JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust – Are we there yet?

Optimism driven by rapidly developing corporate governance reforms, a divergent economy cycle, and still-negative interest rates saw a dramatic rally in benchmark Japanese indices over 2023, with the TOPIX index climbing to its highest level in more than 30 years. With the rally driven by more value-focused sectors of the market, returns for the JP Morgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) failed to keep pace for much of the year due to a portfolio more targeted towards high-quality growth stocks.

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust – Are we there yet?

Optimism driven by rapidly developing corporate governance reforms, a divergent economy cycle, and still-negative interest rates likely contributed to a dramatic rally in benchmark Japanese indices over 2023, with the TOPIX index climbing to its highest level in more than 30 years. The managers note that with the rally driven by more value-focused sectors of the market, returns for the JP Morgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) failed to keep pace for much of the year due to a portfolio more tar

JPMorgan Japanese

The valuation of JFJ’s high-growth portfolio looks cheaper after last year’s sell-off…

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust – Backing the new Japan

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) has a large exposure to good quality companies that are at the forefront of the modernisation of the Japanese economy. The portfolio embraces businesses in robotics, ecommerce, digitalisation, healthcare, and renewables. It also backs some great Japanese brands and businesses that are helping the economy adapt to an ageing population. These are ‘growth’ stocks and, as we discussed in our last note, even though Japan has not, as yet, experienced the inter

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust – Backing the new Japan

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) has a large exposure to companies that are focused on the modernisation of the Japanese economy. The portfolio embraces businesses in robotics, ecommerce, digitalisation, healthcare, and renewables. It also backs Japanese brands and businesses that its managers think are helping the economy adapt to an ageing population. The majority of these stocks exhibit characteristics associated with growth stocks and, as we discussed in our last note, even though J

JPMorgan Japanese

JFJ’s portfolio of high-growth businesses looks cheap as sentiment improves…

Economic and Political Monthly Roundup January 2023

A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairs and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned.

Economic and Political Monthly Roundup January 2023

A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairs and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned.

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust - Unjustified selloff creates opportunities

A sharp selloff in the types of high-quality, growing companies favoured by JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) has meant that the trust has given back much of its recent outperformance. The selloff mimics those of other countries such as the US and UK, but Japan is not afflicted by the high inflation or the threat of rising rates that triggered the stock market falls in other countries. JFJ’s managers are seeing opportunities to buy stocks that they favour on attractive valuations. They ar

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust - Unjustified selloff creates opportunities

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) has given back much of its recent outperformance. The managers select companies that they believe are high-quality and offer good growth prospects for JFJ’s portfolio. They say that these types of companies have experienced a sharp and unjustified selloff. They note that the selloff mimics those of other countries such as the US and UK, but Japan does not appear to be afflicted by the high inflation or the threat of rising rates that triggered the stock m

JPMorgan Japanese

JPMorgan Japanese’s (JFJ) managers, Nicholas Weindling and Miyako Urabe, have proven themselves uncompromising in the face of recent market volatility. The team remains committed to investing in Japanese growth companies, with a Portfolio of both large and small companies that can capitalise on the structural opportunities within Japan. The team aims to invest into the heart of ‘New Japan’, specifically in high-quality companies which offer the prospect of high growth.

Bright long-term future

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) had an impressive run of both absolute and relative performance going into and during the worst of the pandemic. However, once vaccines became a reality, the share prices of businesses that had struggled during lockdowns surged. These were often the types of company that the managers would not consider for JFJ’s growth- and quality-focused portfolio. Consequently, over the past 12 months, JFJ has produced decent returns, surpassing £1bn in assets, but has

Bright long-term future

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) had an impressive run of both absolute and relative (to its benchmark index and to competing trusts) performance going into and during the worst of the pandemic. However, once vaccines became a reality, the share prices of businesses that had struggled during lockdowns surged. These were often the types of company that the managers would not consider for JFJ’s growth- and quality-focused portfolio. Consequently, over the past 12 months, JFJ has produced d

Don’t fear the reaper

With market direction hard to call, we consider the case for taking a long- term view in the investment trust sector...

LIBERUM: Plus500: Strategic progress pays dividends

Tatton Asset Management (TAM LN) - Record net inflows

Tatton, the leading on-platform discretionary fund manager (DFM) and IFA support services Group has released a trading update ahead of its results to 31 March 2024, due on 18 June 2024.

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

Ondo InsurTech FY24 Trading Update

Ondo InsurTech has released a brief post-YE update revealing its good progress continued through 2H24 and consequently FY24 will be in line with market expectations.

BlackRock World Mining

BRWM’s managers: we see all the classic signs of high commodity prices...

NextEnergy Solar Fund - Attractive Refinancing

The refinancing of a £135m revolving credit facility and the extension of a similar £70m facility gives NESF firepower as development opportunities for new solar are especially attractive thanks to lower module prices in Europe. They give the fund key financial flexibility at a critical time as it pursues its capital recycling programme.

Resilient FY24, confident long-term outlook

Vp’s full year update highlights sector-leading results, once again benefiting from the diversity of its end markets and the quality of its specialist businesses. With results expected to be broadly in line with expectations, we trim our FY24 PBT forecast by c.5% to £39.0m, a shade below the FY23 outturn (£40.2m). We consider this an impressively resilient performance set against a mixed market backdrop. Under new leadership, a strategic refresh is underway and management is confident in long

Jupiter Green

JGC’s fundamental story continues to show resilience, but the discount remains wide…

Lowland Investment Company - Is the tide turning?

Lowland Investment Company’s (LWI’s) unconstrained, multi-cap investment policy differentiates it from most peers in the AIC UK Equity Income sector. It offers investors broad market exposure, outside of the large, traditional ‘income stocks’ at a 13% discount to NAV. The underperformance of small- and mid-cap companies versus larger peers has slowed and a turnaround would be very positive for LWI. Portfolio returns are already benefiting from acquisition activity, spurred by low valuations, and

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

AUM up 30% in FY24, record flows, forecasts raised

AUM jumped £3.8bn or +30% in FY24, reaching £16.6bn on 31 Mar 24, 12% above our previous forecast of £14.7bn. Including 50%-owned 8AM Global, Assets Under Influence hit £17.6bn. Investment performance provided a tailwind, adding £1.5bn to AUM. But our key takeaway from Tatton’s hugely impressive last few years, is that it has designed and implemented a superior offering in platform-MPS with net flows consistently far higher than peers. That leadership looks even more pronounced in H2-24 with net

abrdn Private Equity Opportunities – On the way to greener pastures?

Despite navigating through what its managers considered to be challenging conditions in 2023, abrdn Private Equity Opportunities (APEO) was able to report both positive NAV growth and double-digit share price returns in its recently published annual results. APEO’s discount has narrowed by more than 10% in recent months, so that it is trading on a 28.9% discount currently, narrowing from about 45% last October. These figures were generated over a period that saw a slowdown in activity in Europea

NextEnergy Solar Fund – High- and growing-income opportunity?

NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) is almost 10 years old. Since launch, it has built a £1.2bn, 933MW portfolio of 100 operating solar assets, powering the equivalent of over 330,000 homes, declared dividends totalling £333m, and avoided the emission of about 2.2 Mt CO2e. NESF is on track to pay 8.35p in dividends, with forecast dividend cover of about 1.3x. Share price weakness that has afflicted the whole sector means that dividend translates to a yield of 11.1%, one of the highest in its sector, a

Agronomics - A unique offering in a rapidly developing sector

Agronomics (ANIC) invests in cellular agriculture companies. Since mid-2022 it has placed increasing emphasis on companies using precision fermentation technology or providing contract precision fermentation services, as these appear to have greater near-term commercial potential than cultivated meat and seafood. Agronomics’ NAV has risen almost 100% since the inception of the current strategy in April 2019, and looks set to increase further as the company’s portfolio holdings receive regulatory

Strong H1'23 results; forecasts upgraded