For investors seeking an entry to UK equities, the recent banking sector induced volatility may have provided an opportunity.
After breaking to all-time record highs in early 2023, London’s leading index has pulled back significantly and many UK equities trade below recent highs, and offer better value than they did just a few weeks ago.
We highlight two options for a diversified approach to gaining exposure to UK stocks with the Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust and Temple Bar Investment Trust.
Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust
According to data from Trustnet, the Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust has returned 39.1% over the past five year period. This is a significant outperformance of the AIC UK Equity Investment Trust benchmark 17.5% return.
The outperformance has been achieved by an active approach to selection UK and European stocks. The current portfolio is heavily weighted towards UK shares which accounted for 73.7% of the portfolio as of 31/01/2023.
Recent changes to the portfolio include the selling down of Persimmon to replace the stock with Taylor Wimpey in late 2022. The managers of the fund felt Taylor Wimpey’s margins were preferable and was less likely to slash their ordinary dividend.
There is a significant weighting to stocks with bond-proxy attributes of reliable cash flows and attractive dividend yields. Unilever, Diageo and AstraZeneca are top ten holdings.
The Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust is a solid income choice with a 4.6% yield.
Temple Bar Investment Trust
The Temple Bar Investment Trust is managed by Ian Lance and Nick Purves. Their focus is on value investing and buying companies trading less than their intrinsic value. Current portfolio companies include ITV, BP and Shell.
At the recent UK Investor Magazine Virtual Investment Trust Conference, Ian Lance detailed his empirical research into value vs growth stocks over the past 100 years, and how value beat growth in all but two decades.
One of these decades was the most recent period after the financial crisis and the years of record low interest rates. Despite the allure of growth and multiple expansion during this time, the Temple Bar team were unwavering in their pursuit of value.
Their top ten holdings clearly demonstrates their willingness to buy unloved stocks. Questions about ITV’s core advertising business has presented an opportunity to buy the stock for growth in their studios business. Although BP and Shell shares are up sharply in the past year, they still trade attractively on an earnings basis.
The Temple Bar Investment Trust has a more concentrated approach that peers – the portfolio consists of around 20 holdings.
The inclusion of BP and Shell in the top ten holdings are a material contributors to the trust’s 4% yield.