AEI?

[ukmtk]

Any ideas why AEI suddenly plunged just under 5% at close today?
Another IT I'm invested in.

[monabri]

Possible data glitch ?

[moorfield]

It's been buying/selling all day at 272p ish on LSE until a last big crossing trade at 260p. I hold AEI in my PHY and won't be reading too much into it tbh. They publish NAV every day and that hasn't significantly moved far as I can see.

[ukmtk]

OK - many thanks for the reassurance

[PrefInvestor]

Any ideas why AEI suddenly plunged just under 5% at close today?
Another IT I'm invested in.

Well umtk I have to say I fail to see the attraction of AEI. High yield yes, good look to its current top 10 holdings too, but its performance is just dreadful, now down from over 300 to 260 YTD, so over 10% - and down even more over longer timescales.

Just look at its share price chart on HL or any other investment website. It’s big drop back in January I suspect was due to performance of Close Brothers (CBG) which fell by about 50% at that time due to its significant exposure to the car finance sector and the current problems there, CBG was an AEI top ten holding at the time. Guessing yesterdays move was likely another similar event but I haven’t seen any news.

ATB

Pref

[moorfield]

Well umtk I have to say I fail to see the attraction of AEI. High yield yes, good look to its current top 10 holdings too, but its performance is just dreadful, now down from over 300 to 260 YTD, so over 10% - and down even more over longer timescales.

Just look at its share price chart on HL or any other investment website. It’s big drop back in January I suspect was due to performance of Close Brothers (CBG) which fell by about 50% at that time due to its significant exposure to the car finance sector and the current problems there, CBG was an AEI top ten holding at the time. Guessing yesterdays move was likely another similar event but I haven’t seen any news.

ATB

Pref

I had a little chuckle reading that from someone who calls themselves "PrefInvestor".

The clue as to what AEI does well is in the name. 23 years of increasing dividends and counting. If it's income AND capital growth you're after your're in the wrong pub, clearly. Try the one down the road (or reinvest the income).

I think many discerning income investors building a well diversified PHY would elect to hold it

[mike]

All recovered, just a pricing anomoly

Real time pricing https://uk.investing.com/equities/standard-life-equity-income-trust
Last 15 trades today (15 min delay) https://www.lse.co.uk/ShareTrades.html?shareprice=AEI&share=Abrdn-Equityinc
Several days trades, but only 6 visible at a time (15 min delay) https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/AEI/abrdn-equity-income-trust-plc/company-page

[ukmtk]

When I started diversifying I took a look at https://www.theaic.co.uk and chose ITs that had attractive dividends.
I think that I normally look at the IT share price over recent years to see if there is anything suspicious.
I also glance at the constituents to give myself an idea what the underlying investments are.

I have never really used a stop/loss system to bail out when things start dropping.
I live in hope that they will recover.

I have a feeling that IUKD will never recover to what I paid for it.
They still haven't even given me a copy of the now non-existent RNS referenced on the IUKD page.

[EthicsGradient]

Well umtk I have to say I fail to see the attraction of AEI. High yield yes, good look to its current top 10 holdings too, but its performance is just dreadful, now down from over 300 to 260 YTD, so over 10% - and down even more over longer timescales.

Just look at its share price chart on HL or any other investment website. It’s big drop back in January I suspect was due to performance of Close Brothers (CBG) which fell by about 50% at that time due to its significant exposure to the car finance sector and the current problems there, CBG was an AEI top ten holding at the time. Guessing yesterdays move was likely another similar event but I haven’t seen any news.

ATB

Pref

I had a little chuckle reading that from someone who calls themselves "PrefInvestor".

The clue as to what AEI does well is in the name. 23 years of increasing dividends and counting. If it's income AND capital growth you're after your're in the wrong pub, clearly. Try the one down the road (or reinvest the income).

I think many discerning income investors building a well diversified PHY would elect to hold it

You might think that it'd be a good idea for the capital value to keep up with inflation too, though. Over 23 years, abrdn Equity Income is back where it started for the capital value, while the CPI has gone up 80%. A graph comparing it and 3 other ITs in the sector:

https://www2.trustnet.com/Tools/Chartin ... ET,FITTMPL

Set the start date to March 2001, and AEI has grown, with dividends reinvested, by 180% - so at least that has beaten inflation, by about 1.9% a year. But the competitors have grown about 350% - 4.4% a year above inflation. Change the chart basis to 'without income reinvested' and you find Temple Bar grew about 80% - so kept up with CPI, Murray Income about 57%, and Merchants about 30%. AEI is back where it started.

Anyone unlucky enough to have invested in it over a shorter timespan - like 10 years - has seen their capital decrease by about 39%. Even reinvesting that growing income, it's grown a massive 2% over 10 years - just 0.2% a year. Inflation over 10 years has been 33% - a figure the other 3 have managed to beat with reinvestment.

It looks like it cannibalises its capital to achieve income.

[PrefInvestor]

It looks like it cannibalises its capital to achieve income.

Thats a feature of many high yield investments, they effectively pay you some of your own money back while losing some of it in the process !.

ATB

Pref

[PrefInvestor]

I had a little chuckle reading that from someone who calls themselves "PrefInvestor".

The clue as to what AEI does well is in the name. 23 years of increasing dividends and counting. If it's income AND capital growth you're after your're in the wrong pub, clearly. Try the one down the road (or reinvest the income).

I think many discerning income investors building a well diversified PHY would elect to hold it

Thats my username because Prefs are a favorite investment of mine. I currently have significant Pref holdings ALL of which are total return positive and yielding just over 7%.

AEI looks like a chocolate teapot to me. If I wanted something to just pay me my own money back I could just stick it in the bank and wouldnt see any capital losses that way. I really dont see the attraction.

ATB

Pref

[ukmtk]

Prefinvestor wrote:
That's a feature of many high yield investments, they effectively pay you some of your own money back while losing some of it in the process!

I'm the sucker that falls for it.

[PrefInvestor]

Anyone interested in AEI might find their full portfolio as of 28-Feb-2024 of interest. This is available on their website as an Excel spreadsheet via this link:-

https://www.abrdnequityincome.com/docs? ... 35708d5e5f

Note: This should open directly on an iPad allowing you to view or download the portfolio, at least it did for me. On a PC it downloads the Excel spreadsheet containing the portfolio into your Downloads folder which you will then need to open using a program that can read Excel .xlsx files - which should be possible with most spreadsheet programs.

The portfolio explains a lot….

ATB

Pref

[Arborbridge]

Anyone interested in AEI might find their full portfolio as of 28-Feb-2024 of interest. This is available on their website as an Excel spreadsheet via this link:-

https://www.abrdnequityincome.com/docs? ... 35708d5e5f

Note: This should open directly on an iPad allowing you to view or download the portfolio, at least it did for me. On a PC it downloads the Excel spreadsheet containing the portfolio into your Downloads folder which you will then need to open using a program that can read Excel .xlsx files - which should be possible with most spreadsheet programs.

The portfolio explains a lot….

ATB

Pref

Note: Link blocked by Malaware due to suspicious content.

Arb.

I've had no luck trying to find the details of the portfolio from their website or from AIC either - it just isn't connecting when I go to find the detail. From the top investments, it seems a normal UK type IT.

Arb.

[DavidM13]

The spreadsheet took a while but after around 30 seconds it did load. We only show the top 10 on AIC website (which is also loading for me) https://www.theaic.co.uk/companydata/ab ... /portfolio

happy to email the spreadsheet which did load for me if you want. Just PM your email address if you want that.

[mike]

For those with difficulty loading, the latest factsheet from 31 January is here (loads as pdf) which gives the top 20 holdings. And the latest accounts from 30 September 2023 are here (also loads as pdf).

[88V8]

For those with difficulty loading, the latest factsheet from 31 January is here...

I hold AEI - underwater - and I see that I also have directly ten of their top twenty holdings.
Sometimes one's collectives are not as diversificatious as one would wish.

V8

[PrefInvestor]

Well sorry for any problems with the link. I tested it on my iPad and PC immediately after making the post and it worked just fine. I see that the AEI trust website is down ATM though (10:46 on 18/3) so that will stop it working. I had already downloaded the file yesterday and virus checked it with Norton 360 and no problems were reported, but some antivirus solutions are fussy. There are no macros in the Excel spreadsheet.

ATB

Pref

PS Just tried the link again on my iPad at 10:51, spreadsheet was displayed within 2 secs. Didn’t offer me the download option though.

PPS Below is a link to Literature section of the AEI trust website, pick the link called “Portfolio Holding Summary” and it should take you to the spreadsheet:-

https://www.abrdnequityincome.com/en-gb ... ture?tab=3