What are your top holdings and why?

[bluedonkey]

My largest individual shares are Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 7.6% and Legal & General (LGEN) 6.6%.
Why? Both good income shares plus MGNS has shown decent capital growth as well.

Collectives: Vanguard Global ESG (V3AM) 10.1%, City of London IT (CTY) 7.6% and Witan (WTAN) 6.9%.
Why? Just represent my move into general collectives.

[ReformedCharacter]

I'm mainly an income investor:

LGEN (Legal and General)
MYI (Murray International)
NG. (National Grid)

But I own 3 mining companies, RIO, BHP and ANTO, and jointly they are c. 12% of the pf value.

RC

[scrumpyjack]

Largest holdings are
SMT 11%, ISF 6%, WTB 6%, WTAN 6%, MNKS 5%, FCIT 5%, PSN 5%, BHP 4%, RIO 4%, BDEV 3%, Cash 5%
Reasons: Inertia, Move to collectives, Let winners run (+aversion to paying CGT), at my age have a good cash buffer (bring an old buffer!)

[SebsCat]

Roughly three quarters of our investments are in (in descending value) ICGT, WTAN, GSCT, FEV, FCIT, NAIT, MYI, TRY, MRCH, CTY, INPP, NCYF & HFEL. The aim is for these is to produce an increasing income. The combined yield is 4.1%.

We then have about 10% in a couple of other ITs and a handful of single companies which will probably be sold & used to supplement the above holdings over the next year or two.

The remaining 15% follows a mechanical strategy.

[Wuffle]

3 big holdings and a joint forth in the 20% to 15% area.
I have accidentally ended up with a big chunk of cash in a SIPP which will upset this list when I decide what to do with it. And lower the percentages.
FCIT, MATE and CMPI, then a half holding in each of MYI and HINT.

FCIT is a global tracker (ish) that I buy at 10% discount, when I can.
It is a bit light on the 'Big 7' which was my decision and was right for a bit and then wasn't.
There is a conventional work pension in the background fully loaded with these - so, meh.

MATE is a Vanguard 60/40 equivalent that I got at a healthy discount (and am still up on in comparison) that churns out a better dividend which is reinvested.

CMPI is an IT of ITs that also churns out a dividend that is reinvested. Displays as no discount but that is to prices not NAV and discounts are hefty currently in the IT space.

HINT and MYI diminish the UK bias of CMPI. dividends reinvested wherever.

I like active, I like discounts.
The dividends are directed to whatever is looking a good buy that month (not necessarily these).
HL cap the charges in my ISA at £45 if I steer clear of funds.

W.

[bluedonkey]

I see that CMPI has a charge of about 2%.

[Gilgongo]

I have a 20-share HYP, the top holdings of which are BHP, BA. and RIO. But I don't buy any more, and pay all dividends from them into either CTY or MRCH now, which combined are about the same size as the HYP. I only top-slice HYP holdings bigger than 1.5x median value (DGE was such recently). So knowing which are the biggest is a bit pointless really

[dealtn]

My largest investment which is over 50% of my wealth - although we might need a definition of "investment" here! - is in a limited company, a professional football club.

Beyond that a portfoilio of 15-20 shares which I have neglected, making me a LTBH kind of investor - which is someway different to my normal investment style. If I ever get time and the inclination that might be reviewed.

[SalvorHardin]

Here's a write up regarding my ten largest shareholdings, with % of portfolio and why I hold them. Six American, two Canadian and two Investment Trusts.

1st Canadian Pacific, CP (9.1%) – CP is a North American freight railroad, a business with an extremely strong “moat” which gives businesses pricing power and prevents them from being turned into a commodity. No-one is going to build a competitor railroad. Imagine the difficulties getting the land, the planning permission and then building the railroad. Any serious competitor has to build across the Rogers Pass in British Colombia (essential to get to the West Coast), which would probably cost more on its own than CP’s current market capitalisation.

Freight railroads have a huge cost advantage over trucks when it comes to distances over around 500 miles (energy cost per ton-mile of rail freight is roughly one-quarter of that for trucks). North America is always going to need to move things in bulk and that need cannot be replaced by an online service or air freight. Railroads can’t be replaced by a better piece of software; in contrast Tech stocks are forever exposed to being replaced by a slightly better / different product which quickly scales through a mixture of social media promotion and network effects (look at what Facebook did to MySpace and why it regularly buys potential competitors).

CP can extract some big synergies from its recent takeover of the Kansas City railroad. The movement of manufacturing out of China, as American companies look to shorten their supply chains, is going to put a lot of new factories in Mexico where CP has the best routes of any of the North American railroads. I’ve owned CP shares since December 2009 (up 830%), have topped up along the way, and class it as a near-permanent holding (like Union Pacific and Berkshire Hathaway).

2nd SL Green Realty, SLG (8.0%) – An opportunistic play on New York City Offices beinig horribly mispriced in July & August 2023. SL Green is Manhattan’s biggest office landlord, specialising in top class properties such as One Vanderbilt (America calls them class A properties, we call them “Prime”). So far so good (up by over 100%). The effects of work from home don‘t seem to be as bad as is being talked about in the media. A key figure is that the pre-pandemic occupancy in Manhattan was 80% not 100%, so the latest figures of 60% current occupancy actually means that already 75% of workers are back in the office.

Most of SL Green’s properties are close to Grand Central Station, a key terminus for commuters. SL Green is a special situation that has worked out really well, but I don’t expect to be holding anything like as many of these shares in two years time (maybe one-quarter of my current holding). There’s a decent chance of a serious short squeeze given that 25% of the shares are sold short and that the shares are some 125% up from recent lows. Yield is 6.5%.

3rd Union Pacific, UNP (7.3%) - another North American railroad, see Canadian Pacific for the same reasons. UNP, being a West Coast railroad, has a geographical cost advantage (and competitiveness against trucks) compared to the East Coast railroads (e.g. CSX) because its average route distance is longer (the West Coast and Midwest cities are more widely separated than the East Coast). I bought some in January 2010 not long after Berkshire Hathaway bought the BNSF railroad (at the time it seemed like everyone in the UK was recommending First Group as a rail investment. Since then UNP are up 810%, First Group are down 45%.

4th Berkshire Hathaway, BRK.B (6.5%) – reasons are well documented elsewhere.

5th Caledonia Investments, CLDN (5.0%) – family run investment trust. Well covered on TLF.

6th Atlanta Braves Holdings, BATRA (4.2%) – the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team, plus a substantial portfolio of properties in the vicinity of the team’s home stadium (the stadium is leased from the local county). The limited supply of professional sports teams makes them a trophy asset. Also unlike European sports, America’s no relegation salary capped leagues mean that the teams are profitable. I’m expecting it to be bought in the next few years by a multi-billionaire for a premium of at least 50% to the current market capitalisation (its main shareholder, Liberty Media, indicated that they were open to a sale when the shares were spun off in July 2023).

7th F&C (aka Foreign & Colonial) Investment Trust, FCIT (4.0%) – a very long established, well diversified international investment trust. Low annual management charge of 0.3% up to £4 billion and 0.25% above this.

8th Brookfield Asset Management, BAM (3.6%) – Canadian asset manager, specialising in private equity, property, alternative and infrastructure, with an excellent long term track record (beats Berkshire Hathaway over the last twenty-odd years). The Brookfield empire consists of a lot of private funds and several quoted funds. Recently Brookfield Asset Management split into two with Brookfield Corporation holding the then BAM's stakes that it holds in various funds. Not long afterwards I sold my Corporation shares and reinvested the lot in the Asset Management arm.

9th Parker Hannifin, PH (3.1%) – American manufacturer specialising in motion and control technologies. PH makes parts for many industries and is particularly big in aerospace and defence components. PH should be a major beneficiary of the trend towards moving manufacturing away from China (I reckon that India will hugely benefit from this which is why I recently bought shares in several Indian Investment Trusts, though that’s another story). Parker Hannifin is what Americans call a “dividend aristocrat”, having raised its dividend in each of the last 67 years (it’s not one for income seekers though, yielding just 1.3%).

10th AeroVironment, AVAV (3.0%) – American drone manufacturer, whose main business is producing small drones for the United States military and allied forces. The war in Ukraine has shown that small drones are excellent for information gathering down to the platoon level and in combat (there are quite a few videos online of AeroVironment Switchblade kamikaze drones blowing up Russian vehicles and soldiers). This is going to greatly increase the amount spent on drones and anti-drone measures in the near future. AeroVironment recently bought Tomahawk Robotics, which makes software and hardware for swarm robots. I’d expect to see AeroVironment selling self-controlling swarm drones in a few years.

AeroVironment is a relatively small company (market cap. $3.6 billion) with a PE ratio that investors are more used to seeing in tech stocks (PE of 46). I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if one of the big defence companies buys AeroVironment in the next couple of years.

How I discovered AeroVironment is a good example of how you can sometimes get investment ideas from unusual sources. A couple of years ago I saw an episode of the military drama “Seal Team” where one of the main characters pulled a Switchblade drone out of his backpack. Using a tablet computer he flew it over several buildings (using the onboard camera) and destroyed a enemy “technical” (just like in a video game). After some research next morning I bought shares when Wall Street opened.

[TUK020]

Here's a write up regarding my ten largest shareholdings, with % of portfolio and why I hold them. Six American, two Canadian and two Investment Trusts.

1st Canadian Pacific, CP (9.1%) – CP is a North American freight railroad, a business with an extremely strong “moat” which gives businesses pricing power and prevents them from being turned into a commodity. No-one is going to build a competitor railroad. Imagine the difficulties getting the land, the planning permission and then building the railroad. Any serious competitor has to build across the Rogers Pass in British Colombia (essential to get to the West Coast), which would probably cost more on its own than CP’s current market capitalisation.

Freight railroads have a huge cost advantage over trucks when it comes to distances over around 500 miles (energy cost per ton-mile of rail freight is roughly one-quarter of that for trucks). North America is always going to need to move things in bulk and that need cannot be replaced by an online service or air freight. Railroads can’t be replaced by a better piece of software; in contrast Tech stocks are forever exposed to being replaced by a slightly better / different product which quickly scales through a mixture of social media promotion and network effects (look at what Facebook did to MySpace and why it regularly buys potential competitors).

CP can extract some big synergies from its recent takeover of the Kansas City railroad. The movement of manufacturing out of China, as American companies look to shorten their supply chains, is going to put a lot of new factories in Mexico where CP has the best routes of any of the North American railroads. I’ve owned CP shares since December 2009 (up 830%), have topped up along the way, and class it as a near-permanent holding (like Union Pacific and Berkshire Hathaway).

2nd SL Green Realty, SLG (8.0%) – An opportunistic play on New York City Offices beinig horribly mispriced in July & August 2023. SL Green is Manhattan’s biggest office landlord, specialising in top class properties such as One Vanderbilt (America calls them class A properties, we call them “Prime”). So far so good (up by over 100%). The effects of work from home don‘t seem to be as bad as is being talked about in the media. A key figure is that the pre-pandemic occupancy in Manhattan was 80% not 100%, so the latest figures of 60% current occupancy actually means that already 75% of workers are back in the office.

Most of SL Green’s properties are close to Grand Central Station, a key terminus for commuters. SL Green is a special situation that has worked out really well, but I don’t expect to be holding anything like as many of these shares in two years time (maybe one-quarter of my current holding). There’s a decent chance of a serious short squeeze given that 25% of the shares are sold short and that the shares are some 125% up from recent lows. Yield is 6.5%.

3rd Union Pacific, UNP (7.3%) - another North American railroad, see Canadian Pacific for the same reasons. UNP, being a West Coast railroad, has a geographical cost advantage (and competitiveness against trucks) compared to the East Coast railroads (e.g. CSX) because its average route distance is longer (the West Coast and Midwest cities are more widely separated than the East Coast). I bought some in January 2010 not long after Berkshire Hathaway bought the BNSF railroad (at the time it seemed like everyone in the UK was recommending First Group as a rail investment. Since then UNP are up 810%, First Group are down 45%.

4th Berkshire Hathaway, BRK.B (6.5%) – reasons are well documented elsewhere.

5th Caledonia Investments, CLDN (5.0%) – family run investment trust. Well covered on TLF.

6th Atlanta Braves Holdings, BATRA (4.2%) – the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team, plus a substantial portfolio of properties in the vicinity of the team’s home stadium (the stadium is leased from the local county). The limited supply of professional sports teams makes them a trophy asset. Also unlike European sports, America’s no relegation salary capped leagues mean that the teams are profitable. I’m expecting it to be bought in the next few years by a multi-billionaire for a premium of at least 50% to the current market capitalisation (its main shareholder, Liberty Media, indicated that they were open to a sale when the shares were spun off in July 2023).

7th F&C (aka Foreign & Colonial) Investment Trust, FCIT (4.0%) – a very long established, well diversified international investment trust. Low annual management charge of 0.3% up to £4 billion and 0.25% above this.

8th Brookfield Asset Management, BAM (3.6%) – Canadian asset manager, specialising in private equity, property, alternative and infrastructure, with an excellent long term track record (beats Berkshire Hathaway over the last twenty-odd years). The Brookfield empire consists of a lot of private funds and several quoted funds. Recently Brookfield Asset Management split into two with Brookfield Corporation holding the then BAM's stakes that it holds in various funds. Not long afterwards I sold my Corporation shares and reinvested the lot in the Asset Management arm.

9th Parker Hannifin, PH (3.1%) – American manufacturer specialising in motion and control technologies. PH makes parts for many industries and is particularly big in aerospace and defence components. PH should be a major beneficiary of the trend towards moving manufacturing away from China (I reckon that India will hugely benefit from this which is why I recently bought shares in several Indian Investment Trusts, though that’s another story). Parker Hannifin is what Americans call a “dividend aristocrat”, having raised its dividend in each of the last 67 years (it’s not one for income seekers though, yielding just 1.3%).

10th AeroVironment, AVAV (3.0%) – American drone manufacturer, whose main business is producing small drones for the United States military and allied forces. The war in Ukraine has shown that small drones are excellent for information gathering down to the platoon level and in combat (there are quite a few videos online of AeroVironment Switchblade kamikaze drones blowing up Russian vehicles and soldiers). This is going to greatly increase the amount spent on drones and anti-drone measures in the near future. AeroVironment recently bought Tomahawk Robotics, which makes software and hardware for swarm robots. I’d expect to see AeroVironment selling self-controlling swarm drones in a few years.

AeroVironment is a relatively small company (market cap. $3.6 billion) with a PE ratio that investors are more used to seeing in tech stocks (PE of 46). I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if one of the big defence companies buys AeroVironment in the next couple of years.

How I discovered AeroVironment is a good example of how you can sometimes get investment ideas from unusual sources. A couple of years ago I saw an episode of the military drama “Seal Team” where one of the main characters pulled a Switchblade drone out of his backpack. Using a tablet computer he flew it over several buildings (using the onboard camera) and destroyed a enemy “technical” (just like in a video game). After some research next morning I bought shares when Wall Street opened.

Sometimes I wonder why I still visit this site, but every now and then, a post like this reminds me.
Thank you SalvorHardin for your clearly spelled out reasoning

[TUK020]

I have around 35 holdings, the majority of which are at the 3% of portfolio. This is split across my SIPP & my ISA, each of which have slightly different tilts - I am taking income from my SIPP, so this is more oriented to yield. The ISA is there to cover our later years and any possible nursing home fees - more oriented to growth for the longer term. Also, I am in the slow process of gradually shifting my investments towards collectives so that it is more robust towards benign neglect (that's the more acceptable description of what I think of as my 'long term gaga plan').
Not covering Physical gold, Gold Producer ETFs or Bond ETF, each of which is >3% of the portoflio

Biggest holdings:
FCIT (>8%) Big IT, highly diversified. Long track record of steady growth, low management charges. In the long term the discount has fluctuated between 0-10%. Have been topping up as it is more like 10% at the moment. Seems like a safe bet for long term growth, relatively low yield. Expect to keep adding to this in the long term.

L&G Global 100 fund (~6%). Low charges. Basic bet of growth of world stock market majors. Skewed towards US.

CTY (6%). Steady income generator - one of the engines of my SIPP income generation. May not be much of a growth prospect, but unlikely to miss a beat in churnign our regular divis.

All of the next bunch are between 3-3.5% of the portfolio:

BA. Grown as a holding largely due to stock price appreciation. Comfortable to stay with this as UK's largest defence company - think our Russia problem is not likely to go away soon.

HICL. Diversified set of infra holdings. Went through COVID without missing a beat. Good inflation hedge. Plans to pause divis went down very badly with the market, but seems like a rational response to rising interest rates to pay down debt. Topped up recently.

IMB. Tobacco seems not to have been priced for zero growth, but more for extinction. Difference between profits and free cash flow largely down to big goodwill write down on brand acquisitions. Divi well covered by FCF. At current yield rates, you will get half your money back over 5 years, and still have a business worth >75% of what it is now. Again another solid cash generator for the SIPP.

LWDB. An IT with an core service business that seems to be well managed and solid. Was alerted to this by a post some years ago by the very lucid poster 'ValueMargin' who unfortunately seems to have departed this site.

NG. A highly regulated infrastructure business in the UK & USA, where their capital invested, and returns from this, are controlled. Inherently inflation protected. And the transition to a low carbon economy will mean lots more investment required in this area (see backlog for connecting new renewable generating sites to the grid). A core for the long term. Will never shoot the lights out, but will be solid. Much less prone to political interference than Electricity suppliers or generators.

SGRO. A share that got ahead of itself, and then fell back. Basic proposition is industrial property assets, in particular warehousing for e-commerce companies. Growth market that got overcooked in COVID era. Fundamental looks good for the longer term.

SMT. Antoher share that got ahead of itself. Good track record of finding and participating in new growth stocks. Unfortunately, quite a lot of the more recent are in China. The skill in finding these propositions should endure for the longer term. Hope here is that it was not all the skill of the top guy who is retiring.

[Dod101]

TUK020 has given us a good summary of his top holdings except that he seems to be a bit behind on SMT. I may be behind the news of course but I have not heard of the ‘top guy’ retiring. James Anderson retired last December though and he was widely acclaimed as the architect of SMT’s success. It has now fallen back but will no doubt come good again.

Dod

[elephanthunt11]

My largest individual shares are Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 7.6% and Legal & General (LGEN) 6.6%.
Why? Both good income shares plus MGNS has shown decent capital growth as well.

Collectives: Vanguard Global ESG (V3AM) 10.1%, City of London IT (CTY) 7.6% and Witan (WTAN) 6.9%.
Why? Just represent my move into general collectives.

I would be really interested to hear more about why MGNS is your top holding, I work in the industry and have had a lot of professional dealings with them

[LooseCannon101]

My portfolio (ISA, GIA) is incredibly simple - 99% in F&C Investment Trust (FCIT) and 1% in cash.

FCIT owns stakes in over 350 individual companies, is highly diversified, lowly geared and has a great long-term track record - 155 years.

It is effectively a 'one-stop shop'. This phrase was used by our late chairman - Simon Fraser, when asked what was the trust's unique selling point.

[88V8]

My portfolio (ISA, GIA) is incredibly simple - 99% in F&C Investment Trust (FCIT) and 1% in cash.
FCIT owns stakes in over 350 individual companies, is highly diversified, lowly geared and has a great long-term track record - 155 years.
It is effectively a 'one-stop shop'. This phrase was used by our late chairman - Simon Fraser, when asked what was the trust's unique selling point.

One would need a large portfolio to live on the income from FCIT's 1.4% yield.

V8

[bluedonkey]

My largest individual shares are Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 7.6% and Legal & General (LGEN) 6.6%.
Why? Both good income shares plus MGNS has shown decent capital growth as well.

Collectives: Vanguard Global ESG (V3AM) 10.1%, City of London IT (CTY) 7.6% and Witan (WTAN) 6.9%.
Why? Just represent my move into general collectives.

I would be really interested to hear more about why MGNS is your top holding, I work in the industry and have had a lot of professional dealings with them

I've posted from time to time on the MGNS company news board here with my views:
viewtopic.php?f=94&t=28068
It's worth looking at that.

Look at the long term eps and dividend history. I first invested in 2003 and topped up in 2009. From a financial and investment pov, they are conservatively run, always keeping good cash balances and not chasing turnover. Their financial announcements tend to be accurate rather than "booster-ish", they tend to under-promise and over-deliver. I could go on but let me know if you have any queries.

[BullDog]

I would be really interested to hear more about why MGNS is your top holding, I work in the industry and have had a lot of professional dealings with them

I've posted from time to time on the MGNS company news board here with my views:
viewtopic.php?f=94&t=28068
It's worth looking at that.

Look at the long term eps and dividend history. I first invested in 2003 and topped up in 2009. From a financial and investment pov, they are conservatively run, always keeping good cash balances and not chasing turnover. Their financial announcements tend to be accurate rather than "booster-ish", they tend to under-promise and over-deliver. I could go on but let me know if you have any queries.

Another vote for MGNS as a high quality share. I bought fairly recently and gas been my best performing share in 2023 with a nice dividend and almost 50% price appreciation.

[Dod101]

I've posted from time to time on the MGNS company news board here with my views:
viewtopic.php?f=94&t=28068
It's worth looking at that.

Look at the long term eps and dividend history. I first invested in 2003 and topped up in 2009. From a financial and investment pov, they are conservatively run, always keeping good cash balances and not chasing turnover. Their financial announcements tend to be accurate rather than "booster-ish", they tend to under-promise and over-deliver. I could go on but let me know if you have any queries.

Another vote for MGNS as a high quality share. I bought fairly recently and gas been my best performing share in 2023 with a nice dividend and almost 50% price appreciation.

This may not be the best place to discuss Morgan Sindall but I have been mulling it over as a possible replacement for some of my tobacco holdings. Like the sound of it; the culture looks good and I assume the CEO is part of the founding family?

Dod

[GoSeigen]

1. Newcastle Building Society PIBS 24% of liquid family investments. Reason: Value increased from previous smaller holding, yield is still a reasonable 7.3%. Will gradually reduce when price looks toppy or for cashflow.

2. Long FTSE futures 8% (leveraged). Reason: Bullish UK stocks. Need leverage because of above large position. UK stocks must be unbelievably cheap now. Can't understand why everyone hates them.

3. Bank of Ireland Group Ords 8%. Reason: Bullish UK and EU banks. Growth from previous smaller holding. Banks will continue to hugely profitable and over-capitalised. Everyone hates them or is bored of them. Even holders "don't know how they will ever make a profit" [paraphrased comment from 2020]. I've top-sliced 20% of the holding over the past two years. Will see how things evolve.



GS

[bluedonkey]

Another vote for MGNS as a high quality share. I bought fairly recently and gas been my best performing share in 2023 with a nice dividend and almost 50% price appreciation.

This may not be the best place to discuss Morgan Sindall but I have been mulling it over as a possible replacement for some of my tobacco holdings. Like the sound of it; the culture looks good and I assume the CEO is part of the founding family?

Dod

I'll carry on the conversation over on the Company News board.
viewtopic.php?f=94&t=28068&start=20