BME - BlackRock Health Sciences Trust

What this means for you

None of the investors we follow has reported owning 5% or more of this fund. That is the normal state for most closed-end funds.

Nothing is required of you. If that changes, the notice appears here within a day of being filed with the regulator.

Email me if this changes

What happened, and when

In the fund's last buy-back (results filed Feb 25, 2025), holders offered 9% of all shares and the fund bought about 28 of every 100 shares offered, so holders who took part got only part of what they offered. Results of the last buy-back →

1. Feb 25, 2025

   The buy-back ended; holders offered 9% of all shares and the fund paid $42.1792 a share.

   Original document →

2. Feb 24, 2025

   The buy-back ended; an early count says holders offered 9% of all shares.

   Original document →

3. Jan 22, 2025

   The fund offered to buy back 2.5% of its shares at 98% of value, until Feb 21, 2025.

   Original document →

4. Dec 23, 2024

   The fund said it may sell new shares.

   Original document →

5. Nov 20, 2024

   The buy-back ended; holders offered 10% of all shares and the fund paid $41.2678 a share.

   Original document →

About this fund

• Run by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. Part of the BlackRock-advised Funds fund family. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
• Size: about $571 million of holdings, as of June 30, 2026. As of June 30, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• Borrowing: the fund does not borrow. As of June 30, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• Costs: 1% a year in management fees; 1.1% a year in total, including interest on borrowed money. Fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2025. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
  Among the 7 funds we follow that invest in healthcare companies, one charges a lower management fee and one charges less in total, at their last yearly reports. Both numbers are measured against the fund's own money, not the money it borrows on top, so a fund that borrows more shows higher costs on both counts.
• The fund's own cost example: $1,000 invested costs about $21 in the first year and about $144 over 10 years, assuming the holdings return 5% a year. As of Dec 31, 2024, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• Payouts: last fiscal year (ended Dec 31, 2025) the fund paid $3.15 a share. $0.11 of that was income; $2.30 came from gains; $0.74 was your own money back, not income. Most funds announce their monthly or quarterly payout on their own website, not in a filing with the regulator, so a cut or a raise there does not show up here until the next yearly report. A few funds do file a notice about a fixed payout; those appear under What happened, and when. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• Value of holdings per share at the last fiscal year end (Dec 31, 2025): $43.97. The shares traded at $41.13, about 6.5% below that. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's yearly report. Original document →
  Over the last two years the gap (a "discount" when the price is below the value) ranged from 9.6% below to 0.1% above. As of June 30, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• How the holdings did: up 9.4% over the last three months we have (April-June 2026), before the share price is taken into account. As of June 30, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• First reported to the regulator in 2005.

How this has changed

• Payouts per share: $3.15 in the fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2025; $2.61 in the year ended Dec 31, 2024; $2.56 in the year ended Dec 31, 2023.As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• Of that, your own money back rather than income: $0.74 in the year ended Dec 31, 2025; $0.53 in the year ended Dec 31, 2024; $0.73 in the year ended Dec 31, 2023.As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• Costs, including interest on borrowed money: 1.13% a year in the fiscal year ended Dec 31, 2025; 1.1% a year in the year ended Dec 31, 2024; 1.06% a year in the year ended Dec 31, 2023.As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• Size of the holdings: about $568 million at Dec 31, 2025; $546 million at Dec 31, 2024; $588 million at Dec 31, 2023. From the fund's quarterly holdings reports. Original documents: Dec 31, 2025 →, Dec 31, 2024 →, Dec 31, 2023 →.
• Borrowing: none at Dec 31, 2025; none at Dec 31, 2024; 2% at Dec 31, 2023. From the fund's quarterly holdings reports. Original documents: Dec 31, 2025 →, Dec 31, 2024 →, Dec 31, 2023 →.
• The fund had about 12.9 million shares at Dec 31, 2025, down 7.3% from Dec 31, 2023.As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
  In between, the fund bought back shares. Original document →

What these lines mean: a payout that is your own money back, what a fund costs, borrowing.

What a holder made

• The year ended Dec 31, 2025: the shares returned +17.7%, counting payouts; the holdings +15.8%. The holdings figure is what the fund's investments earned, before the share price is taken into account. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• The year ended Dec 31, 2024: the shares returned -0.1%, counting payouts; the holdings +4.1%. As of Dec 31, 2024, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• The year ended Dec 31, 2023: the shares returned -1.1%, counting payouts; the holdings +3.8%. As of Dec 31, 2023, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• The year ended Dec 31, 2022: the shares returned -4.6%, counting payouts; the holdings -4.2%. As of Dec 31, 2022, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• The year ended Dec 31, 2021: the shares returned +7.4%, counting payouts; the holdings +10.7%. As of Dec 31, 2021, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• Those five years together: the shares returned +19.1%. $10,000 of shares bought at the start (Jan 1, 2021) would have become about $11,900 by Dec 31, 2025, with every payout counted, before tax. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• The holdings over the last twelve months we have, to June 30, 2026: +21.7%. The quarterly reports carry no share price, so this is the holdings alone. As of June 30, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →
• Of the 7 funds that invest in healthcare companies with a fiscal year ending within six months of this one, 1 reported a higher share return for that year and 5 a lower one. As of Dec 31, 2025, from the fund's annual report. Original document →
• A past year says nothing about the next one. All figures are the fund's own, from its reports to the regulator.

Why the shares and the holdings can differ: the gap between price and value. Why payouts count: a payout that is your own money back.

What the fund holds

Mostly shares (96%), the rest cash and short-term holdings. About 94% issued in the U.S.

1. Eli Lilly & - 12.5%
2. Johnson & Johnson - 7.8%
3. UnitedHealth Group - 6.1%
4. Merck & - 5.2%
5. AbbVie - 5.1%
6. Gilead Sciences - 3.7%
7. Cash and short-term - 3.7%
8. Amgen - 3.4%
9. Thermo Fisher Scientific - 3%
10. Vertex Pharmaceuticals - 2.8%

As of June 30, 2026, from the fund's quarterly holdings report. Original document →