SEC Form N-CSRS filed by Blackrock MuniHoldings Quality Fund II Inc.

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM N-CSR

CERTIFIED SHAREHOLDER REPORT OF REGISTERED MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT COMPANIES

Investment Company Act file number: 811-09191

Name and address of agent for service: John M. Perlowski, Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock MuniHoldings Quality Fund II, Inc., 50 Hudson Yards, New York, NY 10001

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (800) 882-0052, Option 4

Date of fiscal year end: 07/31/2024

Date of reporting period: 01/31/2024

(a) The Report to Shareholders is attached herewith.

BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust (BFZ)

BlackRock Municipal 2030 Target Term Trust (BTT)

BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust (BYM)

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc. (MUC)

BlackRock MuniHoldings Quality Fund II, Inc. (MUE)

Table of Contents

Municipal Market Overview For the Reporting Period Ended January 31, 2024

Municipal Market Conditions

Municipals struggled at the start of the period as the Fed continued its tightening policy, raising fed fund rates to 5.25%—5.50%, before pausing in September. Subsequently, falling inflation, weakening economic growth, and the prolonged Fed pause led to more dovish expectations for monetary policy, causing a strong interest rate rally into year-end. As a result, municipals posted their strongest performance since the mid-1980s during the fourth quarter of 2023 before taking a step back to reassess macro expectations at the end of the period. Lower-rated credits and the long-end of the curve performed best.

A Closer Look at Yields

Financial Conditions of Municipal Issuers

With reserves at nearly an all-time high and debt service burden at a 50-year low, states are well-positioned to weather a potential economic slowdown. However, tax receipts are diverging for the states that primarily rely on consumption taxes, compared to their peers that depend on income taxes. State median revenues declined by a slight 1% for the rolling 12-months ending September 2023. States with regimes that favor sales taxes, such as Florida, Nevada, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington, all experienced positive revenue growth, while states that depend on personal income taxes, such as California and New York, experienced much greater declines in receipts, by 23% and 16%, respectively. Particularly in California’s case, the rating agencies have been patient, but the risk of downgrades has increased significantly. Meanwhile spreads remain surprisingly tight, reflecting investor indifference. Personal income tax collections should improve this April, due to a rebound in the financial markets, which should alleviate the strain on New York’s budget, but California will need to enact significant corrective action to address its reported $68 billion deficit. No sector is immune to an economic contraction; however, most municipal issuers are ultra-defensive since they provide essential services and can raise user fees or taxes to cover operations. Across all muni sectors, we anticipate borrowing to increase modestly in 2024 due to various potential factors: revenue shortfalls, aversion to fee increases, reluctance to cut programs, no future federal stimulus, preference to maintain liquidity, and deferral of capital expenditures. Patient investors will have better options in 2024 to buy solid credits in the primary market or discounted names in the secondary market.

The opinions expressed are those of BlackRock as of January 31, 2024 and are subject to change at any time due to changes in market or economic conditions. The comments should not be construed as a recommendation of any individual holdings or market sectors. Investing involves risk including loss of principal. Bond values fluctuate in price so the value of your investment can go down depending on market conditions. Fixed income risks include interest-rate and credit risk. Typically, when interest rates rise, there is a corresponding decline in bond values. Credit risk refers to the possibility that the bond issuer will not be able to make principal and interest payments. There may be less information on the financial condition of municipal issuers than for public corporations. The market for municipal bonds may be less liquid than for taxable bonds. Some investors may be subject to Alternative Minimum Tax (“AMT”). Capital gains distributions, if any, are taxable.

The Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index, a broad, market value-weighted index, seeks to measure the performance of the U.S. municipal bond market. All bonds in the index are exempt from U.S. federal income taxes or subject to the AMT. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Index performance is shown for illustrative purposes only. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

The Benefits and Risks of Leveraging

The Trusts may utilize leverage to seek to enhance the distribution rate on, and net asset value (“NAV”) of, their common shares (“Common Shares”). However, there is no guarantee that these objectives can be achieved in all interest rate environments.

In general, the concept of leveraging is based on the premise that the financing cost of leverage, which is based on short-term interest rates, is normally lower than the income earned by a Trust on its longer-term portfolio investments purchased with the proceeds from leverage. To the extent that the total assets of each Trust (including the assets obtained from leverage) are invested in higher-yielding portfolio investments, each Trust’s shareholders benefit from the incremental net income. The interest earned on securities purchased with the proceeds from leverage (after paying the leverage costs) is paid to shareholders in the form of dividends, and the value of these portfolio holdings (less the leverage liability) is reflected in the per share NAV.

To illustrate these concepts, assume a Trust’s Common Shares capitalization is $100 million and it utilizes leverage for an additional $30 million, creating a total value of $130 million available for investment in longer-term income securities. If prevailing short-term interest rates are 3% and longer-term interest rates are 6%, the yield curve has a strongly positive slope. In this case, a Trust’s financing costs on the $30 million of proceeds obtained from leverage are based on the lower short-term interest rates. At the same time, the securities purchased by a Trust with the proceeds from leverage earn income based on longer-term interest rates. In this case, a Trust’s financing cost of leverage is significantly lower than the income earned on a Trust’s longer-term investments acquired from such leverage proceeds, and therefore the holders of Common Shares (“Common Shareholders”) are the beneficiaries of the incremental net income.

However, in order to benefit Common Shareholders, the return on assets purchased with leverage proceeds must exceed the ongoing costs associated with the leverage. If interest and other costs of leverage exceed a Trust’s return on assets purchased with leverage proceeds, income to shareholders is lower than if a Trust had not used leverage. In such circumstance, the investment adviser may nevertheless determine to maintain a Trust’s leverage if it deems such action to be appropriate. Furthermore, the value of the Trusts’ portfolio investments generally varies inversely with the direction of long-term interest rates, although other factors can influence the value of portfolio investments. In contrast, the amount of each Trust’s obligations under its respective leverage arrangement generally does not fluctuate in relation to interest rates. As a result, changes in interest rates can influence the Trusts’ NAVs positively or negatively. Changes in the future direction of interest rates are very difficult to predict accurately, and there is no assurance that a Trust’s intended leveraging strategy will be successful.

The use of leverage also generally causes greater changes in each Trust’s NAV, market price and dividend rates than comparable portfolios without leverage. In a declining market, leverage is likely to cause a greater decline in the NAV and market price of a Trust’s Common Shares than if the Trust were not leveraged. In addition, each Trust may be required to sell portfolio securities at inopportune times or at distressed values in order to comply with regulatory requirements applicable to the use of leverage or as required by the terms of leverage instruments, which may cause the Trust to incur losses. The use of leverage may limit a Trust’s ability to invest in certain types of securities or use certain types of hedging strategies. Each Trust incurs expenses in connection with the use of leverage, all of which are borne by Common Shareholders and may reduce income to the Common Shares. Moreover, to the extent the calculation of each Trust’s investment advisory fees includes assets purchased with the proceeds of leverage, the investment advisory fees payable to the Trusts’ investment adviser will be higher than if the Trusts did not use leverage.

To obtain leverage, each Trust has issued Variable Rate Muni Term Preferred Shares (“VMTP Shares”) or Remarketable Variable Rate Muni Term Preferred Shares (“RVMTP Shares”) (collectively, “Preferred Shares”) and/or leveraged its assets through the use of tender option bond trusts (“TOB Trusts”) as described in the Notes to Financial Statements.

Under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), each Trust is permitted to borrow money (including through the use of TOB Trusts) or issue debt securities up to 33 1/3% of its total managed assets or equity securities (e.g., Preferred Shares) up to 50% of its total managed assets. A Trust may voluntarily elect to limit its leverage to less than the maximum amount permitted under the 1940 Act. In addition, a Trust may also be subject to certain asset coverage, leverage or portfolio composition requirements imposed by the Preferred Shares’ governing instruments or by agencies rating the Preferred Shares, which may be more stringent than those imposed by the 1940 Act.

Derivative Financial Instruments

The Trusts may invest in various derivative financial instruments. These instruments are used to obtain exposure to a security, commodity, index, market, and/or other assets without owning or taking physical custody of securities, commodities and/or other referenced assets or to manage market, equity, credit, interest rate, foreign currency exchange rate, commodity and/or other risks. Derivative financial instruments may give rise to a form of economic leverage and involve risks, including the imperfect correlation between the value of a derivative financial instrument and the underlying asset, possible default of the counterparty to the transaction or illiquidity of the instrument. Pursuant to Rule 18f-4 under the 1940 Act, among other things, the Trusts must either use derivative financial instruments with embedded leverage in a limited manner or comply with an outer limit on fund leverage risk based on value-at-risk. The Trusts’ successful use of a derivative financial instrument depends on the investment adviser’s ability to predict pertinent market movements accurately, which cannot be assured. The use of these instruments may result in losses greater than if they had not been used, may limit the amount of appreciation a Trust can realize on an investment and/or may result in lower distributions paid to shareholders. The Trusts’ investments in these instruments, if any, are discussed in detail in the Notes to Financial Statements.

Investment Objective

BlackRock California Municipal Income Trust’s (BFZ) (the “Trust”) investment objective is to provide current income exempt from regular U.S. federal income and California income taxes. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in municipal obligations exempt from U.S. federal income taxes (except that the interest may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax) and California income taxes. The Trust invests, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its assets in municipal obligations that are investment grade quality, or are considered by the Trust’s investment adviser to be of comparable quality, at the time of investment. The Trust may invest directly in securities or synthetically through the use of derivatives.

No assurance can be given that the Trust’s investment objective will be achieved.

Trust Information

Market Price and Net Asset Value Per Share Summary

Performance

Returns for the period ended January 31, 2024 were as follows:

Performance results may include adjustments made for financial reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

The Trust is presenting the performance of one or more indices for informational purposes only. The Trust is actively managed and does not seek to track or replicate the performance of any index. The index performance shown is not intended to be indicative of the Trust’s investment strategies, portfolio components or past or future performance.

More information about the Trust’s historical performance can be found in the “Closed End Funds” section of blackrock.com.

The following discussion relates to the Trust’s absolute performance based on NAV:

Municipal bonds posted solid gains in the six-month period behind continued optimism that the Fed would begin to cut interest rates in 2024.

The Trust’s holdings in higher-quality investment-grade securities with longer duration characteristics contributed to performance. (Duration is a measure of interest rate sensitivity.) Within this category, longer-maturity bonds performed particularly well. On the other end of the spectrum, positions in lower-duration securities made smaller contributions.

All sectors produced positive returns, with the largest contributions coming from school districts, transportation, corporate-backed, and healthcare issues due to their higher weightings in the portfolio.

The Trust continued to use U.S. Treasury futures on a limited basis in an effort to mitigate interest rate risk. This aspect of its strategy had a minimal effect on results. Believing yields were unlikely to rise significantly from already elevated levels, the investment adviser reduced the extent of the risk-management strategy. The Trust continued to use leverage, but the performance impact was muted due to increased borrowing costs.

The views expressed reflect the opinions of BlackRock as of the date of this report and are subject to change based on changes in market, economic or other conditions. These views are not intended to be a forecast of future events and are no guarantee of future results.

Overview of the Trust’s Total Investments

Investment Objective

BlackRock Municipal 2030 Target Term Trust’s (BTT) (the “Trust”) investment objectives are to provide current income exempt from regular U.S. federal income tax (but which may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax in certain circumstances) and to return $25.00 per common share (the initial offering price per share) to holders of common shares on or about December 31, 2030. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objectives by investing at least 80% of its assets in municipal bonds exempt from U.S. federal income taxes (except that the interest may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax). The Trust invests at least 80% of its assets in municipal bonds that are investment grade quality, or are considered by the Trust’s investment adviser to be of comparable quality, at the time of investment. The Trust actively manages the maturity of its bonds to seek to have a dollar weighted average effective maturity approximately equal to the Trust’s maturity date. The Trust may invest directly in securities or synthetically through the use of derivatives.

There is no assurance that the Trust will achieve its investment objectives, including its investment objective of returning $25.00 per share.

Trust Information

Market Price and Net Asset Value Per Share Summary

Performance

Returns for the period ended January 31, 2024 were as follows:

Performance results may include adjustments made for financial reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

The Trust is presenting the performance of one or more indices for informational purposes only. The Trust is actively managed and does not seek to track or replicate the performance of any index. The index performance shown is not intended to be indicative of the Trust’s investment strategies, portfolio components or past or future performance.

More information about the Trust’s historical performance can be found in the “Closed End Funds” section of blackrock.com.

The following discussion relates to the Trust’s absolute performance based on NAV:

Municipal bonds posted solid gains for the six-month period behind continued optimism that the Fed would begin to cut interest rates in 2024.

At a time of positive market performance, all sectors delivered gains. Corporate-backed, state tax-backed, transportation, and healthcare issues made the largest contributions. All ratings tiers and coupons delivered positive absolute returns, with the strongest results coming from A and AA rated bonds and 5% coupons, respectively.

The views expressed reflect the opinions of BlackRock as of the date of this report and are subject to change based on changes in market, economic or other conditions. These views are not intended to be a forecast of future events and are no guarantee of future results.

Overview of the Trust’s Total Investments

Investment Objective

BlackRock Municipal Income Quality Trust’s (BYM) (the “Trust”) investment objective is to provide current income exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, including the alternative minimum tax. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its managed assets in municipal bonds exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, including the U.S. federal alternative minimum tax. The Trust also invests at least 80% of its managed assets in municipal bonds that are investment grade quality at the time of investment or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the investment adviser at the time of investment. The Trust may invest up to 20% of its managed assets in securities that are rated below investment grade, or are considered by BlackRock to be of comparable quality, at the time of purchase. The Trust may invest directly in securities or synthetically through the use of derivatives.

No assurance can be given that the Trust’s investment objective will be achieved.

Trust Information

Market Price and Net Asset Value Per Share Summary

Performance

Returns for the period ended January 31, 2024 were as follows:

Performance results may include adjustments made for financial reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

The Trust is presenting the performance of one or more indices for informational purposes only. The Trust is actively managed and does not seek to track or replicate the performance of any index. The index performance shown is not intended to be indicative of the Trust’s investment strategies, portfolio components or past or future performance.

More information about the Trust’s historical performance can be found in the “Closed End Funds” section of blackrock.com.

The following discussion relates to the Trust’s absolute performance based on NAV:

Municipal bonds posted solid gains for the six-month period behind continued optimism that the Fed would begin to cut interest rates in 2024.

Holdings in long-dated securities, which outperformed the broader market, contributed the most to performance given their high weighting in the Trust. Positions in high-quality bonds, especially in the tax-backed state and corporate-backed sectors, further contributed. The Trust’s use of leverage contributed to returns by increasing overall portfolio duration and income. (Duration is a measure of interest rate sensitivity.) While higher short-term borrowing costs reduced the income benefit of leverage, the investment adviser actively engaged in tax-loss selling and rotated the proceeds into higher-yielding securities.

The Trust continued to use U.S. Treasury futures in an effort to mitigate interest rate risk, which detracted from performance at a time in which yields fell. Select securities in the housing sector, primarily those with lower coupons or lower ratings that lagged during the rally in the latter half of the reporting period, also detracted.

The views expressed reflect the opinions of BlackRock as of the date of this report and are subject to change based on changes in market, economic or other conditions. These views are not intended to be a forecast of future events and are no guarantee of future results.

Overview of the Trust’s Total Investments

Investment Objective

BlackRock MuniHoldings California Quality Fund, Inc.’s (MUC) (the “Trust”) investment objective is to provide shareholders with current income exempt from U.S. federal income taxes and California personal income taxes. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in municipal obligations exempt from U.S. federal income taxes (except that the interest may be subject to the U.S. federal alternative minimum tax) and California personal income taxes. Under normal market conditions, the Trust invests at least 80% of its assets in investment grade municipal obligations with remaining maturities of one year or more at the time of investment. The municipal obligations in which the Trust primarily invests are either rated investment grade quality, or are considered by the Trust’s investment adviser to be of comparable quality, at the time of investment. The Trust may invest up to 20% of its managed assets in securities that are rated below investment grade, or are considered by the Trust’s investment adviser to be of comparable quality, at the time of purchase. The Trust may invest directly in securities or synthetically through the use of derivatives.

No assurance can be given that the Trust’s investment objective will be achieved.

Trust Information

Market Price and Net Asset Value Per Share Summary

Performance

Returns for the period ended January 31, 2024 were as follows:

Performance results may include adjustments made for financial reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

The Trust is presenting the performance of one or more indices for informational purposes only. The Trust is actively managed and does not seek to track or replicate the performance of any index. The index performance shown is not intended to be indicative of the Trust’s investment strategies, portfolio components or past or future performance.

More information about the Trust’s historical performance can be found in the “Closed End Funds” section of blackrock.com.

The following discussion relates to the Trust’s absolute performance based on NAV:

Municipal bonds posted solid gains in the six-month period behind continued optimism that the Fed would begin to cut interest rates in 2024.

Holdings in long-dated securities, which outperformed the broader market, contributed the most to performance given their high weighting in the Trust. At the sector level, positions in utilities, education, and transportation issues were the largest contributors. The Trust’s use of leverage contributed to returns by increasing overall portfolio duration and income. (Duration is a measure of interest rate sensitivity.) While higher short-term borrowing costs reduced the income benefit of leverage, the investment adviser actively engaged in tax-loss selling and rotated the proceeds into higher-yielding securities.

The Trust continued to use U.S. Treasury futures in an effort to mitigate interest rate risk, which detracted from performance at a time in which yields fell. Holdings in some high-yield securities in the workforce housing sector, which didn’t keep pace with the December rally in the broader market, also detracted modestly.

The views expressed reflect the opinions of BlackRock as of the date of this report and are subject to change based on changes in market, economic or other conditions. These views are not intended to be a forecast of future events and are no guarantee of future results.

Overview of the Trust’s Total Investments

Investment Objective

BlackRock MuniHoldings Quality Fund II, Inc.’s (MUE) (the “Trust”) investment objective is to provide shareholders with current income exempt from U.S. federal income taxes. The Trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in long-term, investment grade municipal obligations exempt from U.S. federal income taxes (except that the interest may be subject to the U.S. federal alternative minimum tax). The municipal obligations in which the Trust primarily invests are either rated investment grade quality, or are considered by the Trust’s investment adviser to be of comparable quality, at the time of investment. Under normal market conditions, the Trust invests at least 80% of its assets in municipal obligations with remaining maturities of one year or more at the time of investment. The Trust may invest up to 20% of its managed assets in securities that are rated below investment grade, or are considered by the Trust’s investment adviser to be of comparable quality, at the time of purchase. The Trust may invest directly in securities or synthetically through the use of derivatives.

No assurance can be given that the Trust’s investment objective will be achieved.

Trust Information

Market Price and Net Asset Value Per Share Summary

Performance

Returns for the period ended January 31, 2024 were as follows:

Performance results may include adjustments made for financial reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

The Trust is presenting the performance of one or more indices for informational purposes only. The Trust is actively managed and does not seek to track or replicate the performance of any index. The index performance shown is not intended to be indicative of the Trust’s investment strategies, portfolio components or past or future performance.

More information about the Trust’s historical performance can be found in the “Closed End Funds” section of blackrock.com.

The following discussion relates to the Trust’s absolute performance based on NAV:

Municipal bonds posted solid gains for the six-month period behind continued optimism that the Fed would begin to cut interest rates in 2024.

At a time of positive market performance, all sectors delivered gains. Transportation, state tax-backed, and healthcare issues made the largest contributions. All ratings tiers, maturities, and coupons delivered positive absolute returns, with the strongest results coming from A and AA bonds, securities maturing in 25 years or more, and 4% and 5% coupons, respectively. Bonds with lower coupons and lower dollar prices generally outperformed higher-coupon issues priced at a premium. The only notable detractors were a few individual positions that posted negative returns due to issuer-specific factors. The Trust’s cash position had no material impact on performance. The Trust continued to use leverage, but the performance impact was muted due to increased borrowing costs.

The views expressed reflect the opinions of BlackRock as of the date of this report and are subject to change based on changes in market, economic or other conditions. These views are not intended to be a forecast of future events and are no guarantee of future results.

Overview of the Trust’s Total Investments

For Trust compliance purposes, the Trust’s sector classifications refer to one or more of the sector sub-classifications used by one or more widely recognized market indexes or rating group indexes, and/or as defined by the investment adviser. These definitions may not apply for purposes of this report, which may combine such sector sub-classifications for reporting ease.

Affiliates

Investments in issuers considered to be affiliate(s) of the Trust during the six months ended January 31, 2024 for purposes of Section 2(a)(3) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, were as follows:

Derivative Financial Instruments Categorized by Risk Exposure

For the period ended January 31, 2024, the effect of derivative financial instruments in the Statements of Operations was as follows: