BlackRock North American Income Trust plc (LON:BRNA) has announced its latest portfolio update.
All information is at 28 February 2021 and unaudited.
Discover more about this Trust at blackrock.com/uk/brna
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| One Month | Three Months | Six Months | One Year | Three Years | Five Years | |
| Net asset value | 3.6% | 3.2% | 11.9% | 10.3% | 22.2% | 73.0% |
| Share price | 3.2% | 3.8% | 12.0% | 7.1% | 20.2% | 71.8% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | 4.2% | 4.2% | 14.1% | 11.7% | 24.9% | 75.8% |
At month end
| Net asset value – capital only: | 178.12p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 179.44p |
| Share price: | 168.75p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 6.0% |
| Net yield1: | 4.7% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £143.2m |
| Gearing: | Nil |
| Options overwrite | 17.7% |
| Ordinary shares in issue2: | 79,784,044 |
| Ongoing charges3: | 1.1% |
1 Based on four quarterly interim dividends of 2.00p per share declared on 20 March 2020, 5 May 2020, 6 August 2020 and 4 November 2020 for the year ended 31 October 2020, and based on the share price as at close of business on 28 February 2021.
² Excluding 20,577,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.
³ 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 2020.
| Sector Analysis | Total Assets* (%) |
| Financials | 27.1 |
| Health Care | 16.3 |
| Information Technology | 11.1 |
| Energy | 7.7 |
| Consumer Staples | 7.5 |
| Industrials | 7.0 |
| Communication Services | 6.0 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 5.1 |
| Utilities | 3.8 |
| Materials | 1.8 |
| Net Current Assets | 6.6 |
| —– | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets* (%) |
| United States | 74.8 |
| United Kingdom | 4.2 |
| Germany | 3.9 |
| Netherlands | 3.9 |
| France | 2.7 |
| Ireland | 1.8 |
| Switzerland | 0.9 |
| Norway | 0.8 |
| Canada | 0.4 |
| Net Current Assets | 6.6 |
| —– | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Top 10 Holdings | Country | % Total Assets* |
| Citigroup | United States | 3.5 |
| Wells Fargo | United States | 3.2 |
| American International Group | United States | 2.7 |
| Verizon Communications | United States | 2.7 |
| Bank of America | United States | 2.4 |
| Cisco Systems | United States | 2.3 |
| Anthem | United States | 2.1 |
| BAE Systems | United Kingdom | 2.1 |
| General Motors | United States | 2.1 |
| Comcast Corporation | United States | 2.1 |
*These percentages reflect portfolio exposure gained from both the equity holdings and options where relevant.
Discover more about the BlackRock North American Income Trust plc at blackrock.com/uk/brna
Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one-month period ended 28 February 2021, the Company’s NAV increased by 3.6% and the share price by 3.2% (all in sterling). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned 4.2% for the period.
The largest contributor to relative performance was stock selection and allocation decisions in the financials sector. Notably, stock selection among capital markets firms and stock selection and an overweight exposure to insurance firms proved beneficial. In utilities, underweight exposure to the electric utilities industry boosted relative performance. Overweight exposure to the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry within energy also helped relative results. Finally, stock selection in health care contributed to relative performance.
The largest detractor from relative performance was stock selection in information technology (IT). More specifically, selection decisions among IT services and technology hardware and storage and peripheral firms detracted from relative returns. In communication services, a lack of exposure to the interactive media and services and entertainment industries detracted from relative results. Stock selection and allocation decisions in consumer discretionary, most notably an underweight exposure to hotels, restaurants and leisure proved costly during the month. Other notable detractors included underweight exposure to industrials and stock selection in materials.
The portfolio’s option overwriting strategy detracted from relative performance during the month.
Transactions/Options
Transactions: In February, the portfolio initiated new positions in Capital One Financial, Raytheon Technologies and Lear Corp. Allocations to Danone SA and Fox were also increased during the month. Conversely, we exited our positions in Nestlé SA and CME Group and reduced our exposure to Bank of America and Samsung Electronics.
Options: As of 28 February 2021, the Company’s options exposure was 17.7% and the delta of the options was 86.4.
Positioning
As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the financials, health care and energy sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the industrials, real estate and communication services sectors.
Source: BlackRock. Data as of 28 February 2021.
17 March 2021
Discover more about the BlackRock North American Income Trust plc at blackrock.com/uk/brna
Latest information is available by typing blackrock.com/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.
