PIMCO 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond Index Exchange-Traded Fund

PIMCO 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond Index Exchange-Traded Fund (HYS) tracks the ICE BofA 0-5 Year US High Yield Constrained Index. The index holds below-investment-grade ('junk') US dollar corporate bonds that mature within five years. Because the bonds are short-term, the fund is less sensitive to interest rates than broader high-yield funds, and it pays income monthly. The trade-off is cost: its 0.55% expense ratio is above the 0.38% average for similar funds.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, HYS returned +1.2%, 6th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +4.9% and its 10-year +4.9%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 20.8% and regained its old high 8.1 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-5.4%); its best was 2016 (+15.0%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 20.9% (Feb 12, 2020 to Mar 23, 2020), recovered by Nov 25, 2020.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 849 securities; the ten largest made up 8.12% of assets, and 3.16% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 4.2 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 6.63%.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $79.9M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +1.49%, +0.43%, +0.17%.

HYS aims to match the total return, before fees, of the ICE BofA 0-5 Year US High Yield Constrained Index. The index holds US dollar bonds from companies rated below investment grade, based on an average of Moody's, S&P and Fitch ratings. Each bond must have less than five years left to maturity, at least $250 million outstanding and a fixed coupon schedule. Issuers must be based in developed countries. Bonds are weighted by the amount outstanding, but no single issuer can make up more than 2%. The index is updated monthly. As of September 30, 2026, it held 1,290 issues.

PIMCO doesn't buy every bond in the index. It uses representative sampling: it holds a selection of index bonds, sometimes in different proportions, along with other instruments meant to behave like the index. This can make tracking less exact. As of June 30, 2026, the fund held 871 positions. About 93% of assets were in bonds and about 2% in loans. Its largest single line, at 3.7%, was a repurchase agreement with BofA Securities, which is a short-term loan of cash backed by collateral.

The fund may also use futures, swaps and credit derivatives, but these made up only 0.06% of assets as of June 30, 2026. Duration measures how much a bond's price reacts to interest rate changes. The fund's duration follows the index's, which was 2.27 years as of September 30, 2026.

• HYS charges 0.55% a year, versus an average of 0.38% for the similar funds below (6th of 8, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $56 in the first year and $689 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

HYS pays monthly income from short-term junk bonds, with a trailing 12-month yield well above what most bond funds pay, but it carries real credit risk.

HYS could add monthly income to the bond side of a portfolio. Its trailing 12-month yield was 7.58% as of October 27, 2026. That income comes with real losses in a crisis. During the COVID crash, the fund fell 20.9% between February 12 and March 23, 2020, and took about eight months to recover. In 2022 it fell 10.3% by mid-June and didn't get back to its peak until July 2023. Its worst calendar year was 2022, at -5.28%. Anyone forced to sell shares for spending money in a year like 2020 would have locked in steep losses. The fund launched in 2011, so it has no record from the 2008 crisis. It costs 0.55% a year, or $56 in the first year in the SEC's standard $10,000 example. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by bond funds with the closest average maturity and issuer mix (N-PORT).