YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF (ULTY) Stock: 2025 Price, 77% Yield, Reverse Split and 2026 Outlook

Date: December 7, 2025
Ticker: ULTY (NYSE Arca)

The YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF (ULTY) has become one of the most talked‑about high‑yield ETFs in 2025. Its headline distribution rate in the mid‑70% range, triple‑digit trailing yield figures on some data platforms, and a fresh 1‑for‑10 reverse stock split have pushed ULTY into the spotlight for income hunters and skeptics alike. ^[1]

Below is a comprehensive look at the latest news, distributions, performance data, analyst commentary and scenario‑based outlook as of December 7, 2025 — written in a way that’s optimized for readers searching for “ULTY stock,” “YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF,” “ULTY dividend yield,” and “ULTY forecast 2026.”

What Is YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF (ULTY)?

ULTY is an actively managed options‑income ETF. Instead of tracking a broad index, it:

• Holds a portfolio of 15–30 U.S.‑listed stocks and ETFs, typically chosen because their options have high implied volatility. ^[2]
• Sells covered calls and other options strategies on those holdings to generate option premium income, while keeping some exposure to the underlying share prices but capping upside gains. ^[3]
• Maintains a sleeve in cash and short‑term U.S. Treasuries (up to around 10% of assets) to collateralize options and add a small amount of interest income. ^[4]

The updated summary prospectus (dated November 14, 2025) formally states that ULTY’s:

• Primary objective is current income
• Secondary objective is exposure to the share prices of selected U.S. securities, with a limit on potential gains
• Total annual operating expenses, after fee waivers, are 1.30%, with the adviser capping its management fee at 1.14% through at least February 28, 2026. ^[5]

The fund is also non‑diversified, may concentrate heavily in a few names or sectors, and runs very high turnover — 717% of portfolio value in its first fiscal period, reflecting how frequently positions and options are traded. ^[6]

Latest Price, Yield and Key Stats (as of early December 2025)

As of the close on December 5, 2025, most major data providers show ULTY trading just under $40 per share after its reverse split:

• Closing price: about $39.98
• Day range: roughly $39.86 – $40.23
• 52‑week range: about $38.80 – $102.70 (post‑split adjusted) ^[7]
• Assets under management: around $1.3–1.4 billion ^[8]
• Expense ratio:1.30%
• Number of holdings: roughly 80–100 ^[9]
• 1‑year change in price: approximately ‑60–‑61%, even after factoring in the split‑adjusted history. ^[10]

The income story looks even more dramatic:

• The fund’s official “Distribution Rate” on the manager’s site is 76.99% based on the most recent weekly payout. ^[11]
• At least one data provider shows a trailing 12‑month dividend yield above 120%, with total distributions per share over the last year exceeding the current share price. ^[12]
• StockAnalysis calculates a TTM dividend of about $58–59 per share and a yield north of 140% based on recent prices. ^[13]

The key takeaway: ULTY’s payouts are enormous relative to its current price and NAV, but that does not mean investors are getting free money — as we’ll see, much of the debate centers on how sustainable those payouts are and what they do to capital over time.

The December 2025 Reverse Split: What Happened and Why It Matters

On December 1, 2025, ULTY underwent a 1‑for‑10 reverse stock split. For every 10 pre‑split shares, investors now hold 1 share at roughly 10x the old price. ^[14]

The reverse split was part of a broader move by YieldMax:

• 15 option‑income funds across the YieldMax lineup executed reverse splits with ratios ranging from 1:5 to 1:10. ULTY’s ratio was 1:10, alongside funds such as TSLY (Tesla covered call) and various short or sector‑specific products. ^[15]

The company hasn’t framed this as anything more than a share‑price housekeeping move (raising the price per share, reducing share count), but many commentators see it differently:

• A prominent Seeking Alpha article, “ULTY: The Reverse Split Is An Indication Of Failure,” notes that ULTY’s NAV has fallen by roughly 79% since inception, and its total return has turned negative, even after huge cash distributions. ^[16]
• The same bearish camp argues that reverse splits in income products often signal severe capital erosion that the fund is trying to mask by boosting the share price back into a “normal” trading range. ^[17]

The reverse split doesn’t change the underlying economics – investors still own the same slice of the portfolio – but it does highlight just how far ULTY fell in price over its short life.

Weekly Distributions: 0.5881 per Share and a 76.99% Distribution Rate

On December 2, 2025, YieldMax announced its latest weekly payouts across its “Group 1” ETFs. For ULTY specifically: ^[18]

• Distribution per share:$0.5881
• Ex‑dividend / record date:December 3, 2025
• Payable date:December 4, 2025
• Reported Distribution Rate:76.99% (annualized from that weekly figure, on NAV)
• 30‑day SEC yield:0.00%, reflecting that recent net investment income (excluding option premiums) was essentially zero.

On ULTY’s own page, YieldMax also shows the composition of recent payouts:

• The December 2 distribution is labeled 0% return of capital (ROC) and 100% income.
• However, many prior 2025 distributions had high or even 100% ROC, particularly in mid‑2025 when weekly payouts around $0.09–$0.10 per share (pre‑split adjusted) were mostly classified as returning shareholder capital. ^[19]

The official disclosures emphasize that:

• The distribution rate “does not represent total return” and can vary significantly.
• Distributions may include a mix of income, capital gains and return of capital, and ROC can reduce NAV and trading price over time so that investors may suffer losses even while receiving large cash payouts. ^[20]

This is a core point made by many analysts: big income today often reflects giving investors back their own money plus option premiums, rather than growing capital.

Performance Check: High Cash Flow, Modest or Negative Total Return

Despite the eye‑popping cash flow, total returns have been far less spectacular:

• YieldMax’s own performance table (through November 30, 2025) shows ULTY’s 1‑year total return around ‑3% to ‑4%, depending on whether you look at price or NAV, versus a +15% total return for the S&P 500 over the same period. ^[21]
• Since inception on February 28, 2024, ULTY’s average annual return is slightly negative (around ‑1% to ‑2% per year) according to both the manager’s data and third‑party platforms. ^[22]
• StockAnalysis estimates ULTY’s past‑year total return (including dividends) at about ‑4.8%, again lagging the broad market considerably despite enormous distributions. ^[23]

Put bluntly: ULTY has so far turned a huge amount of gross option income into only flat to slightly negative net results for long‑term holders, largely because capital erosion has offset payouts.

What’s Inside ULTY? Volatility‑Heavy Holdings

Recent holdings data show ULTY heavily tilted toward high‑volatility growth, tech and thematic names, plus cash and Bitcoin exposure: ^[24]

• Top positions include companies like Meta Platforms (META), Broadcom (AVGO), Palantir (PLTR), Alphabet (GOOGL), Quanta Services (PWR), Jabil (JBL), Robinhood (HOOD) and iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), along with a sizable cash/Treasury allocation.
• The fund’s strategy intentionally seeks stocks with high implied volatility, because rich options premiums help fund those massive weekly payouts. ^[25]

That design makes ULTY extremely sensitive to sentiment in high‑beta, story‑driven areas like AI, crypto, and speculative growth — sectors that can surge or collapse far more than the broad market.

Latest Technical and Trading Signals

Oversold Signal in November

On November 13, 2025, a Nasdaq/BNK Invest note flagged ULTY as having entered “oversold territory” based on the Relative Strength Index (RSI): ^[26]

• Pre‑split shares traded as low as $4.25, the bottom of the 52‑week range at that time.
• RSI dropped to about 27.7, below the classic oversold threshold of 30.
• The article suggested that a bullish trader might interpret this as heavy selling becoming exhausted and start looking for a bounce — while reminding readers that oversold names can stay weak.

Post‑split, that oversold level roughly corresponds to the high‑30s in today’s share price terms.

AI‑Driven Trading Strategies

On December 3, 2025, Stock Traders Daily published a detailed AI‑based report on ULTY, describing: ^[27]

• “Divergent sentiment across all horizons” and “choppy conditions”, with no clear price‑positioning signal.
• Elevated downside risk, as long‑term support zones had largely been broken.
• A set of tactical long, breakout and short strategies clustered around the $40 level, with support levels in the high‑$30s and resistance zones in the mid‑$40s to high‑$40s.

These are trading tools, not investment advice, but they reinforce the idea that ULTY is now a short‑term trader’s playground more than a traditional income investor’s core holding.

Analyst and Media Sentiment: Deeply Divided

Coverage of ULTY over the last few months has been intense and polarized. A quick scan of recent research and commentary shows three major camps.

1. The Bearish Case: “Yield Trap” and Structural NAV Decay

Many Seeking Alpha contributors and independent analysts argue that ULTY is fundamentally a yield trap:

• Multiple articles highlight triple‑digit distribution yields and high ROC components as evidence that payouts are coming partly from investors’ own capital, not just earned income. ^[28]
• Pieces such as “ULTY ETF: Capital Erosion Likely To Worsen In H2 2025” and “ULTY: NAV Decay Remains A Big Challenge” warn that high fees, frequent trading and volatile underlying holdings accelerate long‑term NAV erosion, even if distributions stay high. ^[29]
• A specialized note on ULTY’s “NAV Decay: A Structural Crisis in High‑Yield ETF Design” points to the 1.30% expense ratio plus 700%+ turnover as a powerful drag on compounded returns. ^[30]
• The recent reverse split is seen by this camp as confirmation that the strategy has faltered, pushing management to reset the share price. ^[31]

In short, the bearish view is that ULTY’s extraordinary cash flow comes at the cost of slowly eating itself, making it unsuitable for long‑term wealth building.

2. The Cautious Middle: Short‑Term Niche Tool, Not a Core Holding

A second group, including several Seeking Alpha and Invezz writers as well as 24/7 Wall St columnists, adopts a “handle with care” stance: ^[32]

• They acknowledge that ULTY’s strategy has evolved – incorporating more direct stock holdings, collars and put protection – which did temporarily slow NAV erosion and produced strong stretches of performance during 2025. ^[33]
• At the same time, they stress that total return still lags broad‑market ETFs, and that NAV and share price remain fragile when volatility or option premiums fall. ^[34]
• Articles like “ULTY ETF: Why You Shouldn’t Pursue Weekly Payouts” urge investors to focus on total return rather than the psychological appeal of frequent cash deposits, especially for retirement portfolios. ^[35]

This camp often frames ULTY as a niche tactical position – something that might make sense for experienced, risk‑tolerant traders with a short horizon and close risk controls, but not a “set‑and‑forget” income fund.

3. The Bullish / Speculative Case: “No Guts, No Glory”

A smaller group of commentators is openly bullish on ULTY’s potential for aggressive income strategies:

• 24/7 Wall St features several pieces from 2025 highlighting investors who poured six‑figure sums into ULTY or kept “buying more” as distributions piled up, casting it as a high‑risk, high‑reward income play. ^[36]
• Some Seeking Alpha authors rate ULTY a “Buy for aggressive investors”, arguing that the fund’s options engineering and strategy tweaks have improved its risk/reward profile, at least in certain market environments. ^[37]

Even many bulls, however, explicitly acknowledge that:

• ULTY is not suitable as a core retirement holding
• The yield could compress sharply if volatility falls or the manager reduces payouts to preserve capital
• Investors must be emotionally and financially prepared for large drawdowns and the possibility that capital will shrink over time.

Strategic Updates: New Prospectus and European ULTY Launch

Two structural developments in late 2025 are worth noting.

Updated Prospectus and Risk Warnings

The November 2025 summary prospectus not only restates the fund’s income‑first objective but also expands risk disclosures around: ^[38]

• Derivatives and options risk – including imperfect correlation, potential for large losses, and the complexity of managing rolling options.
• High portfolio turnover – which raises trading costs and potential tax impacts.
• Non‑diversification risk – the fund may invest heavily in a relatively small number of issuers.

The document is explicit that investors can lose all or a substantial portion of their investment and that ULTY is “not a complete investment program.”

European ULTY ETC Launch

On November 13, 2025, YieldMax and HANetf launched European versions of two strategies: ^[39]

• NATY: YieldMax Future of Defence Option Income UCITS ETF
• ULTY (Europe): YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETC

The European ULTY ETC simply holds the U.S.‑listed ULTY ETF to deliver exposure to the same covered‑call strategy for investors on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, with a Xetra listing expected. ^[40]

This launch expands ULTY’s global distribution footprint, potentially increasing assets and liquidity over time, but it does not change the underlying strategy or risk profile of the U.S. fund.

ULTY Stock Forecast: Scenario‑Based Outlook for 2026

No one can predict precisely where ULTY’s price or yield will land in 2026, but recent data and commentary suggest several key drivers and plausible scenarios:

Driver 1: Option Premiums and Market Volatility

• ULTY thrives on high implied volatility in its underlying stocks — that’s what makes option premiums rich enough to fund huge payouts. ^[41]
• If volatility remains elevated in AI, crypto and speculative growth, distribution rates in the 50–80% range could persist, albeit with continued NAV pressure.
• If volatility compresses, option income falls, and distribution rates may need to be cut, or NAV erosion could accelerate if the fund tries to maintain payout levels.

Driver 2: Direction of High‑Beta Growth and Crypto‑Linked Names

Given ULTY’s exposures to tech, growth and Bitcoin‑related assets: ^[42]

• A robust bull market in these names could support NAV, even if upside is capped by calls, and might improve total return (though still likely lagging an uncapped growth ETF).
• A bear phase or prolonged sideways chop would pressure NAV and make ULTY more dependent on distributions sourced from capital.

Driver 3: Management Strategy Adjustments

YieldMax has already:

• Shifted from heavy synthetic exposure to more direct holdings and diverse option structures, including collars and protective puts, in an effort to reduce NAV decay. ^[43]
• Moved ULTY and peers to weekly distributions across the product suite, standardizing the income cadence. ^[44]

For 2026, plausible adjustments include:

• Lower, more sustainable payout ratios, sacrificing headline yield to stabilize NAV
• Further tightening of risk controls (position sizing, sector caps)
• Or, alternatively, sticking with ultra‑high payouts to maintain marketing appeal, at the possible cost of continuing NAV shrinkage.

A Balanced Scenario View

Putting it together, here are three simplified scenarios (none of which should be treated as a prediction or recommendation):

1. High‑Volatility Sweet Spot (Bullish / Best‑Case)
   • Volatility and option premiums stay high.
   • Growth/AI/crypto remain strong or range‑bound with big swings.
   • Management continues to tweak strategies to cap NAV loss.
   • Result: ULTY delivers very high income and roughly flat to modestly positive total returns, at the cost of significant risk and volatility.
2. Normalizing Volatility (Base‑Case for Many Analysts)
   • Volatility trends lower as markets stabilize.
   • ULTY’s distributions decline from current extremes, or NAV decays faster if payouts remain elevated.
   • Total return ends up low or negative, even though income remains visually attractive.
3. Risk‑Off / Growth Slump (Bearish Case)
   • High‑beta growth and crypto‑linked names sell off.
   • NAV falls while the covered‑call strategy caps upside in any subsequent rebound.
   • Distributions either shrink or remain high but increasingly come from capital, accelerating NAV erosion.
   • Long‑term holders see meaningful capital losses that distributions may not fully offset.

Key Risks for Prospective Investors

Anyone considering ULTY today should be clear on the main risks highlighted by both the prospectus and independent analysis: ^[45]

• Capital Erosion Risk: Repeated high distributions, especially when classified as return of capital, can steadily shrink NAV.
• High‑Volatility Exposure: The underlying holdings are often among the market’s most volatile names. Large drawdowns are possible.
• Complex Options Strategies: Covered calls, synthetic exposures, collars and puts introduce path‑dependent outcomes that can be hard for non‑experts to anticipate.
• High Fees and Turnover: A 1.30% expense ratio plus 700%+ turnover magnify the hurdle to achieving positive total returns.
• Non‑Diversification: Concentration in a relatively small group of high‑volatility stocks and ETFs increases idiosyncratic risk.
• Distribution Uncertainty: There is no guarantee of future payouts at current levels, and distribution composition can swing between income and return of capital.

Bottom Line: What Today’s News Means for ULTY Holders

As of December 7, 2025, ULTY sits at a pivotal moment:

• It has just executed a 1‑for‑10 reverse split, lifting the share price back near $40. ^[46]
• It continues to offer a headline distribution rate around 77%, with a fresh weekly payout of $0.5881 and trailing yields well above 100% on many screens. ^[47]
• Official performance numbers show small negative total returns since inception, even after all that income, and ULTY has materially lagged a simple S&P 500 index fund over the past year. ^[48]
• Analyst opinion is sharply divided, with a clear majority urging caution due to structural NAV‑decay risk, and a vocal minority embracing ULTY as a speculative income vehicle that rewards those willing to “go ultra” on yield. ^[49]

For investors and traders, the key questions now are:

• Am I prioritizing cash flow or long‑term capital growth?
• Do I understand how options income, ROC, and NAV erosion interact in this structure?
• Can I tolerate the possibility that my account value shrinks even as distributions hit my brokerage every week?

ULTY may remain a compelling ticker for news headlines, YouTube videos and speculative strategies in 2026, but whether it belongs in a given portfolio depends far more on risk tolerance, time horizon and understanding of derivatives than on its eye‑catching yield.

Important note: This article is for information and education only. It is not investment advice, and it does not recommend buying, selling or holding any security. Always do your own research and consider consulting a licensed financial professional before making investment decisions, especially with complex, high‑risk products like ULTY.

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