BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust plc (LON:BRSA) has announced its latest portfolio update.
All information is at 30 September 2023 and unaudited.
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Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| OneMonth | ThreeMonths | SixMonths | OneYear | ThreeYears | Five Years | |
| Net asset value | 0.7 | -0.1 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 38.2 | 35.4 |
| Share price | 0.4 | -0.5 | 1.6 | -1.1 | 38.3 | 27.4 |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | -0.2 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 4.7 | 45.1 | 44.5 |
At month end
| Net asset value – capital only: | 197.89p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 198.52p |
| Share price: | 183.00p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 7.8% |
| Net yield1: | 4.4% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £159.3m |
| Net cash: | 0.3% |
| Ordinary shares in issue2: | 80,229,044 |
| Ongoing charges3: | 1.01% |
1 Based on one quarterly dividend of 2.00p per share declared on 2 November 2022 for the year ended 31 October 2022 and three quarterly dividends of 2.00p per share declared on 22 March 2023, 11 May 2023 and 3 August 2023 for the year ending 31 October 2023 and based on the share price as at close of business on 30 September 2023.
² Excluding 20,132,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.
³ The Company’s ongoing charges calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding finance costs, direct transaction costs, custody transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain non-recurring items for the year ended 31 October 2022.
| Sector Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| Financials | 19.3 |
| Health Care | 18.8 |
| Information Technology | 14.3 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 10.6 |
| Energy | 9.2 |
| Industrials | 8.5 |
| Consumer Staples | 6.4 |
| Communication Services | 4.0 |
| Utilities | 3.7 |
| Materials | 3.7 |
| Real Estate | 1.2 |
| Net Current Assets | 0.3 |
| —– | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| United States | 85.5 |
| United Kingdom | 4.7 |
| Japan | 3.6 |
| France | 2.2 |
| Australia | 1.8 |
| Canada | 1.3 |
| Denmark | 0.6 |
| Net Current Assets | 0.3 |
| —– | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Top 10 Holdings | Country | % Total Assets |
| Shell | United Kingdom | 3.1 |
| Cisco Systems | United States | 2.9 |
| Citigroup | United States | 2.7 |
| American International | United States | 2.7 |
| Kraft Heinz | United States | 2.6 |
| Willis Towers Watson | United States | 2.6 |
| Cigna | United States | 2.6 |
| L3Harris Technologies | United States | 2.5 |
| Cognizant Technology Solutions | United States | 2.5 |
| Cardinal Health | United States | 2.4 |
Tony DeSpirito, David Zhao and Lisa Yang, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one-month period ended 30 September 2023, the Company’s NAV increased by 0.7% and the share price by 0.4% (all in sterling). The Company’s reference index, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned -0.2% for the period.
The largest contributor to relative performance, stemmed from stock selection in health care, particularly in life sciences tools and services. Selection decisions in financials also boosted relative performance, with stock selection in banks proving beneficial. Other modest contributors during the period at the sector level included underweight allocations to real estate and industrials.
The largest detractor from relative performance stemmed from selection decisions in consumer staples, notably stock selection in consumer staples distribution and retail weighed on the relative performance. Stock selection in communication services, with selection decisions in the diversified telecom services industry, also proved costly. Other modest detractors during the period included stock selection in materials and utilities.
Transactions
During the month, the Company purchased Nextera Energy and CNH Industrials. The Company exited its position in Astrazeneca.
Positioning
As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the reference index were in the consumer discretionary, health care and information technology sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the reference index were in the industrials, real estate and utilities sectors.
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