High Yield Investment Trusts - AIC Sector and Yield table (October 2021)

[77ss]

Many thanks, 77ss. I must confess I hadn't heard of AIC before I spotted this thread. Could you please give me a link to the list which contains those figures. I Googled AIC but couldn't find the total return list and am very short of time. Some of the names you mentioned were on my list of ITs to have a look at when I can find the time but I should like to see what others have done as well, though as we are told the past is no guide to the future. Without a crystal ball, however, it's all I have to go on.

monabri has already given a link, but it will bear repetition and a bit of elaboration.

https://www.theaic.co.uk/ is an invaluable source of information about ITs and worth spending a bit of time on. To get the kind of data I showed:

Use the link, do whatever you want with the cookie message then, on the top bar click on Screener.

A bit of patience and scroll down to Review and Analyse Your Search Results

Under that heading click on Price Performance this will give you an alphabetically sorted list.

Click on the heading that interests you (such as one of the Price total return columns and you will get a numerically sorted list in inverse order - click again to get the best at the top!

Hours of fun await you - and you can export the data if you wish to.

As you say, the past is no guide etc, but I hold 4 of the top 10 (ATT, PHI, EWI and THRG - I missed out on SMT) and have no complaints at all. Touch wood!

[Bouleversee]

Many thanks to both. I'll have another go tomorrow. Not really my idea of fun but needs must etc. Never too late to buy SMT as it has its dips from time to time, though it remains to be seen whether the new team will be as successful. I hope SMT has a large holding in Microsoft.

[monabri]

Many thanks to both. I'll have another go tomorrow. Not really my idea of fun but needs must etc. Never too late to buy SMT as it has its dips from time to time, though it remains to be seen whether the new team will be as successful. I hope SMT has a large holding in Microsoft.

SMT & Microsoft.....no holding as on 31 March 21 ( Annual Report).

(Does Lemon "DavidM13" have involvement with the AIC....possibly even working for them? ).

[DavidM13]

Many thanks to both. I'll have another go tomorrow. Not really my idea of fun but needs must etc. Never too late to buy SMT as it has its dips from time to time, though it remains to be seen whether the new team will be as successful. I hope SMT has a large holding in Microsoft.

SMT & Microsoft.....no holding as on 31 March 21 ( Annual Report).

(Does Lemon "DavidM13" have involvement with the AIC....possibly even working for them? ).

And also no Microsoft holding on 31/07/2021 according to Morningstar full holdings data.

Yes, indeed I do. I run the website so always happy to hear any comments or suggestions. I cannot promise to implement them all but I can promise they are all taken on board and considered for feasibility and appropriateness. Folk are able to use the "have a question" button or contact me via PM on here.

[DavidM13]

What does dividend cover (yrs) mean, as opposed to just div. cover? On the face of it, it would seem that some of the high dividends are not well covered which I would find rather worrying. I am, however, keen to reduce my huge no. of individual shares so am trying to decide which ITs to transfer into. At present, I am more interested in total return, however. Has anyone done a list of those? My existing ITs are Scottish Mortgage, which has done very well for me, Monks which has done OK and an Invesco income one which I inherited from my husband, which is showing a loss from the price at transfer approx. 3 yrs ago I might ditch that one. I do like the idea of a world index trust, however.

Dividend cover in years looks at all the revenue reserves the investment company has built up over the years. It then looks at the annual cost of the current dividend level and compares to those revenue reserves to determine how many years the company could continue to pay out that dividend level even if its new revenues dropped to Zero. The standard dividend cover as you know is an annual figure comparing EPS and DPS.

For this data point, and many others on the AIC website, if you hover over the heading it will give you the definition.

[Dod101]

.....At present, I am more interested in total return, however. Has anyone done a list of those? My existing ITs are Scottish Mortgage, which has done very well for me, Monks which has done OK.....

Easy to get using the AIC screener. Well worth playing around with.

5 yr total returns (annualised):

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust plc heads the list with 35.02%

followed by

Allianz Technology Trust Plc 31.68%
Pacific Horizon Investment Trust 30.78%
Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust Plc 27.49%
Geiger Counter 27.23% (not one I've come across before)
Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust Plc 26.92%
BlackRock Throgmorton Trust plc 26.89%

etc

Monks is down at 20.62% - still very respectable in my view.

None of which has got anything to do with high yield investment trusts so is miles off topic.

Dod

[dundas666]

What does dividend cover (yrs) mean, as opposed to just div. cover? On the face of it, it would seem that some of the high dividends are not well covered which I would find rather worrying. I am, however, keen to reduce my huge no. of individual shares so am trying to decide which ITs to transfer into. At present, I am more interested in total return, however. Has anyone done a list of those? My existing ITs are Scottish Mortgage, which has done very well for me, Monks which has done OK and an Invesco income one which I inherited from my husband, which is showing a loss from the price at transfer approx. 3 yrs ago I might ditch that one. I do like the idea of a world index trust, however.

"dividend cover (yrs)" is the number of years an IT could maintain the current dividend if the income it received dropped to zero. Therefore it's a measure of how easily it can withstand a temporary market reversal where many of its constituent holdings cut their dividends, such as during the pandemic. ITs with good dividend cover will use their reserves to maintain their dividend, whereas ITs without good dividend cover (yrs) may cut their dividend for the duration of the difficulties, or re-base to a lower level permanently.

"dividend cover" refers to whether the IT's earnings per share covers the dividend per share payout. High dividends that are not covered by earnings are not necessarily a bad thing, for example several 'growth' ITs have recently changed policy by choosing to pay out typically 4% of NAV in dividends. This hybrid approach allows the investor to invest in growth shares and also extract a good income.

[Bouleversee]

Many thanks, Dundas.