21 Mar 2019 16:54
BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio UpdateBlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
London, March 21
BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)All information is at 28 February 2019 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 | 1.2% | -4.1% | -6.5% | 4.5% | 47.9% | 81.7% |
| Share price | 1.9% | -2.8% | -2.9% | 11.7% | 59.8% | 97.5% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | 2.1% | -3.6% | -3.9% | 6.9% | 50.4% | 85.9% |
Source: BlackRock
| At month end | |
| Net asset value – capital only: | 166.58p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 168.56p |
| Share price: | 172.75p |
| Premium to cum income NAV: | 2.5% |
| Net yield¹: | 4.6% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £118.8m |
| Gearing: | Nil |
| Options overwrite: | 14.9% |
| Ordinary shares in issue²: | 70,499,044 |
| Ongoing charges³: | 1.1% |
¹ In line with the dividend policy announced in the Annual Report on 17 December 2018 of dividends amounting to 8.00p per share for the year ending 31 October 2019 and based on the share price as at close of business on 28 February 2019.² Excluding 29,862,261 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 2018.
| Benchmark Sector Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| Financials | 25.4 |
| Health Care | 15.3 |
| Information Technology | 12.1 |
| Energy | 11.6 |
| Consumer Staples | 8.1 |
| Industrials | 7.6 |
| Communication Services | 5.9 |
| Utilities | 2.7 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 2.4 |
| Materials | 1.8 |
| Net current assets | 7.1 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| United States | 74.3 |
| United Kingdom | 5.7 |
| Canada | 2.9 |
| Netherlands | 2.7 |
| Ireland | 2.7 |
| Switzerland | 2.1 |
| Germany | 1.5 |
| Denmark | 0.7 |
| France | 0.3 |
| Net current assets | 7.1 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Ten Largest Investments | ||
| Company | Country of Risk | Total Assets (%) |
| Verizon Communications | USA | 4.1 |
| Wells Fargo | USA | 3.7 |
| JPMorgan Chase | USA | 3.5 |
| Pfizer | USA | 3.4 |
| Citigroup | USA | 3.2 |
| Bank of America | USA | 3.0 |
| Oracle | USA | 2.7 |
| Microsoft | USA | 2.3 |
| BP Group | United Kingdom | 2.2 |
| Suncor Energy | Canada | 2.1 |
Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one-month period ended 28 February 2019, the Company’s NAV increased by 1.2%1 while the share price increased by 1.9%1 (all performance figures are in sterling terms). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned 2.1%² for the period.
The largest detractor from relative performance was the portfolio’s cash position, which proved costly amid rising U.S. stock prices. In health care, an overweight to the health care providers & services industry and stock selection in health care equipment & supplies weighed on relative returns. Stock selection in financials and information technology also hurt relative results during the month.
The largest contributor to relative performance was our decision to underweight the real estate sector. We believe that real estate stocks trade at unattractive valuations today and therefore maintain a 0% exposure to them in our portfolio. Investment decisions in communication services also added to relative returns, including our underweight to the entertainment industry and stock selection in diversified telecom services. Lastly, stock selection in consumer staples contributed modestly to relative results during the month.
The portfolio’s option overwriting strategy detracted from performance in February amid rising U.S. stock prices.
Transactions/Options
Transactions: In February, new portfolio positions were initiated in Conagra Brands and Quest Diagnostics. The portfolio’s exposure to Medtronic, Willis Tower Watson, Anadarko Petroleum and Altria were also increased during the month. Conversely, we exited our position in US Bancorp. We also trimmed our positions in Anthem, Merck, Honeywell and General Electric.
Options: As of 28 February 2019, the Company’s options exposure was 14.9% and the delta of the options 85.6.
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, utilities and consumer discretionary sectors.
Source: BlackRock.
1BlackRock as at 28 February 2019²Russell 1000 Value Index as at 28 February 2019
21 March 2019
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.