Murray Income Trust - Delivering income and capital growth

Murray Income Trust (MUT) invests in high-quality, mainly UK-listed stocks. It has achieved both its dividend and capital growth objectives over the long term. The trust boasts 50 years of continually rising dividends. It paid a dividend of 37.5p per share in FY23 (ended 30 June 2023 (FY22: 36.0p)), and the board has indicated the dividend will rise to at least 38.0p in FY24. This represents a prospective yield of 4.5%. Late last year the company decided to take action to allow shareholders to a

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We reveal the winners of our investment trust ratings for 2024... Our ratings seek to reward closed-ended funds which deliver attractive and persistent performance characteristics in three categories which we think match up to broad goals investors usually have: long-term growth, income and growth, and high current income. This includes strong performance versus a fund’s underlying market, as well as attractive risk characteristics which we think suggests they could continue to be premium optio

Murray Income Trust - In a celebratory mood

Murray Income Trust (MUT) is currently celebrating two key milestones. This year marks its 100-year anniversary, and 50 years of consistently rising dividends. MUT’s FY23 dividend of 37.5p (up from 36.0p in FY22) represents a current yield of 4.7% and MUT’s board has stated that maintaining the trust’s record of annually increasing dividends remains a priority. Performance has improved after a rare bout of underperformance last year. In the year ended September 2023, MUT returned 14.5%, in line

Murray Income Trust - Milestones marked by a return to form

Murray Income Trust (MUT) marks its 100-year anniversary this year. It invests mainly in UK equities and aims to provide capital growth and a high and growing income. The trust continues to meet these three objectives. Recent absolute and relative performance has improved after a rare bout of underperformance last year, as the merits of MUT’s high-quality portfolio holdings reassert themselves. In the six months to end April 2023, the trust returned 15.8% on an NAV basis, versus a market return

Murray Income Trust - Attractive income at a discount

Murray Income Trust (MUT) invests mainly in UK equities and aims to provide a high and growing income, combined with capital growth. The trust is meeting these three objectives. The FY23 dividend is expected to be at least 36.5p, putting it on track to deliver its 50th consecutive year of dividend growth. This represents a prospective yield of 4.4%. MUT has underperformed during this year’s market rotation away from the quality companies favoured by manager Charles Luke. However, the trust has s

Murray Income Trust - Attractive income and long-term outperformance

Murray Income Trust (MUT) invests mainly in UK equities and aims to provide a high and growing income, combined with capital growth. Its quality bias has resulted in underperformance during the recent rotation away from the quality and growth stocks favoured by manager, Charles Luke. However, the trust’s long-term track record of outperformance of the market and its peers confirms that Luke’s approach pays off over time. Over the ten years to end March 2022, MUT has generated an average annualis

Murray Income Trust - A happy anniversary for shareholders

Murray Income Trust (MUT) has just marked the first anniversary of its merger with Perpetual Income & Growth Investment Trust (PLI). This merger doubled the trust’s assets under management, improved the liquidity of its shares and delivered a significant reduction in its already competitive fee. MUT invests mainly in UK equities and aims to provide a high and growing income, combined with capital growth. Its quality bias ensured that its revenues proved very resilient during the pandemic, despit

Murray Income - Overview

Murray Income Trust (MUT), managed by Charles Luke and Iain Pyle at abrdn, looks to invest across a broad range of companies to achieve a high and growing income combined with capital growth. The trust is conservatively managed, so Charles and Iain aim to have a sensibly diversified portfolio. They ensure that the portfolio is not overly exposed to one economic scenario and therefore like to invest in a broad range of companies. Capital and income exposure to any one company is capped at around

Redde

Proposed share-for-share merger with Northgate

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

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.

PCI Pal - +25% FY23 revenue growth, FY24 growth of +28% reiterated

PCI Pal’s FY23 results show revenue growth of +25% to £14.9m, gross profit growth of +31% to £13.1m at a margin of 88%, and an outlook confirming robust momentum in H1 24. The FY23 results are as expected following the August trading update, and FY23 Total Annual Contract Value (TACV) is +23% yoy to £16.4m, with ARR +14% yoy to £12.6m due to £3.1m of contracts in deployment. We expect ARR will increase +35% and +31% to £17.0m and £22.2m in FY24 and FY25, as management lands and expands following

Foresight Solar Fund - Optimising capital allocation

Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL) celebrated its 10-year anniversary of listing on the London Stock Exchange with decade-high cash distributions from assets of £120.4m in its FY23 results (year end 31 December). FY23 also saw FSFL’s divestment programme come to fruition with the sale of a 50% stake in its Spanish Lorca portfolio at a 21% premium to its holding value. The proceeds of this divestment, along with free cash, were used to pay down the fund’s variable rate debt via its revolving credit faci

Tetragon Financial Group - FY23 growth driven by idiosyncratic factors

Tetragon Financial Group (Tetragon) posted a 6.4% net asset value (NAV) per share total return (TR) in US dollar terms in FY23. Tetragon’s returns normally have a low correlation with broader markets, and therefore its FY23 performance was below the 26.3% return of the S&P 500 Index, which rallied on the artificial intelligence (AI) theme. Tetragon’s FY23 return on equity (RoE) of 5.5% was below its target of 10–15% pa. That said, its performance since listing was within the target range at 11.3

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

Zeus Top Picks for 2024 - 2023 review and outlook for 2024

On 9 January last year, we set out our ten top stock picks for 2023, for what turned out to be another relatively poor twelve months for UK equities due to two wars, stubbornly high inflation and further tightening of monetary policy. This was even as other major markets, such as the US, largely recovered in the year. In the 2023 calendar year, the AIM All-Share index fell 8.2% and is still 42% off its 2021 high. From the release of our 2023 top picks note, the average total return (assuming div

Vector Capital - Full year results illustrate challenging backdrop; dividend maintained

Vector Capital is an established commercial lending group, focused on secured short-term and bridging loans in the property sector. This morning, the group has reported full year results to 31 December 2023, illustrating the challenging market backdrop. While underlying trading was robust, with good demand being seen for new loans, provisions for bad debts relating to historical loans of £728k in the year led to a decrease in PBT to £2.1m (WHI est. £2.4m, FY22 £2.8m). Looking ahead, although VCA

Strong H1'23 results; forecasts upgraded