19 Sep 2018 16:18
BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio UpdateBlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
London, September 19
BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)All information is at 31 August 2018 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| One Month | Three Months | Six Months | One Year | Three Years | Five years | |
| Net asset value | 2.3% | 8.5% | 11.7% | 12.2% | 72.3% | 98.1% |
| Share price | 5.2% | 9.1% | 15.1% | 19.4% | 83.7% | 90.9% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | 2.4% | 8.3% | 11.2% | 11.5% | 67.7% | 102.6% |
Source: BlackRock
| At month end | |
| Net asset value – capital only: | 181.75p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 182.29p |
| Share price: | 180.00p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 1.3% |
| Net yield¹: | 4.4% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £125.6m |
| Gearing: | Nil |
| Options overwrite: | 15.0% |
| Ordinary shares in issue²: | 68,874,044 |
| Ongoing charges³: | 1.1% |
¹ In line with the dividend policy announced in the Annual Report on 13 December 2017 of dividends amounting to 8.00p per share for the year ending 31 October 2018 and based on the share price as at close of business on 31 August 2018.
² Excluding 31,487,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.
³ Ongoing charges represent the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding interest as a % of average shareholders’ funds for the year ended 31 October 2017.
| Benchmark Sector Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| Financials | 26.6 |
| Health Care | 17.3 |
| Energy | 11.7 |
| Information Technology | 11.2 |
| Industrials | 8.0 |
| Consumer Staples | 6.6 |
| Utilities | 4.9 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 3.8 |
| Telecommunication Services | 3.6 |
| Materials | 2.2 |
| Net current assets | 4.1 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| United States | 79.9 |
| United Kingdom | 5.0 |
| Canada | 3.1 |
| Ireland | 2.6 |
| Netherlands | 2.4 |
| France | 0.9 |
| Denmark | 0.8 |
| Germany | 0.6 |
| China | 0.4 |
| Switzerland | 0.2 |
| Net Current assets | 4.1 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== | |
| Ten Largest Investments | ||
| Company | Country of Risk | Total Assets (%) |
| JPMorgan Chase | USA | 4.1 |
| Pfizer | USA | 3.8 |
| Bank of America | USA | 3.5 |
| Citigroup | USA | 3.4 |
| Verizon Communications | USA | 3.4 |
| Wells Fargo | USA | 3.3 |
| Oracle | USA | 2.9 |
| Anthem | USA | 2.5 |
| Suncor Energy | Canada | 2.4 |
| Microsoft | USA | 2.4 |
Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one-month period ended 31 August 2018, the Company’s NAV increased by 2.3% while the share price increased by 5.2% (all in sterling). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned 2.4% for the period.
The largest contributor to relative performance was stock selection in the consumer discretionary sector, most notably in the specialty retail industry. In utilities, stock selection in electric utilities also boosted relative performance. Other notable contributors included our overweight to the health care providers & services industry and a combination of stock selection and an overweight to the information technology sector.
The largest detractor from relative performance was a combination of allocation decisions and stock selection in the financials sector. Notably, an underweight to the diversified financial services industry proved costly, as did stock selection in the banks industry. The portfolio’s cash position, which averaged 5.6% during the period, weighed on relative returns amid rising U.S. equity prices. Other notable detractors included our underweight to real estate and stock selection in the industrials sector.
The portfolio’s option overwriting strategy detracted from absolute returns in August. This should be understood within the context of rising U.S. equity market prices.
Transactions/Options
Transactions: In August we initiated new positions in Mondelez International, Inc., Nestlé S.A. and Newell Brands Inc. Position sizes in Verizon Communications Inc., Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and The Williams Companies, Inc. were also increased. Conversely, we exited our positions in Chevron Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell plc and Lincoln National Corporation. Other notable trades included trimming our existing positions in The Kroger Co, Bank of America Corporation and KeyCorp.
Options: As of 31 August 2018, the Company’s options exposure was 15.0% and the delta of the options was 87.6.
Positioning
As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the health care, financials and information technology sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the real estate, consumer discretionary and materials sectors.
Source: BlackRock.
19 September 2018
Latest information is available by typing blackrock.co.uk/brna on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager’s website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager’s website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.