An income-oriented fund keyed off Berkshire Hathaway's equity investment portfolio has hit its goal of generating a 15% annual distribution rate since its inception in March 2025.
The VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF has accumulated about $1 billion in assets and produced a total return of 18% since inception, Bloomberg data show. Option-related income has more than offset a 5% drop in the exchange-traded fund's price.
The exchange-traded fund was trading Monday at $18.97, up 0.9% on the session.
The ETF holds 21 stocks. It puts 10% into Berkshire's Class B shares and also invests in 20 stocks in the Berkshire portfolio based on their weightings. Berkshire's largest investments were made by Chairman Warren Buffett.
The ETF's top holdings on July 31 were Berkshire, 10.1%; Apple, 6.8%; American Express, 5.7%; Delta Air Lines, 5.3%; and DaVita, 5.2%.
It overlays an option strategy, mainly the sale of call spreads, to generate income. The ticker symbol is OMAH, a reference to Berkshire's headquarters in Omaha, Neb. The annual fee is 0.95% and the ETF is rebalanced quarterly.
The fund has topped Berkshire stock's return of 3% since March 2025 and like many option-writing ETFs, tends to offer the best returns relative to the underlying stocks in flattish market environments.
Adam Patti, the CEO of VistaShares, says the ETF has delivered so far on its goal of generating 15% annualized distribution, or 1.25% a month.
"Investors love Berkshire but it doesn't pay a dividend," he says. "The ETF generates a synthetic dividend."
The ETF is one of many that use the sale, or writing, of call options to augment income. Probably the most prominent is the $45 billion JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF, which has a current yield of about 8%.
The VistaShares ETF primarily uses the sale of call spreads that give the portfolio more upside than an outright sale of calls. A call spread involves the sale of a lower-strike call and purchase of a higher-strike call.
Patti says the ETF is designed to offer about 75% of the upside in the underlying portfolio with about 85% of the downside. He adds that the decline in the portfolio value since the ETF's inception reflects changes in individual stocks and not aggressive option sales that erode net asset value.
"We need to keep in mind that OMAH is 10% BRK.B and the other 90% is the top 20 publicly traded holdings of Berkshire. So the OMAH portfolio is largely driven by the stock performance of those top 20 holdings," Patti says.
He adds that the OMAH portfolio lagged the S&P 500 over the past year because it is light in the Mag 7 stocks that have helped drive the index.
VistaShares also runs similar, income-oriented ETFs keyed off the publicly disclosed equity holdings of notable investors Bill Ackman and Stan Druckenmiller.
They are Vistashares Target 15 Drukmacro Distribution ETF, whose largest investment is Natera, and Vistashares Target 15 ACKtivist Distribution ETF. Its largest holdings include Restaurant Brands International and Pershing Square USA, Ackman's closed-end fund.
Given the income orientation, the Berkshire ETF may be better suited to tax-free accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s.
"The No. 1 goal is to hit 15% and the second goal is to maximize capital appreciation," Patti told Barron's last year . "We want as much upside as possible but not to the detriment of hitting the 15%."