21 Sep 2017 14:22
BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio UpdateBlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
London, September 21
BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)All information is at 31 August 2017 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| One Month | Three Months | Six Months | One Year | Three Years | Since Launch* | |
| Net asset value | 1.4% | 2.5% | -0.6% | 16.2% | 61.8% | 102.6% |
| Share price | 1.4% | 2.8% | -2.4% | 15.0% | 61.0% | 86.1% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | 1.1% | 2.0% | -3.0% | 13.4% | 56.7% | 124.6% |
Source: BlackRock
*Launched on 24 October 2012.
| At month end | |
| Net asset value – capital only: | 168.40p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 169.45p |
| Share price: | 157.38p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 7.1% |
| Net yield*: | 3.1% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £116.7m |
| Gearing: | nil |
| Options overwrite: | 18.4% |
| Ordinary shares in issue**: | 68,874,044 |
| Ongoing charges***: | 1.0% |
* Based on dividends of 1.20p per share declared on 3 November 2016, 21 February 2017and 1.25p per share declared on 3 May 2017 and 8 August 2017.
** Excluding 31,487,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.
*** 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 2016.
| Benchmark | |
| Sector Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| Financials | 26.5 |
| Health Care | 16.3 |
| Industrials | 11.4 |
| Energy | 10.6 |
| Information Technology | 10.2 |
| Consumer Staples | 6.3 |
| Utilities | 5.3 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 4.1 |
| Materials | 3.2 |
| Telecommunication Services | 2.2 |
| Net current assets | 3.9 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| USA | 81.9 |
| Netherlands | 4.0 |
| United Kingdom | 3.6 |
| Canada | 2.8 |
| France | 2.1 |
| Ireland | 0.8 |
| South Korea | 0.5 |
| China | 0.4 |
| Net current assets | 3.9 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Ten Largest Investments | ||
| Company | Country of Risk | Total Assets (%) |
| JPMorgan Chase | USA | 4.0 |
| Citigroup | USA | 3.7 |
| Bank of America | USA | 3.6 |
| Pfizer | USA | 3.5 |
| Oracle | USA | 3.0 |
| Wells Fargo | USA | 2.5 |
| Anthem | USA | 2.5 |
| Dow Chemical | USA | 2.5 |
| Microsoft | USA | 2.1 |
| Merck | USA | 2.1 |
Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one month period ended August 31, 2017 the Company’s NAV increased by 1.4% while the share price increased by 1.4%. The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, rose by 1.1% for the period (all performance figures in sterling terms and with income reinvested).
The largest contributor to relative performance during the month was stock selection in the health care sector. Notably, stock selection decisions in the health care providers & services industry proved to be beneficial. Stock selection in the energy sector also boosted relative returns, led by our decisions to underweight Exxon Mobil Corporation and to own non-benchmark holding Total SA. Lastly, stock selection in industrials and consumer staples contributed to relative performance during the month.
The largest detractor from relative performance was stock selection in the financials sector. Notably, stock selection in the insurance industry proved to be costly, as did our decision not to own Berkshire Hathaway, a large benchmark holding that does not pay a dividend. Stock selection in information technology also weighed on relative performance, as did our underweight to the utilities sector during the month.
Transactions/Options
Transactions: Notable portfolio transactions during the month included initiating a new position in Humana and exiting our positions in The Allstate Corporation and Dominion Energy.
Options: As of 31 August 2017, the Company’s options exposure was 18.4% and the delta of the options was 88.3.
Positioning
As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the health care, information technology and industrials sectors. Our largest underweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the real estate, consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors.
21 September 2017
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.