks held by the fund—and when it comes to investing, there’s nothing wrong with giving up some upside potential in return for a little peace of mind. HQL is a strong buy under $12 and a buy under $14.”
Nate Pile, Nate’s Notes, July 2012
