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This is the second installment in my series, comparing single-stock covered call exchange-traded funds. These ETFs provide investment exposure to popular stocks like Amazon and Nvidia, with the added benefit of attractive dividend yields from selling call options. YieldMax was the first to introduce this type of ETF. It currently offers more than two dozen single-stock covered call ETFs. 

 Kurv launched six single-stock ETFs in November 2023, all of which have corresponding YieldMax ETFs. They are fascinating to compare because the two fund sponsors take very different approaches on the covered call side. 

Last week, I compared the two covered call ETFs “covering” Amazon.com (AMZN). You can read that article here . This week, I’m comparing the Apple Inc. (AAPL) covered call ETFs. Note that these ETFs pay variable-rate monthly distributions, and the current yields reported here are from the fund sponsor websites.

The YieldMax™ AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF (APLY) launched April 17, 2023. AMZY has a current distribution rate of 22.55%.

The Kurv Yield Premium Strategy Apple (AAPL) ETF (AAPY) came to market on October 30, 2023. Kurv states the current distribution rate for AMZP is 75.88%.

The AAPY yield currently stated on the Kurv website does not indicate the fund’s income potential. AAPY paid a large year-end dividend, which probably consisted of realized capital gains. Using the typical monthly dividends paid last year by AAPY, the ETF yields 14.3%. Think of AAPY yielding half to two-thirds of the yield paid by APLY.

Here are the results for the two ETFs. I am using the same start and end dates for each of these weekly reports.

Since the late 2023 launch of AAPY, the ETF significantly outperformed its YieldMax counterpart. AAPY posted a total return of 33.41% compared to 25.62% from APLY.

I rated the Amazon covered-call ETFs as a tie. With the Apple results, Kurv is up one to zero.

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