High Income Securities Fund Common Stock (PCF)

FairStock Score: 58/100 — STEADY

Key Financials

AI Analysis

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

At the close on 2026-10-13, High Income Securities Fund trades at $5.05 against a market cap of $106.4 million. This is not an operating business with pricing power; it is a closed-end balanced income fund run by Putnam, investing in U.S. fixed income and convertible securities, plus some equities. Therefore, the moat is thin at best—investors are relying on manager skill and the fund’s discount/premium dynamics rather than a durable competitive advantage. On valuation, FairStock’s calculations show price-to-book of 0.76, a Graham Number of $5.61, and a margin of safety of about 10%. That suggests the shares are modestly cheap versus accounting value. The 13.78% dividend yield is the main attraction, and beta of 0.62 implies lower volatility than the market. But the quality markers are poor: P/E is 24.05, ROE 3.17%, ROCE 2.21%, and the Piotroski F-Score is 1/9. The yield is far above the roughly 4.2% earnings yield implied by that P/E, so I would want evidence that distributions are covered. The Altman Z-Score of 125.26 is provided, but for a fund it is less meaningful than for an industrial company. Growth trajectory is unclear: revenue and profit growth are not available, and FairStock assigns no Lynch category because only zero years of filed results are available and three are needed. So I cannot judge a multi-year record. The 52-week range is $4.95 to $6.34, and the current price sits near the low end. For a Graham-style investor, a discount to book plus a high yield can be attractive, but only if the earnings and distribution are sustainable. Here, the cheapness is real but the financial quality is weak.

In plain English: High Income Securities Fund is a closed-end fund managed by Putnam that invests in U.S. bonds, convertible bonds, convertible preferred shares, and some dividend-paying stocks. Its recent numbers show only modest profit generation and weak financial-strength checks, but it pays a very high income distribution. At $5.05, the price is a little below its accounting value and below a fair-value estimate, so it looks modestly cheap, though the weak results are a real caveat.

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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