BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust plc (LON:BRSA) has announced its latest portfolio update.
All information is at 31 January 2023 and unaudited.
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Performance at month end with net income reinvested
| One Month | Three Months | Six Months | One Year | Three Years | Five Years | |
| Net asset value | 4.3% | 2.5% | 2.8% | 6.7% | 34.8% | 56.5% |
| Share price | 3.6% | 2.8% | 0.0% | 5.8% | 21.8% | 52.7% |
| Russell 1000 Value Index | 2.8% | 0.3% | 3.5% | 8.5% | 36.9% | 61.5% |
At month end
| Net asset value – capital only: | 215.72p |
| Net asset value – cum income: | 216.46p |
| Share price: | 201.00p |
| Discount to cum income NAV: | 7.1% |
| Net yield1: | 4.0% |
| Total assets including current year revenue: | £173.7m |
| Gearing: | 2.2% |
| Ordinary shares in issue2: | 80,229,044 |
| Ongoing charges3: | 1.0% |
1 Based on four quarterly dividends of 2.00p per share declared on 22 March 2022, 11 May 2022, 4 August 2022 and 2 November 2022 for the year ended 31 October 2022 and based on the share price as at close of business on 31 January 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 | 22.5 |
| Health Care | 19.1 |
| Information Technology | 14.2 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 9.6 |
| Energy | 7.9 |
| Industrials | 6.2 |
| Consumer Staples | 6.0 |
| Communication Services | 5.2 |
| Materials | 4.3 |
| Utilities | 4.0 |
| Real Estate | 1.4 |
| Net Current Liabilities | -0.4 |
| —– | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Country Analysis | Total Assets (%) |
| United States | 81.7 |
| United Kingdom | 8.0 |
| Japan | 3.7 |
| France | 2.8 |
| Australia | 2.0 |
| Canada | 1.2 |
| Denmark | 1.0 |
| Net Current Liabilities | -0.4 |
| —– | |
| 100.0 | |
| ===== |
| Top 10 Holdings | Country | % Total Assets |
| Verizon Communications | United States | 3.1 |
| Willis Towers Watson | United States | 3.0 |
| Laboratory Corporation of America | United States | 2.9 |
| Sanofi | France | 2.9 |
| Cognizant Technology Solutions | United States | 2.7 |
| Wells Fargo | United States | 2.6 |
| Citigroup | United States | 2.6 |
| American International | United States | 2.6 |
| Cisco Systems | United States | 2.5 |
| Cigna | United States | 2.5 |
Tony DeSpirito, David Zhao and Lisa Yang, representing the Investment Manager, noted:
For the one-month period ended 31 January 2023, the Company’s NAV increased by 4.3% and the share price by 3.6% (all in sterling). The Company’s reference index, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned 2.8% for the period.
The largest contributor to relative performance was due to investment decisions within the information technology sector; most notably selection decisions in the technology hardware, storage and peripherals industry proved to be beneficial to relative performance. Our overweight allocation and positive stock selection in the consumer discretionary sector also boosted relative results, mainly due to our allocation decisions in household durables. Another notable contributor during the period included our stock selection in financials.
The largest detractor from relative performance was due to investment decisions in the communication services sector, as the decision to not invest in interactive media proved costly. Our allocation decision to be underweight real estate also weighed on relative performance, specifically the decision to not invest in REITs. Another modest detractor for the period included selection decisions in the materials sector.
Transactions
During the month the Company initiated a number of trades, the largest buys being in Mondelez International and Gildan Activewear. The two sales during the period included Pepsico and Humana.
Positioning
As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the reference index were in the information technology, consumer discretionary and health care sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the reference index were in the industrials, real estate and consumer staples sectors.
Source: BlackRock.
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