What Is PFF? iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF

PFF is the iShares Preferred and Income Securities ETF, the largest and most heavily traded preferred-stock ETF in the United States. It holds a broad basket of roughly 450 US-listed preferred and hybrid securities and tracks the ICE Exchange-Listed Preferred and Hybrid Securities Index. Investors typically buy it for one reason: a high, steady monthly income stream.

Preferred stock sits between bonds and common equity. It pays a fixed or floating dividend and ranks ahead of common shares if a company runs into trouble, but it usually offers little in the way of price appreciation. PFF packages hundreds of these securities into a single ticker, spreading issuer risk across many banks, insurers, and utilities.

Approximate weights as of mid-2026; refresh quarterly from BlackRock (iShares)'s fund page. Each ticker links to its individual stock guide in Walnut.

PFF is dominated by the financial sector. Roughly 40% of the fund sits in bank preferreds, with additional large weights in diversified financials and insurance, plus smaller slices of utilities and real estate. Top issuers include Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Apollo Asset Management, and NextEra Energy.

No single security is large: the top ten positions together account for only about 20% of the fund, so PFF is genuinely diversified at the security level. The concentration risk is at the sector level, not the individual-name level, because banks are simply the biggest issuers of preferred stock.

The most direct comparison is Global X's PFFD, which tracks a similar broad basket of US preferreds but charges just 0.23%, roughly half of PFF's 0.45%. PFFD often posts a slightly higher yield as a result. PFF's advantages are its much larger size, longer history since 2007, and deeper trading liquidity.

Other peers narrow the exposure: some preferred ETFs focus on financials, floating-rate preferreds, or exclude certain structures. PFF is the broad, plain-vanilla choice, which is why it remains the category benchmark despite not being the cheapest option available.

PFF's total return is driven mostly by its monthly income, not price gains. Because preferreds behave partly like long-duration bonds, the fund tends to lose value when interest rates rise and recover when rates fall, and it can be pressured during periods of bank-sector stress given its heavy financial weighting.

The outlook for PFF depends largely on the path of interest rates and the health of bank balance sheets. In a stable or falling-rate environment with sound credit conditions, its high monthly payout is the main attraction. In a rising-rate or credit-stress environment, price declines can offset a meaningful chunk of that income.

PFF may fit investors who want a high, diversified monthly income stream and understand that they are taking on interest-rate and bank-credit risk rather than equity-growth exposure. It is generally used as an income satellite, not a core equity holding, and it pairs the highest yields with the deepest liquidity in its category.

Walnut is not an investment adviser. Whether PFF belongs in your portfolio depends on your income needs, tax situation, tolerance for rate-driven price swings, and how much financial-sector exposure you already carry elsewhere.

PFF trades like any stock on major brokerages including Robinhood, Fidelity, Schwab, and Public, and many of them let you buy fractional shares so you can start with a small dollar amount. Because it is one of the most liquid ETFs in its category, spreads are typically tight during market hours.

Once you own PFF, you can connect your brokerage to Walnut to track it alongside the rest of your portfolio, see how its income and financial-sector exposure fit your goals, and monitor how it moves relative to your other holdings.

PFF is the default, most-liquid way to own US preferred stock in one ticker, with a high monthly yield and heavy financial-sector exposure. Its 0.45% fee is roughly double PFFD's, which is the main knock. It is a satellite income holding, sensitive to interest rates and bank credit, not a core equity position.

Whether PFF is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, concentration, and what would have to be true for it to outperform from here in is PFF a buy?

PFF yields ~5.6% as of mid-2026, paid by passing through the dividends of its underlying holdings. For the payout schedule, history, and how the distributions are taxed, see PFF dividend: yield and schedule.