Virtus Equity & Convertible Income Fund Common Shares of Beneficial Interest (NIE)

FairStock Score: 45/100 — MIXED

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

As a value investor, I start with what this entity actually is: a closed-end fund, not an operating business. It invests in U.S. growth stocks and convertible income securities, managed by Allianz affiliates. That means there is no traditional competitive moat; returns depend on manager selection, asset allocation, and the convertible market. At the 2026-10-13 close of $25.70, the fund has a market cap of $709.1 million and FairStock calculates a P/E of 5.37. The dividend yield is 9.03%, which is high and demands scrutiny. FairStock's Graham Number is $55.05, implying a 53.32% margin of safety at that close, and the Altman Z-Score is 105.18—very high, though such a ratio is odd for a fund. The FairStock Score is only 45/100, and the Piotroski F-Score is 1/9, suggesting weak financial signals. Growth is hard to judge: revenue growth, profit growth, ROE, and debt-to-equity are unavailable, and the Lynch category is none because there are only 0 years of filed results, while 3 are needed. So the picture is mixed: statistically cheap on earnings and the Graham measure, high income, but with weak quality signals and no filed track record. I would want more history before calling it a sound value.

In plain English: Virtus Equity & Convertible Income Fund is a closed-end fund that invests in U.S. growth stocks and income-producing convertible securities. It pays a very high dividend of 9.03%, and its price looks low compared with a calculated fair-value estimate, but the fund's overall health score is only middling and there is little filed performance history to judge it. In plain terms, the income is attractive, but the business quality and track record are not clearly strong.

The full AI analysis, bull and bear case and key monitorables are in FairStock Pro.

Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer