25 Apr 2017 16:28
BlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio UpdateBlackRock North American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
London, April 25
BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)All information is at 31 March 2017 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| One Month | Three Months | Six Months | One Year | Three Years | Since Launch* | |
| Net asset value | -1.0% | 1.9% | 16.0% | 36.7% | 68.5% | 101.8% |
| Share price | -2.6% | -5.2% | 11.2% | 36.8% | 64.4% | 85.6% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | -1.5% | 2.0% | 14.4% | 37.0% | 71.1% | 128.0% |
Source: BlackRock
*Launched on 24 October 2012.
| At month end | |
| Net asset value – capital only: | 170.41p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 171.33p |
| Share price: | 159.50p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 6.9% |
| Net yield*: | 3.0% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £118.1m |
| Gearing: | Nil |
| Options overwrite: | 16.67% |
| Ordinary shares in issue**: | 68,949,044 |
| Ongoing charges***: | 1.04% |
*Based on dividends of 1.20p per share declared on 21 February 2017, 3 November 2016, 3 August 2016 and 4 May 2016.
** Excluding 31,412,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.
*** 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 2016.
| Benchmark | |
| Sector Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| Financials | 27.0 |
| Health Care | 14.3 |
| Industrials | 10.8 |
| Energy | 10.6 |
| Information Technology | 9.6 |
| Consumer Staples | 6.5 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 5.4 |
| Utilities | 5.0 |
| Materials | 3.6 |
| Telecommunication Services | 2.1 |
| Net current assets | 5.1 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| USA | 84.5 |
| United Kingdom | 2.8 |
| Canada | 2.2 |
| France | 2.2 |
| Netherlands | 2.1 |
| Ireland | 0.7 |
| China | 0.4 |
| Net current assets | 5.1 |
| ----- | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== | |
| Ten Largest Investments | ||
| Company | Country of Risk | Total Assets (%) |
| JP Morgan Chase | USA | 4.4 |
| Bank of America | USA | 4.2 |
| Pfizer | USA | 3.7 |
| Citigroup | USA | 3.2 |
| Wells Fargo | USA | 2.9 |
| Dow Chemical | USA | 2.7 |
| General Electric | USA | 2.5 |
| Oracle | USA | 2.5 |
| Microsoft | USA | 2.4 |
| Anthem | USA | 2.2 |
Bob Shearer and Tony DeSpirito, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
Performance
For the month of March, the Company’s NAV decreased by 1.0% while the share price fell by 2.6% (all in sterling). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned -1.5% for the period.
The largest contributor to relative performance during the month was stock selection in the information technology sector. Notably, selection decisions in the software and technology hardware, storage & peripherals industries proved to be beneficial. Stock selection in health care also added to relative returns, led by portfolio holdings in the pharmaceuticals and health care providers & services industries. Lastly, stock selection in the industrials and materials sectors also added to relative returns during the month.
The largest detractor from relative performance was stock selection in the financials sector. Notably, our overweight positions in Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corporation proved to be costly. Other modest detractors included stock selection in the utilities, consumer staples and energy sectors during the period.
Transactions/Options
Transactions: Notable portfolio transactions during the month included exiting our positions in Intel Corporation, CMS Energy Corporation, Raytheon Company and Pioneer Natural Resources Company. Proceeds from these trades were used to initiate a position in Constellation Software Inc. and to increase our exposure to portfolio holdings PG&E Corporation, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited and The Dow Chemical Company.
Options: As of 31 March 2017, the Company’s options exposure was 16.67% and the delta of the options was 88.39%.
Positioning
As at the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the health care, consumer discretionary, materials and industrials sectors. The Company was approximately equal-weight in the financials sector, and was underweight to the real estate, consumer staples, energy, telecommunication services, utilities and information technology sectors.
25 April 2017
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.
BRNA.L (BRNA)