High Yield Investment Trusts - AIC Sector and Yield table (December 2019)

[Itsallaguess]

I've been keeping some powder dry whilst the recent UK General Election has been going through, but now that's been sorted out I'm now looking to invest some of my held-back capital into a couple of high-yield Investment Trusts.

Nowadays, my initial starting point for these types of investigations is the brilliant AIC website, which holds lots of useful metrics for a whole host of Investment Trusts, and so below is a table of IT's in December 2019 with a yield higher than 2.5%, and listed with the tabular data broken down by AIC Sector, and then ranked in descending order of yield per sector.

For anyone wishing to replicate this type of dataset, there's some instructions at the bottom of this post on how to do that.





I've dip-checked the above data, but please do note that it should be used only as a starting-point for further investigation, and it should certainly be the case that you should carry out your own due-diligence on any data that you may use for any subsequent investment decisions that you might wish to make.

A good source to cross-check some of the above data, if anything does look interesting or even suspicious, is the TrustNet website, which also gives yield and discount information for these types of investments - https://www.trustnet.com/

The above data can be re-generated by using the link below to the really useful AIC website -

https://tinyurl.com/yawfc9zy

Here are some instructions to be able to generate up-to-date yield-data in the future, using the above excellent website -

1. Open the AIC website (https://tinyurl.com/yawfc9zy)

2. Select the 'AIC Sector Selection' button, and deselect all 'AIC VCT Sectors'

3. Also in the 'AIC Sector Selection' section, deselect the tick-boxes for 'Include AIC sector weighted averages' and also 'Include industry averages'

4. Select the 'Filters' button, and then set the 'Dividend Yield' option to '2.5%+'

5. You should now have an up-to-date yield table similar to the above, broken down by AIC Sectors.

6. If you want to import that data into a spreadsheet, to perhaps then rank by yield or similar, then you should enable the option to view the data in 'Print Mode' by selecting the 'Save / Print' option, and then selecting the 'Enable Print Mode' button - the data will then be represented on-screen in a way that can be selected and copied into a spreadsheet.

• Please do note that if you don't select the 'Enable Print Mode' option, and you try to copy the data into a spreadsheet, then it's likely to only copy some of the data...

If anyone is interested in looking at any of the underlying investments behind any of the above income IT's, then the following post will help with some instructions on how to do that -

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15549&p=191407#p191455

Link to August 2019 data - https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19097

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Dod101]

I've been keeping some powder dry whilst the recent UK General Election has been going through, but now that's been sorted out I'm now looking to invest some of my held-back capital into a couple of high-yield Investment Trusts.

Nowadays, my initial starting point for these types of investigations is the brilliant AIC website, which holds lots of useful metrics for a whole host of Investment Trusts, and so below is a table of IT's in December 2019 with a yield higher than 2.5%, and listed with the tabular data broken down by AIC Sector, and then ranked in descending order of yield per sector -

Two things standout here. One is that you are now proposing to buy after prices have risen and the other is that I am surprised that you would be setting the yield so low as 2.5%. A high yield investment trust to me would be one with a dividend yield of at least 4% and maybe higher. That would surely reduce the field a bit. Or was the table posted simply intended to be an illustration?

Dod

[Itsallaguess]

I've been keeping some powder dry whilst the recent UK General Election has been going through, but now that's been sorted out I'm now looking to invest some of my held-back capital into a couple of high-yield Investment Trusts.

Nowadays, my initial starting point for these types of investigations is the brilliant AIC website, which holds lots of useful metrics for a whole host of Investment Trusts, and so below is a table of IT's in December 2019 with a yield higher than 2.5%, and listed with the tabular data broken down by AIC Sector, and then ranked in descending order of yield per sector -

Two things standout here.

One is that you are now proposing to buy after prices have risen and the other is that I am surprised that you would be setting the yield so low as 2.5%.

A high yield investment trust to me would be one with a dividend yield of at least 4% and maybe higher. That would surely reduce the field a bit. Or was the table posted simply intended to be an illustration?

Hi Dod,

Over the years I've developed an income-investment strategy that in some areas is specifically tailored to suit my own sensibilities, and one of those areas is related to methods that enable me to really quite easily stay 'fully invested' with my already-invested holdings, whilst also allowing myself to 'hedge my bets' somewhat with accumulating dividend-cash and also any additional capital that I may have available from my working wages.

What that means in practice is that I tend to keep a baseline level of accumulated cash available, and also perhaps play tunes with that level depending on my own thoughts and concerns regarding market sentiments, and in this particular case it was the UK General Election outcome that was causing me the most concern.

I appreciate that by potentially investing some of that accumulated cash now, I may have missed some degree of the market rises that we've seen since the election itself, but I'm really quite happy with that, given that my much larger existing holdings have benefited from that rise, and I don't have any issues at all with now looking to invest some of the cash that I've been holding back, even into that slightly higher market.

If the market now represents a more confident landscape, which we might take as a fair view of the situation since the election, then that's exactly the 'message' I was looking to see before I released some of those held-back funds...

It's a strategy that works very well indeed for me personally, and that's the key element here - strict performance criteria are a second-order issue for me, with the main driver being my 'comfort level' as an investor, and as we all know, 'comfort' often comes at a cost, and it's one that I'm really quite willing to pay if it helps to deliver an overall strategy that works for me over the long term...

As to your second point regarding the table going down to a 2.5% yield - you're quite right to highlight this, but it's really a minor limitation of the AIC website more than anything else, as the AIC selection-filter for the lower yield is only able to be set at 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, or 10%, and so I'm left with the decision to include lower yields that can be safely ignored if they're not palatable, or to set the filter higher to 5%, and potentially miss out on useful yields in the 4% area...

So it's a trade-off really, and hopefully the lower 2.5% yield option that I've picked is the one that is the most useful, given that it then includes what are often quite interesting 4% yields...

I should also add that this is exactly why I've always included step-by-step instructions on how people can replicate the AIC yield-data themselves, so if they then want to vary the filter criteria they are most welcome to do so...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[richfool]

I added TMPL (Temple Bar) immediately after the GE result, so whilst I lost some of the initial rise, I've been participating since then and anticipate that TMPL's holdings are "in tune" with what the market likes. The rest of my portfolio has been doing nicely, particularly the UK which includes: MUT, TIGT & Shires.

[Dod101]

Thanks IAAG for taking the trouble to explain your thinking. Not sure what I would have done in your circumstance but probably not very much different. For my part I repositioned my portfolio over the last year, against Comrade Corbyn by getting out of all utilities except for National Grid. It seems to have done fairly well since. I spread the proceeds around my other holdings. I remained fully invested.

Seems that the filter tools built in to the AIC site put us in a strait jacket. As you say/imply, 2.5% is really too low to be meaningful and yet 5% is high for an investment trust, although it would be interesting to see what it throws up. Like you, I prefer my ITs in the 4% range, although I hold a number much below that.

As richfool says, Temple Bar has at last done quite well on the capital front and has always been a decent yielder. I see your table tells us that the current yield is around 3.6%. Good enough for me. I am more interested in the rather contrarian stance that Alistair Mundy takes than in the actual numbers. I have held it for some years.

Dod

[jackdaww]

this year my portfolio is tilting much more towards IT's , which i find easier to research.

i still lean towards higher yielders , and also smaller companies.

they are also very handy for overseas and emerging markets.

so far i have - with approximate yields ----

HEFL 6%

MRCH 5%

LWI 4%

CTY

JPS

MYI

MUT

MTU

LWDB 3%

BRSC 2% or less - smaller

ASCI

HSL

SMT global and emerging

WWH

TEM

BGS


apologies for the ticker codes , i just find them a lot easier than some of the long winded IT names.

so far..

[richfool]

this year my portfolio is tilting much more towards IT's , which i find easier to research.

i still lean towards higher yielders , and also smaller companies.

they are also very handy for overseas and emerging markets.

so far i have - with approximate yields ----

Noting your interest in smaller coys reminded me that I forgot to mention my best performers in capital appreciation terms: SLS (Standard Life Smaller Coys) and MRC (Mercantile - mid caps), though not in the high yield sector.

Asian Pacific trusts are doing well in terms of dividend yield, (e.g. HFEL & JAI) as is MCT (Middlefield Canadian Inc trust) and UK REIT's.

[jackdaww]

looking at the top ten holdings of nearly 60 widely mentioned UK IT's , it is notable that NONE i have seen carry ANY utilities (except national grid) , nor do they hold BT or VODAFONE .

these IT managers are at odds with many popular high yield portfolios seen on TLF.

[tjh290633]

That means that those shares are not in their top 10. It does not mean that they do not hold them. Have a look at the lists of complete portfolios.

Utilities and telecoms have both been depressed of late, so this is not surprising.

TJH

[richfool]

looking at the top ten holdings of nearly 60 widely mentioned UK IT's , it is notable that NONE i have seen carry ANY utilities (except national grid) , nor do they hold BT or VODAFONE .

these IT managers are at odds with many popular high yield portfolios seen on TLF.

MUT (Murray Income Trust) holds NG in it's top ten holdings (9th out of top 20 holdings on the 31st October factsheet, accessed through HL facsheet):

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-sear ... 25p-shares

If it is of any interest, there is an IT - EGL (Ecofin Global Utilities & Infrastructure) - which holds utilities and has been performing well.

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-sear ... ructure-1p

https://citywire.co.uk/funds_insider/in ... undID=3949

https://citywire.co.uk/funds_insider/in ... ePeriod=12

[Gersemi]

looking at the top ten holdings of nearly 60 widely mentioned UK IT's , it is notable that NONE i have seen carry ANY utilities (except national grid) , nor do they hold BT or VODAFONE .

these IT managers are at odds with many popular high yield portfolios seen on TLF.

I've just checked my holdings - although I hold all these none of them are in the top ten holdings. As has been mentioned this is because the prices are depressed (though they seem to have had an uptick in the last couple of weeks . . .)

[77ss]

looking at the top ten holdings of nearly 60 widely mentioned UK IT's , it is notable that NONE i have seen carry ANY utilities (except national grid) , nor do they hold BT or VODAFONE .

these IT managers are at odds with many popular high yield portfolios seen on TLF.

And what does this tell you? If anything?

As it happens, my utilities have done pretty well this year. Indeed, Pennon, up 49%, is my second best performer - only behind Halma.