---
title: "Distribution yield"
description: "Distribution yield is the income a fund paid out over the past twelve months divided by its current NAV or market price, expressed as a percentage."
canonical: https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/distribution-yield
published: 2026-09-04
updated: 2026-09-04
publisher: FundFacts API
---

# Distribution yield (Dividend yield (fund), Income yield, Trailing 12-month yield, Historic yield)

> Distribution yield is the income a fund paid out over the past twelve months divided by its current NAV or market price, expressed as a percentage.

## Definition

**Distribution yield** (also historic or trailing yield) is the sum of distributions a share class paid over the last twelve months, divided by the current NAV or, for an ETF, the current market price. A share class that paid 2.40 per share over the year and trades at 100 has a distribution yield of 2.4%. Only [distributing share classes](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/accumulating-vs-distributing) have a meaningful distribution yield; accumulating classes report zero because income is retained.

## Why it matters

It is the number income-focused investors and their advisers look at first, and it is widely shown on factsheets and product pages. It is backward-looking: it tells you what was paid, not what will be. For bond funds it is often compared with [yield to maturity](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/yield-to-maturity), which is forward-looking and based on the current holdings, and the two can differ substantially when rates have moved.

## In the API

The payload carries the distribution policy in `keyFacts.distribution`. For bond funds `headlineMetrics.yieldToMaturity` gives the portfolio yield, which is a different measure and should be labelled as such in your interface. Example values:

```json
{
  "shareClass": "EUR Dist",
  "keyFacts": { "distribution": "Distributing", "currency": "EUR" },
  "headlineMetrics": { "yieldToMaturity": 3.9 }
}
```

## Common pitfalls

Fund houses vary in the denominator (NAV vs market price, current vs average) and in whether special or capital distributions are included. Yields based on a recent price can spike when the price falls, which says nothing about the fund's income prospects. Never present a yield as a guaranteed income; distributions are discretionary and can be cut.

## In the FundFacts API payload

- `keyFacts.distribution`

## About FundFacts API

FundFacts turns any fund or ETF ISIN into one dated factsheet (fees and KID costs, the 1–7 risk indicator, holdings, sector and country exposure, returns) read from the fund house's own documents: as a client-ready PDF under your firm's name for advisers and wealth managers, as JSON through its API for developers, or inside ChatGPT and Claude through its MCP server.

FundFacts works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a connector (a remote MCP server): ask about any fund or ETF by ISIN, ticker or name and the assistant answers from FundFacts' dated figures, fees, risk, holdings, exposure and returns, with fund cards, side-by-side comparisons, holdings overlap and portfolio look-through.

- Free API key, no card: https://fundfactsapi.com/signup
- Documentation: https://fundfactsapi.com/docs (OpenAPI: https://fundfactsapi.com/openapi.json)
- MCP server: https://fundfactsapi.com/api/mcp (set-up for every client: https://fundfactsapi.com/mcp-server)
- Pricing: https://fundfactsapi.com/pricing
- Site index for AI assistants: https://fundfactsapi.com/llms.txt
- Informational data, not investment advice.