Special Opportunities Fund

SPE

Market cap $163M

Special Opportunities Fund (SPE) has thrived since Bulldog Investors shifted its focus from municipal bonds to activist investing in discounted closed-end funds. SPE's activist strategy targets undervalued closed-end funds and BDCs, capitalizing on market dislocations and compelling management actions to unlock value. The fund offers an attractive 8.56% yield with a managed distribution policy, and rising NAV signals a likely distribution hike for 2026.

For those who adopt a dividend strategy, having a “thermometer” with which to measure the real performance of our stocks is an immense advantage. This thermometer is NAV, a simple line on a graph that anyone can observe and understand without the need for calculations or interpretations. If it grows over the years, it means that the security earned its distributions: if it goes down, it means that it paid them at the expense of NAV.

NEW YORK, Oct. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. (NYSE: SPE) (the “Fund”) has announced that the Fund's Board of Directors (the “Board”) has declared the next three monthly distributions under the Fund's managed distribution plan.

Special Opportunities Fund outperformed the S&P 500 in the first half of 2025, aided by activist campaigns and narrowing discounts. SPE's portfolio remains diversified, with notable holdings in BDCs, closed-end funds, and operating companies like Texas Pacific Land and Tejon Ranch. Activist efforts, including successful campaigns with DMF and board representation at TRC, have unlocked value and driven positive portfolio changes.

NEW YORK, Sept. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. (NYSE: SPE) (the “Fund”) today announced that the Fund's Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.171875 per share on the Fund's 2.75% Convertible Preferred Stock, Series C. The dividend is payable on September 30, 2025 to holders of record as of September 19, 2025.

For income investors, closed-end funds remain an attractive investment class that covers various asset classes and promises high distributions and reasonable total returns. Closed-end funds, or CEFs, are generally characterized by higher volatility and deeper drawdowns than the broader market. For these reasons, they are not suited for everyone. In this monthly series, we highlight the ten best CEFs with solid track records that pay high distributions and offer "excess" discounts. We try to separate the wheat from the chaff using our filtering process to select 10 CEFs every month from around 500 closed-end funds.

Caring about dividends can increase our returns, but caring about NAV can save our portfolio. Return and NAV protection must go hand in hand, because there can be no sustainable return without protecting the value of the underlying assets. As far as I am concerned, the way to protect my portfolio is to favor only securities with a positive NAV over time.

For income investors, closed-end funds remain an attractive investment class that covers various asset classes and promises high distributions and reasonable total returns. Closed-end funds, or CEFs, are generally characterized by higher volatility and deeper drawdowns than the broader market. For these reasons, they are not suited for everyone. In this monthly series, we highlight five CEFs with solid track records that pay high distributions and offer "excess" discounts. We try to separate the wheat from the chaff using our filtering process to select just five CEFs every month from around 500 closed-end funds.

SPE offers diversified exposure across CEFs, SPACs, equities, and BDCs, with an 8.5% yield and monthly distributions for income-focused investors. The fund's top holdings, GAM and STEW, are concentrated, value-focused equity funds. SPE holds substantial exposure to SPAC, adding significant risk and uncertainty to the portfolio.

June saw strong tech-led gains, which helped to drive the broader equity indexes to new all-time highs. This was a continuation of what we saw last month, further bouncing off those lows we saw in April. With that said, I still do some buying every month to help compound and generate a growing stream of cash flow going forward.