Edinburgh Investment Trust

EDIN has delivered strong outperformance in its first three years under a new manager…

The Hardman & Co Monthly: September 2023

Feature article: Equity Income – UK or Global? Should investors widen their horizons? Introduction: ► The UK Equity Income sector (UKEI) is the fourth-largest investment company (IC) sector in the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) universe, with £12.5bn of assets (as at August 2023), and is the traditional home for investors looking for income in the equity market. ► The UKEI not only provides investors with a better dividend yield than the ge

Hardman & Co Insight: Equity Income – UK or Global? Should investors widen their horizons?

Introduction ► The UK Equity Income sector (UKEI) is the fourth-largest investment company (IC) sector in the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) universe, with £12.5bn of assets (as at August 2023), and is the traditional home for investors looking for income in the equity market. ► The UKEI not only provides investors with a better dividend yield than the general UK market, but also has a strong track record of dividend growth. Indeed, many funds feature on the AIC’s “dividend heroes”

Edinburgh Investment Trust

A new look, better-balanced EDIN portfolio has delivered strong performance…

Edinburgh Investment Trust

EDIN looks leaner and meaner under its new manager and has outperformed since the takeover

Time to back Britain?

The UK was the most unloved market among fund managers during the post-referendum period. From 23 June 2016 to the end of September 2020 (just before the vaccine rally), the FTSE All Share fell 3.5% in dollar terms, with the MSCI AC World Index up 50.5%, thanks in part to the pound falling 12.9% in USD. Even as late as April this year, fund managers were underweight the FTSE All Share, according to the BofA ML Fund Managers Survey – managers were around 1.5 standard deviations below their histor

Edinburgh Investment Trust - Overview

Edinburgh Investment Trust (EDIN) invests in UK equities in order to achieve capital growth and above inflation dividend growth. EDIN was managed by Invesco until March 2020, when the board handed the management contract to boutique firm Majedie Asset Management (MAM) after a beauty parade overseen by leading global consultancy Willis Towers Watson. Lead manager James de Uphaugh and deputy manager Chris Field look to construct a diversified portfolio of between 40-50 stocks, adopting a ‘total r

Best in class

Today, we introduce our investment trust ratings. According to the quantitative screens we have selected in an attempt to highlight the best performers in the closed-ended universe, the trusts discussed here have been the best in their classes over the last five years. We have selected trusts using two different sets of criteria, aiming to identify the top performers for capital growth and for achieving a high and growing income. There are many rating systems for open-ended funds, but no quantit

We can be heroes

Income has for a long time been top priority for British investors, stripped of the traditional source of income that a savings account once represented by a decade of negligible interest rates. But with bonds in a parlous state and the wheels finally coming off the buy-to-let bubble, the range of options available is increasingly narrow. Equities have for some time now been the beneficiary of this search for yield and equity income funds have done very well on the back of this, attracting huge

Edinburgh Investment Trust - Overview

Edinburgh Investment Trust owns a portfolio of mainly UK stocks, supplemented by up to 20% listed abroad, and aims to outperform the FTSE All Share on an NAV basis while providing a dividend that grows faster than inflation. Manager Mark Barnett uses a value approach to picking stocks, and so takes contrarian positions in companies, sectors and themes which are out of favour in the market. This can cause the performance to deviate significantly from the index, and has led to underperformance sin

The search for discounted yield

We have for some time argued that traditional equity income funds are too heavily dependent on a narrow range of stocks, and that the stocks themselves are perhaps looking overstretched in terms of the dividends they pay compared to their underlying earnings. In November last year we published research showing that 25.1% of the capital in the AIC UK Equity Income sector is invested in just ten stocks, and across those companies the average dividend cover is 1.17x. We found that open-ended funds

Keep calm and carry on...

Investment trusts are often the structure of choice during booming markets. The ability to gear, plus the investment freedom of a closed-ended structure allow skilled managers to capitalise on rising share prices. However, the same has not necessarily been true on the way down, as leverage exaggerates losses and discounts widen. This has often been a time to buy, with market volatility providing a chance to buy into good trusts at knockdown rates. Cherry Reynard asks, has the market rout since t

Morning Note – 22 April 2024

Benefits of scale set to materialise

Frenkel Topping - Resilient with strong growth potential

FY 2023 was a challenging year for Frenkel with higher interest rates encouraging clients to place money into lower margin money market funds. Despite this, sales grew +32% (supported by recurring revenue +9% and +51% in non-recurring), EBIT margins remained strong at 22% and adj. EPS grew +17% (taking into account the higher number of shares). FY 2024 has seen a solid start to transactional business and there is a strong pipeline of new FUM opportunities both of which support further growth. Wi

S&U - PBT ahead, encouraging volume trends

S&U reported FY24 PBT of £33.6m, down from £41.4m in FY23 on higher funding and regulatory costs and higher impairments in Advantage in H2. PBT was 2% ahead of our forecast as stronger revenues – up 12% to £115.4m – and better costs offset higher-than-expected impairments. Net receivables grew to a record at both Advantage and Aspen and management noted particular strength in Q4 and a good trading environment in the current year. Having absorbed a significant rise in funding cost as well as addi

Hardman & Co Insight: 2023 was an annus horribilis for Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy

The focus of Hardman & Co Research is on the nine quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and on the 22 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs): the stocks analysed are all members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). We are updating our publication of January 2023, assessing both the lacklustre share price performances during 2023 and the key issues, including interest rates, inflation and power prices. As a 31-strong group, its combined market capitalisation is no

Foresight Solar Fund - Termination of coverage

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on ABC Arbitrage (ABCA), paragon (PGN), Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL), Kendrion (KENDR), Lithium Power International (LPI), Triple Point Energy Transition (TENT), 4iG (4IG), e-therapeutics (ETX), Pharnext (ALPHA) and Shield Therapeutics (STX). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant. Previously published reports can still be accessed via our web

LIBERUM: PayPoint: On track for £100m of EBITDA in FY 26

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 22 April 2024

22nd April 2024 * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

LIBERUM: Speedy Hire: Weakness in FY 24 but recovery in FY 25

Regional REIT - Performing as expected ahead of refinancing

In a challenging market, Regional REIT’s (RGL’s) FY23 operational and financial performance was robust, in line with expectations and previous guidance. Investor focus remains on the company’s loan to value (LTV) reduction and bond refinancing plans, explored in detail in our previous note and RGL will provide an update on this in due course.

The Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2024

Feature article: Steady as she goes, but could be better: A review of investment company liquidity since 2016 Liquidity is the lifeblood of equity markets. The measurement of liquid asset availability to a market or company is a way of gauging a market’s health. This article builds on our previous work, which analysed the liquidity data for non-financial trading companies, by applying the same analytical techniques to the investment companies (IC) space. We analyse liquidity for ICs as a whol

Foxtons Group (FOXT LN) - 1Q24 IMS shows real momentum

Foxtons Group plc first quarter revenue rose 9% to £35.7m (1Q23: £32.9m) with growth delivered across all business segments. Trading is in line with management's expectations.

Morning Note – 29 February 2024

Jupiter Green

Hardman & Co Insight - Asset managers had a poor 2022

Asset managers had a poor 2022: the S&P Composite 1500 Asset Management Index was down 22% and, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), worldwide mutual funds fell by 20%, from $76tr to $60tr. When bond and equity markets fall, the results are unlikely to be pretty: with revenues trending down and multiples contracting, there is a double whammy to contend with. So how do valuations shape up now, after a bullish start to the new year? The first chart is my favourite chart of asset m