JEPI, JEPQ, and JPIE ETF scorecard for 2024 so far

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Written on Apr 3, 2024

Reading time 3 minutes

JPMorgan’s active ETFs had robust inflows in 2024.
JEPI has over $33 billion in assets while JEPQ and JPIE have $11.9 billion and $1.1 billion.
These ETFs lagged the benchmark funds like SPY, VOO, and QQQ.

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The first quarter of 2024 was a successful one for stock market investors as the key indices like the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones surged to their record highs. The three indices jumped by 9.19%, 7.7%, and 3.9%, respectively as US companies published strong financial results and the artificial intelligence hype continued.

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JEPI, JEPQ, and JPIE had strong inflows in Q1

Many investors track the US equity market by following these popular indices. Recently, however, there has been a trend towards active funds, which promise high monthly returns. JPMorgan has taken a pole position in this, thanks to its highly popular active covered call ETFs.

JPMorgan Equity Premium (JEPI) has grown to become the biggest covered call ETF in the market with over $33.5 billion in assets. This fund primarily tracks the S&P 500 index, which has the 500 biggest companies in the US. It generates returns by selling call options on the fund.

JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPQ) is another big fund with over $11.9 billion in assets. This fund is similar to JEPI, with the only difference being that it focuses on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index.

The JPMorgan Income ETF (JPIE) is a smaller active fund that invests in the bond market. It was launched in 2021 and has gained over $1.1 billion in assets.

All these funds offer attractive monthly returns. JPIE has a 30-day SEC yield of 6.45% while JEPI and JEPQ have 6.82% and 9.14%, respectively. These returns are better than the risk-free – 10-year Treasury yield – of less than 5%.

So, how did these funds perform in the first quarter of 2024? First, in terms of inflows, JEPI added assets in each month in Q1. It added over $1.7 billion in assets in this period, continuing a trend that started since its inception.

JEPI ETF inflows

The same happened with the JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium ETF, which added over $2.7 billion in assets in all months in Q1. Most of these inflows happened in February.

The JPIE ETF also added assets in these three months. It added over $245 million in assets, bringing the total AUM to over $1.1 billion.

They lagged the traditional passive ETFs

ETF inflows are important to the sponsor, in this case, JPMorgan. However, most investors want funds that perform better. In this case, we look at the total return, which is made up of the stock performance and the dividends paid. The ideal situation is where JEPI and JEPQ beats other generic funds like SPY and QQQ.

Data shows that the JEPI ETF had a total return of 5.69% in Q1 as it trailed the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which rose by 9.19%. This means that, despite its higher yield and expense ratio, it did not beat the S&P 500.

The JEPQ ETF, on the other hand, rose by 9.65% in Q1, beating the Invesco QQQ, which gained by 7.86%. JPIE was the weakest as it rose by just 0.59%.

Active ETFs have underperformed traditional funds in the long term. JEPI had a total return of 28.17% in the past three years compared to VOO’s 33%. JEPQ has risen by 30.16% while the Invesco QQQ is up by 35.18%.