17 Jan 2019 16:35
BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio UpdateBlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
London, January 17
BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)All information is at 31 December 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 | -8.3% | -10.1% | -4.0% | -2.4% | 41.9% | 70.3% |
| Share price | -9.4% | -9.0% | -4.9% | 3.8% | 57.4% | 73.0% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | -9.4% | -9.6% | -3.3% | -2.6% | 41.6% | 73.6% |
Source: BlackRock
| At month end | |
| Net asset value – capital only: | 160.11p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 161.28p |
| Share price: | 161.00p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 0.2% |
| Net yield¹: | 5.0% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £111.8m |
| Gearing: | Nil |
| Options overwrite: | 16.0% |
| Ordinary shares in issue²: | 69,299,044 |
| 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 31 December 2018.² Excluding 31,062,261 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 | 23.7 |
| Health Care | 18.4 |
| Information Technology | 11.3 |
| Energy | 10.8 |
| Industrials | 7.8 |
| Consumer Staples | 7.5 |
| Communication Services | 6.2 |
| Utilities | 3.7 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 2.4 |
| Materials | 1.8 |
| Net current assets | 6.4 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| United States | 75.4 |
| United Kingdom | 5.7 |
| Netherlands | 2.7 |
| Canada | 2.7 |
| Switzerland | 2.2 |
| Ireland | 2.2 |
| Germany | 1.2 |
| Denmark | 0.8 |
| France | 0.4 |
| China | 0.3 |
| Net current assets | 6.4 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Ten Largest Investments | ||
| Company | Country of Risk | Total Assets (%) |
| Verizon Communications | USA | 4.3 |
| Pfizer | USA | 4.2 |
| JPMorgan Chase | USA | 3.7 |
| Wells Fargo | USA | 3.5 |
| Citigroup | USA | 2.8 |
| Bank of America | USA | 2.8 |
| Anthem | USA | 2.7 |
| Oracle | USA | 2.6 |
| Microsoft | USA | 2.4 |
| Astrazeneca | United Kingdom | 2.1 |
Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one-month period ended 31 December 2018, the Company’s NAV and share price fell by 8.3% and 9.4% respectively. The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned -9.4% during the period (all performance figures are in sterling terms).
The portfolio’s cash position, which averaged 8.1% during the month, was a significant contributor to relative performance amid falling U.S. stock prices. In health care, stock selection in the pharmaceuticals industry also boosted relative performance. Other notable contributors included stock selection in the consumer staples and industrials sectors.
The largest detractor from relative performance was investment decisions in the financials sector. Notably, an overweight to the banks industry and a combination of stock selection and an underweight to diversified financial services proved costly. In utilities, an underweight to multi-utilities and electric utilities also weighed on relative returns. Other detractors during the month included an underweight to the real estate and materials sectors.
The portfolio’s option overwriting strategy contributed to portfolio returns in December.
Transactions/Options
Transactions: In December, new portfolio positions were initiated in Apple, Masco Corporation and Baker Hughes, a GE company. The portfolio’s exposure to Dollar General Corporation, Humana, Samsung Electronics and Novartis AG were also increased during the month. Conversely, we exited our positions in Experian, Brighthouse Financial and nVent Electric We also trimmed our positions in U.S. Bancorp, UnitedHealth Group, Citigroup and CDW Corporation.
Options: As of 31 December 2018, the Company’s options exposure was 16.0% and the delta of the options was 89.6.Â
Positioning
As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the health care, information technology and energy sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the real estate, utilities and consumer discretionary sectors.
Source: BlackRock as at 31 December 2018.
17 January 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.