Covered-call ETF

iShares U.S. Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF (BALI)

iShares U.S. Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF trades as BALI on CBOE. This page collects what it has actually paid — every recorded payment, the calendar-year totals, the forward and trailing 12-month yields side by side against the last price, and the dates already declared.

$34.70 $0.04 (+0.12%)
52-week range $29.94 – $35.39
Covered-call ETF CBOEFinancial ServicesAsset Management - Income

Price as of Aug 25, 2026 (9 hours ago) · supplied by fmp. Quotes may be delayed. Verify with your broker before acting on anything here.

Forward yield 6.55% Last regular payment annualised, divided by the last price. An estimate of the next twelve months — not money that has been paid.
Trailing 12-month yield 7.65% Cash actually paid per share over the last 365 days ($2.66) divided by the last price. Backward-looking, and not comparable with a bond's yield to maturity or an index yield.
Forward annual payment $2.27 Forward estimate: the last regular payment multiplied by the number of payments a year. It is an estimate of the next twelve months, not cash that has been paid.
Pays Monthly Cadence of the regular payment, accepted only after three consecutive payments were reported at the same frequency.
Next ex-date First day the shares trade without the next payment attached.
Next pay date When the declared payment reaches holders.
Growth streak 2+ yr At least 2 consecutive complete years in which the highest regular payment was above the year before. Our stored payment history for this security begins in 2023. The run reaches that first stored year, so this is a floor and the issuer's own record may be longer.
Years paying 3 Complete calendar years with a payment in our stored history, which begins in 2023. The issuer may have paid for longer than we hold.
Payout ratio Not meaningful for this structure — GAAP earnings do not describe what it pays out.
Income score 55 0-100 research screen, not a recommendation.

The two yields above are different measurements and are not interchangeable. The forward yield annualises the last regular payment; the trailing 12-month yield counts the cash actually paid over the last 365 days. Neither is an interest rate, a bond's yield to maturity or an index effective yield, and none of those may be compared with these as like for like. See how we compute these numbers.

The growth streak above is a floor, not a full record. Our stored payment history for BALI begins in 2023, and the run of increases reaches that first stored year, so the honest statement is that the payment rose in at least 2 consecutive complete years — the issuer's own record may be longer, and the issuer's published payment history is the authority on it.

The plus sign on the growth streak means our own payment record starts before the run of increases does, so the count is a floor rather than a total: the payment rose in at least that many consecutive complete years, and possibly in more that happened before our history begins. It is not the issuer's official record, and a longer streak published elsewhere is not a contradiction of it.

A yield is just a payment divided by a price, so it moves every day even when the payment does not. The forward number is an estimate of the next twelve months; the trailing number is what was actually paid over the last twelve. Ex-date is the cut-off: own the shares before it and the next payment is yours, buy on or after it and the seller keeps it.

The iShares U.S. Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF is designed to generate a reliable stream of income while aiming for lower price swings when compared to the wider U.S. stock market.

Company description supplied by the issuer and relayed by our market-data provider, not written by Income Investing. See data sources.

BALI is a covered-call etf. What it pays is a distribution, not interest, and that distinction matters. A distribution is whatever the fund passes through for the period — dividends and interest received from the holdings, realised capital gains, option premium where the strategy writes options, and sometimes return of capital. Only the year-end tax form breaks the payment into its parts.

Return of capital is your own money coming back. It is not taxed on receipt, but it reduces your cost basis, so the tax arrives later as a larger capital gain. A fund can therefore publish a steady-looking distribution rate while the net asset value drifts down underneath it. The distribution is set by the fund and can be changed at any time; it is never a coupon. Call-writing funds fund part of the payment by selling away upside: the premium is collected today, and the gains above the strike belong to the option buyer.

Figures on this page are computed by Income Investing from the payment history and last price stored in our own database; the payment records come from fmp and the price from fmp, last recomputed Aug 25, 2026. They describe what has been paid, not what will be paid. Yield, payout ratio, our data sources and our methodology are explained elsewhere on the site.

Payment history

Each row is one payment as recorded by our data provider, newest first. The final column compares it with the nearest payment about a year earlier.

The table lists the 24 most recent recorded distributions for BALI, newest first, with ex-dates running from Sep 03, 2024 to Aug 03, 2026. The latest is $0.1893 per share in USD, ex-date Aug 03, 2026, pay date Aug 06, 2026. Measured against the nearest payment about a year earlier, 16 are higher, 8 lower and 0 unchanged; the remaining 0 have no comparable payment in the record. None is flagged as a special or one-off payment. Payment records supplied by fmp.

How to read this table: one row is one payment, newest at the top, and the amount is what a single share received on that one date. It is not an annual figure — the yearly ones are in the tiles above and in the totals further down. A row marked Special is a one-off the issuer chose to make rather than part of the regular schedule, which is why it is left out of the year-on-year comparison and out of those yearly totals. Whether the amount repeats for several rows or moves every time is a fact about the structure rather than a sign of health: a company usually resets its dividend once a year, while a fund's distribution can change with every payment.

Recorded payments for BALI. Amounts are per share as declared, in USD.
Ex-dateOwn it before this day and this payment is yours. Pay date Amount per shareWhat one share received on that date, before tax. Cadence tagged by provider Type vs. a year earlier
Aug 03, 2026 Aug 06, 2026 $0.1893 Monthly Regular -6.68%
Jul 01, 2026 Jul 07, 2026 $0.2673 Monthly Regular +31.69%
Jun 01, 2026 Jun 04, 2026 $0.2160 Monthly Regular -7.62%
May 01, 2026 May 06, 2026 $0.2191 Monthly Regular -42.65%
Apr 01, 2026 Apr 07, 2026 $0.3461 Monthly Regular +35.79%
Mar 02, 2026 Mar 05, 2026 $0.1970 Monthly Regular -4.32%
Feb 02, 2026 Feb 05, 2026 $0.1792 Monthly Regular +3.70%
Dec 30, 2025 Jan 05, 2026 $0.2216 Monthly Regular +10.71%
Dec 01, 2025 Dec 04, 2025 $0.2497 Monthly Regular +8.24%
Nov 03, 2025 Nov 06, 2025 $0.1947 Monthly Regular +53.36%
Oct 01, 2025 Oct 06, 2025 $0.1892 Monthly Regular -6.47%
Sep 02, 2025 Sep 05, 2025 $0.1859 Monthly Regular -17.78%
Aug 01, 2025 Aug 06, 2025 $0.2029 Monthly Regular +6.91%
Jul 01, 2025 Jul 07, 2025 $0.2030 Monthly Regular +20.00%
Jun 02, 2025 Jun 05, 2025 $0.2339 Monthly Regular +79.71%
May 01, 2025 May 06, 2025 $0.3820 Monthly Regular +95.08%
Apr 01, 2025 Apr 04, 2025 $0.2549 Monthly Regular +79.48%
Mar 03, 2025 Mar 06, 2025 $0.2059 Monthly Regular +14.38%
Feb 03, 2025 Feb 06, 2025 $0.1728 Monthly Regular +6.11%
Dec 18, 2024 Dec 23, 2024 $0.2002 Monthly Regular +28.38%
Dec 02, 2024 Dec 05, 2024 $0.2307 Monthly Regular +47.94%
Nov 01, 2024 Nov 06, 2024 $0.1269 Monthly Regular -37.36%
Oct 01, 2024 Oct 04, 2024 $0.2023 Monthly Regular -0.16%
Sep 03, 2024 Sep 06, 2024 $0.2261 Monthly Regular +11.61%

The cadence column is the tag our provider attached to that individual payment (fmp), not the security's established schedule. The two can disagree, which is why the cadence shown in the tiles above is only accepted after three consecutive payments were tagged the same way.

A blank comparison means there was no comparable payment within sixty days of the same point a year earlier — a new payer, a changed cadence, or a gap in the record. Special and one-off payments are labelled and are excluded from the comparison.

Distributions by calendar year

Calendar-year totals, bucketed by ex-dividend date: every regular distribution whose ex-dividend date fell in that year, for the last ten complete years on record. These are amounts actually paid, never a forward estimate, and they are not the issuer's own annual distribution figure.

The chart covers 3 complete calendar years for BALI, 2023 to 2025, per share, in USD. Each bar totals the regular distributions with an ex-dividend date in that calendar year. The year is assigned by ex-dividend date, which is not necessarily the issuer's own distribution year. Our stored payment history for BALI begins in 2023. The total went from $0.3585 in 2023 to $2.70 in 2025 — 652% higher. Within that span 2 years were higher than the year before and 0 lower. The current year is still in progress and is left out, and special or one-off payments are excluded. This is a record of what was paid, not a projection. 1 of the years shown does not hold the 12 distributions the recorded cadence implies: 2023 (2 payments). Those years are marked on the chart and named in the table. A year with one more or one fewer payment than the cadence implies is usually a payment whose ex-dividend date moved across a year end rather than a change in the payment itself: the payment lands in the neighbouring calendar year, so one year reads high and the next reads low while the rate never moved. The change-on-the-year-before column carries the same distortion, because it compares two totals rather than two payment rates. 2023 is the first year of payments we hold for BALI, so it is short because our record starts there, not because anything moved. These totals are arithmetically right for what they measure — regular distributions bucketed by ex-dividend date — but they are not the annual distribution the issuer reports for that year, and where the two disagree the issuer's own published distribution history is the authority.

Each bar, and each row underneath it, is one calendar year of regular payments added together for a single share. Read left to right and you are reading whether the payment has grown, held or been cut — a record of what was paid, never a forecast of what will be. One thing to watch for: a year here is decided by the date the payment went ex, so when that date slips across a year end one year holds an extra payment and its neighbour is one short while the payment itself never moved. Any year where that has happened is drawn as a dashed bar and marked with an asterisk, and it is the usual reason these totals differ from the annual figure the issuer itself publishes.

2023: $0.3585 per share from 2 payments — the recorded cadence implies 12 a year, so this year does not match. 0.36 2023* 2024: $2.1559 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 2.16 2024 2025: $2.6963 per share from 12 payments, matching the 12 a year the recorded cadence implies. 2.70 2025
Payment count matches the recorded cadence * Count does not match — 2023
Bar height is the total per share of the regular distributions whose ex-dividend date fell in that calendar year, in USD. The year is assigned by ex-dividend date, not by the issuer's own distribution year and not by the date the cash arrived. The dashed bars marked * hold more or fewer payments than the cadence on record implies: that is usually one payment whose ex-dividend date shifted across a year end, which leaves one year high and its neighbour low without the distribution itself changing. Where these totals disagree with the issuer's published annual figure, the issuer's own distribution history is the authority. These are a trailing record — never the forward estimate shown in the tiles above.
Complete calendar years only, bucketed by ex-dividend date — the current year is still in progress and is left out.
Year Paid per share that yearEvery regular payment dated in that year, added up, for one share. Payments in the yearA count that differs from the usual one means a payment moved across a year end. Change on the year before
2023 $0.36 2 — cadence implies 12
2024 $2.16 12 +501.29%
2025 $2.70 12 +25.07%
What can go wrong
Selling calls converts uncertain upside into cash today, and the trade is not free. The fund keeps the premium but gives away the gains above the strike, so in a strong rally it lags the index it writes on, while in a fall it takes close to the full loss with only the premium as cushion. Headline distribution rates on these funds often include option premium and return of capital, which is not the same thing as portfolio income.

Similar securities

The eight closest covered-call etf entries by trailing 12-month yield, in the same sector. A research screen, not a recommendation.

Open Options Income →

These are not the best-paying securities of this kind, and no ranking is meant by the order. They are the ones whose trailing 12-month yield sits nearest to this one, in the same structure and usually the same sector, so that this security can be seen in company rather than on its own. Every figure here is backward-looking cash that has already been paid. A row that sits well away from the rest is a question to take to that security's own page, not an answer.

Ticker Name Price Trailing 12m yieldCash paid out over the last year, over today's price. Paid over 12 months Pays
JEPI JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF $58.14 7.88% $4.58 Monthly
GPIX Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Premium Income ETF $56.10 8.06% $4.52 Monthly
KNG FT Cboe Vest S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Target Income ETF $51.77 8.14% $4.21 Monthly
DIVO Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF $48.81 6.12% $2.99 Monthly
GPIQ Goldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Premium Income ETF $56.50 10.02% $5.66 Monthly
PBP Invesco S&P 500 BuyWrite ETF $23.20 10.39% $2.41 Monthly
XYLD Global X - S&P 500 Covered Call ETF $41.36 10.47% $4.33 Monthly
TLTW iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond BuyWrite Strategy ETF $21.49 10.85% $2.33 Monthly

Every row in this table is on the same basis — cash actually paid per share over the last 365 days, divided by that security's last price — so the column can be read down. Forward estimates are deliberately not used here, because they exist for some securities and not others and a mixed column would invite a comparison that does not hold. A dash means no payment was recorded in the last 365 days, or no price is on file. Open a security to see both of its yields.

Where these are traded

The Options Industry Council

The education arm funded by the US options exchanges and OCC, with free courses and calculators covering covered calls, cash-secured puts, assignment and exercise.

Free; run by the exchanges and the clearing house rather than a broker

Visit The Options Industry Council ↗
Options Clearing Corporation

The clearing house that stands as counterparty to every listed US equity and index option and publishes the assignment, exercise and adjustment rules.

Publishes 'Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options', the disclosure document brokers must supply

Visit Options Clearing Corporation ↗
Cboe Global Markets

Operates options exchanges where much US index and equity option volume trades, and publishes the methodology for its buy-write and put-write benchmark indices.

Index methodology and historical index values are published free

Visit Cboe Global Markets ↗
tastytrade

A US brokerage built around options order entry, with per-contract pricing and position-level risk and probability displays.

Visit tastytrade ↗

Listed because they offer access to this kind of security, not as an endorsement of it.

Questions about BALI

Does BALI pay a distribution, and how often?
Yes. The regular payment cadence recorded for BALI is monthly. The annual figure works out at $2.27 per share. Forward estimate: the last regular payment multiplied by the number of payments a year. It is an estimate of the next twelve months, not cash that has been paid. The last ex-date in our history is Aug 03, 2026.
What is the yield on BALI, and is it forward or trailing?
There are two, and they measure different things. The forward yield is 6.55%: the last regular payment annualised to $2.27 a year and divided by the last price of $34.70. That is an estimate of the next twelve months. The trailing 12-month yield is 7.65%: the $2.66 per share actually paid over the last 365 days, divided by the same price. Neither number is a bond's yield to maturity, an index effective yield or an interest rate, and none of those should be compared with these as like for like. Yield also moves inversely with price, so it rises when the market marks the security down — a high number is a question, not an answer.
When is the next BALI ex-dividend date?
No future ex-date has been declared or collected for BALI yet. The last one on record was Aug 03, 2026.
Why is there no meaningful payout ratio for BALI?
A payout ratio compares a dividend to accounting earnings. For a covered-call etf the payment is not funded out of GAAP net income — REITs and BDCs pay out of taxable income under distribution rules, funds pass through whatever the portfolio produced, and partnerships distribute cash flow. Analysts use structure-specific measures instead, such as funds from operations for REITs or net investment income for BDCs.
Is the BALI distribution the same as interest?
No. A distribution is whatever the vehicle chooses or is required to pass through in that period. It can contain dividends, interest, realised gains, option premium and return of capital, and only the year-end tax form shows the split. Return of capital is your own money coming back: it is not taxed on receipt, but it lowers your cost basis and therefore raises the gain you are taxed on later.
Why do the BALI calendar-year totals differ from the annual distribution the issuer reports?
Because this page buckets every regular distribution into the calendar year of its ex-dividend date, and the issuer reports its own distribution year. At the recorded cadence a full year holds 12 payments, and in our record 2023 holds 2 payments. That is almost always a payment whose ex-dividend date moved across a year end — the payment falls into the neighbouring year, leaving one year high and the other low while the distribution rate itself did not change. The totals here are arithmetically right for what they measure and are not a restatement of the issuer's annual figure; BALI's own published distribution history is the authority on that.
How to read this page
Nothing on this page is investment advice or a recommendation to buy, hold or sell BALI. Figures are drawn from third-party market data and our own calculations, may be delayed or wrong, and can change without notice. Confirm every number with the issuer and with your own broker, tax adviser and financial adviser before acting.

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