Investment trust managers' top stocks
7th May 2015 09:22
Ahead of potential market volatility and buying opportunities for managers in the wake of the general election results, the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has drilled down into the portfolios of member investment trusts to see which are the most widely held companies.
Unsurprisingly,
companies dominate the list. The five top slots are filled by the five largest corporations in the index - (held by 52 trusts), (44), (41), (40) and (40) - though Shell is actually larger than HSBC in terms of market capitalisation."Dividend players dominate the top 10 companies held by UK investment companies, with banks, oil and gas and pharmaceuticals prominent," says Annabel Brodie-Smith, AIC communications director.
However, some of the UK's biggest businesses are notable by their absence from the upper reaches of the AIC list.
, ranked seventh by size, is joint 17th by popularity, with a place in 22 investment trusts - probably a reflection of its failure to pay dividends since it was bailed out by the taxpayer in 2008. Ninth-placed does not figure in the AIC ranking at all.Conversely, several other companies with a presence in many trust portfolios are actually much smaller in size, being FTSE 250 rather than FTSE 100 members. They include non-standard credit lender
(13th in the list, held by 26 trusts), (16th, held by 23) and Senior (19th, held by 18).The AIC also identified the trusts with the largest holding in each company, revealing the substantial weightings of some trusts to specific holdings.
Perhaps most notable is the fact that
is the investment trust with the single largest holding in each of the top four most popular companies. In total, these four comprise almost a third of the trust's portfolio.Temple Bar, a Money Observer Rated Fund, has an excellent long-term record but has produced fourth-quartile returns over the past one and three years.
The table also highlights a distinctive high-conviction approach from Money Observer Rated Fund
, with some meaty allocations including a 9% holding in , an 8% commitment to , 8.5% to , and almost 7% to ."It's interesting when researching potential investment companies to take a look at the top holdings, and this information is available on the AIC's website on the company profile pages," adds Brodie-Smith.
Rank | Company | No. of investment cos holding these shares | Investment co with largest exposure (% portfolio) |
1 | HSBC | 52 | Temple Bar (9.47) |
2 | Royal Dutch Shell | 44 | Temple Bar (8.93) |
3 | GlaxoSmithKline | 41 | Temple Bar (7.14) |
4 | BP | 40 | Temple Bar (6.04) |
4 | British American Tobacco | 40 | BlackRock Income & Growth (5.95) |
5 | AstraZeneca | 36 | Manchester & London (7.22) |
6 | Vodafone | 35 | Schroder Income & Growth (4.30) |
7 | BHP Billiton | 33 | Murray Income (3.72) |
7 | Legal & General | 33 | Schroder Income & Growth (4.21) |
7 | Unilever | 33 | Finsbury Income & Growth (9.04) |
8 | BT | 31 | Edinburgh Investment (5.38) |
9 | Imperial Tobacco | 30 | Edinburgh Investment (5.70) |
10 | Centrica | 29 | Dunedin Income Growth (3.24) |
11 | Rio Tinto | 28 | BlackRock Income & Growth (4.24) |
11 | BG Group | 28 | Manchester & London (5.37) |
12 | BAE Systems | 27 | Edinburgh Investment (4.9) |
12 | Barclays | 27 | Schroder UK Growth (4.74) |
12 | Prudential | 27 | British & American (6.54) |
13 | Provident Financial | 26 | Jupiter European Opportunities (9.09) |
14 | Aviva | 25 | City Merchants High Yield (2.64) |
15 | Rolls-Royce | 24 | Edinburgh Investment (2.67) |
15 | Standard Chartered | 24 | Shires Income (3.79) |
15 | Compass Group | 24 | BlackRock Income & Growth (2.78) |
16 | Berendsen | 23 | Dunedin Smaller Companies (3.06) |
16 | National Grid | 23 | Invesco Income Growth (3.07) |
17 | Sage | 22 | Finsbury Income & Growth (6.17) |
17 | Friends Life | 22 | BlackRock Income & Growth (3.53) |
17 | Reed Elsevier | 22 | Finsbury Income & Growth (8.02) |
17 | Lloyds Banking Group | 22 | Fidelity Special Values (3.15) |
18 | Diageo | 21 | Fidelity Growth & Income (8.45) |
19 | Amlin | 20 | Independent Investment Trust (3.82) |
19 | Lloyds TSB | 20 | Invesco Perpetual Enhanced Inc (3.07) |
20 | Pearson | 18 | Finsbury Income & Growth (6.79) |
20 | Senior | 18 | Lowland (3.98) |
20 | Tesco | 18 | Dunedin Income Growth (1.86) |
This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.
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