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MRCH Merchants Trust Plc

532.00
3.00 (0.57%)
28 Mar 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Merchants Trust Plc LSE:MRCH London Ordinary Share GB0005800072 ORD 25P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  3.00 0.57% 532.00 533.00 536.00 534.00 531.00 532.00 360,093 16:35:21
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
Trust,ex Ed,religious,charty 48.86M 40.19M 0.2699 19.75 793.52M
Merchants Trust Plc is listed in the Trust,ex Ed,religious,charty sector of the London Stock Exchange with ticker MRCH. The last closing price for Merchants was 529p. Over the last year, Merchants shares have traded in a share price range of 477.00p to 588.00p.

Merchants currently has 148,877,887 shares in issue. The market capitalisation of Merchants is £793.52 million. Merchants has a price to earnings ratio (PE ratio) of 19.75.

Merchants Share Discussion Threads

Showing 776 to 799 of 2925 messages
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DateSubjectAuthorDiscuss
31/7/2020
10:45
Hi bluemango - I've been investing for probably 20+ years and have only just come to the conclusion that investing for income, and investing in single stocks is not for me! Here's some 6 month performance figures that make very poor reading. Single stocks: L&G -32%, SLA -18%, TW -44% (this was sold earlier this year). Income paying investment trusts: MRCH -37%, HHI -27%, HFEL -10%. Investment funds: Fundsmith Equity +6%, Lindsell Train Global Equity +2%, L&G Global Tech +13%. So, my plan, only when the time is right, is to completely move away from individual shares, probably stick with the investment trusts I hold and monitor performance and, without hesitation, continue to top up my investment funds. Funds get a lot of negative press on various discussion boards but I'm a huge fan! Good luck.
zac0_4
31/7/2020
10:18
Agreed, I guess I'm just suggesting that ITs still have a role and can avoid the catastrophic situation where you're reliant on income and holding individual stocks that suddenly suspend the dividend and the capital also erodes immediately. Yes recovery for MRCH from here could be a long haul but if one believes the income can be more or less sustained and the capital gradually moves upwards too, that's reason enough to stick with it. Great in hindsight for those who moved into cash early in the year but we're faced with the situation now.

"Don't look back, always forward"

bluemango
31/7/2020
10:04
Hi bluemango - I guess it depends on each individual's investing style. Mine is simply buy and hold. I hardly touch my investment funds, other than to rebalance on an annual basis. I hold 12. I can't see how anybody will recoup their capital losses if they invested at the start of 2020. The share price has now got to deliver over 56% growth to get back to it's 2020 starting point. Do you see that happening with the portfolio mix?
zac0_4
31/7/2020
08:33
I'm still adding here (also today as need to re-invest my HGM holding proceeds after todays takeover announcement), but this has certainly well under-performed the FTSE decline of 20% ytd. MRCH down approx 36% ytd. Was also expecting a better performance from their #1 holding GlaxoSmithKline ...
mister md
31/7/2020
08:30
Reading the interesting discussion, I'd just caution that the market has a well known herd mentality. Just because pursuit of income has suddenly become difficult and 'untrendy', you don't immediately wipe out the classical balance between capital and income. And there are disadvantages to always and only chasing capital growth, eg more switching around so more broker fees. A good stock will over the longer term provide both income and capital growth, and a good IT fund manager will try to pick mostly those stocks. That hasn't changed, not permanently anyway.

Think medium to long term goals and don't always follow what's trendy and may in hindsight turn out to be an over reaction against income stocks? It's all about balance and assessing all angles.

bluemango
31/7/2020
08:29
Agree Mister MD 10% tobacco is way to much and they are both are not far off their March lows.
tim 3
31/7/2020
08:25
Top Ten Holdings (%)
GlaxoSmithKline 5.7
British American Tobacco 5.3
Imperial Brands 4.7
BHP Group 3.8
National Grid 3.7
Scottish & Southern Energy 3.7
IG Group 3.4
Royal Dutch Shell - B Shares 3.3
Tate & Lyle 3.1
St James’s Place 3.1


Perhaps also time to replace the tobacco stocks from their portfolio (now their #2 and #3 holdings in terms of investment size) ?

mister md
31/7/2020
07:06
CHC15 - Terry Smith, CIO of Fundsmith says the same. Don’t invest for income. Simply invest in a good global equity fund and drawdown from the capital. Both Bogle and Smith are right. Thankfully only about 20% of my investments are invested for income.
zac0_4
30/7/2020
22:50
The Woodford debacle taught me a thing or two about using past performance.

Not suggesting this is the same but there are some serious changes to the market like the move away from income into growth and the pressure dividends are under that could affect these in the future.

tim 3
30/7/2020
22:19
I'm with u zac, in a few years time I'll sell all too. Vanguard founder John Bogle said never go for income, just stay in a tracker and cream off the capital. He was right. I'll still be topping up here though in the meantime!
chc15
30/7/2020
21:08
che7win - you are correct with your points. However, they need to be taken in context of total returns over various timescales. So, here they are: 5yrs -2%, 3yrs -13%, 1yr -24%, 6m -35% & 1m -11%. It's very hard not to be critical when I'm sitting here watching my capital erode before my very eyes!!
zac0_4
30/7/2020
20:51
A bit doom and gloom here, I'll reply with a couple of points.1. 37 consecutive years of dividend growth.2. A dividend yield of 8%.I know dividend yield under some pressure, but they have 1 year buffer accumulated. I have very small holding, may or may not add.
che7win
30/7/2020
20:05
Tim3 - I think you've hit the nail on the head with your GSK & AZN example. GSK has been bought ahead of AZN because of dividend yield. Pretty much twice that of AZN. And to be fair MRCH are satisfying a demand from their investors - sustainable dividends and annual dividend growth. These 2 criteria will negate a large number of quality businesses being held in the trust. Quality businesses that can withstand market shocks and protect capital far better than we're seeing here. It might take me a number of years but all my dividend paying trusts and individual shares will be removed from my portfolio when I feel the time is right. This period has clearly demonstrated to me where my investments should sit.
zac0_4
30/7/2020
19:14
Hi Superiorshares,

In normal market conditions buying shares on weakness often turns out to be a good long term investment. These are not normal times or normal market conditions.

A couple of months ago MRCH was trading at a premium to NAV and I think I wrote on an IT board that I would not consider adding to my holding because of that. It has of course now moved to a discount as the effects of coronavirus look likely to last much longer than many people anticipated.

If you can tell me which of the following is true it would be very,very helpful!

Coronavirus will be with us for years
Coronavirus will fizzle out in a few months
A wonder drug/vaccine will suddenly appear
The world economy will bounce back quickly
A second wave will hit, which will be more devastating than the first
Unemployment will go through the roof
The travel industry faces ruin
Oil prices will take years to recover

Six months ago many of these and numerous other similar questions hardly crossed our minds in our investment thinking, with the possible exception of oil prices.

Today they are at the forefront of our investment decisions, or at least should be.
Sustainability of the MRCH dividend depends entirely on how long and how deeply the world economy is hit by this pandemic.

Your comments on dividend sustainability implies you believe the COVID 19 crisis is far from over. I would tend to agree. Since the tax year began on April 6th I have only made one small purchace to round up my EDIN holding to 15,000 shares.

If the crisis deepens, a much more widespread market downturn could hit world bourses. I took the decision in mid April to sit on cash. For the moment I will not be making new investments or adding to existing holdings. If things get really bad I might need the cash from the dividends I am receiving.

Nobody really knows how all this will turn out, but historical data suggests that long term, IT's remain a safer option and provide a more consitant income stream than other types of collective investments. Snapshots only mark a point on the line and are a poor indicator of the journey as a whole.

I wish all investors on these boards well, physically and financially.

Goldpig

goldpiguk
30/7/2020
18:51
I look at their top holdings and really have to question their decisions.

Top is GSK.No major issues here but its massively outperformed by AZN.

Then you have BAT and Imperial brands which make up a full 10% of their total holdings between them,I would not buy either as an individual stock.A few years ago when I bought they had zero tobacco which I thought was the right decision.

Then you have utilities oils mining and SJP making up the rest.

That just does not look a great mix to me.

Not sure what to do part of me is saying they are cheap and will recover and I certainly would not sell here to be in cash but I also think my money may do better elsewhere.

Considering my options.

tim 3
30/7/2020
10:09
I wish I'd have come to my senses earlier. Too much focus on the dividends. And yes, that's why I invested. But I think the reality is that focusing on dividends comes at a price - poor capital growth, or as we now find - capital destruction!

Year to date it's now down 38%. So, we need 62% share price growth from here to get back to the start of the year. That's years away in my opinion. Never mind we've had dividend payments to the value of 2.44% year to date!!

zac0_4
30/7/2020
09:58
I agree 350 support gone so unless it recovers that area quickly 300 is likely imo.
tim 3
30/7/2020
09:48
Chart looks dire. Looks to be heading to 300p
gateside
30/7/2020
04:28
I just take a look at the long term chart (ie over 20 years) of FTSE 250 comparing to share price 500, the performance of local UK stocks (as measured by FTSE 250) is actually not that bad...

So maybe the issue with UK stock market is the big banks, miners, oil majors dragging down the performance, without them, FTSE 100 may perform much better....

redponza
29/7/2020
20:38
Yet it and these both fell!
tim 3
29/7/2020
11:06
GSK which is the largest holding in the the MRCH portfolio has held its dividend today
gateside
28/7/2020
14:18
It was briefly I thought!Ah well at least the vast majority of my other shares are doing well today... Makes up for yet more underperformance from MRCH
gateside
28/7/2020
13:06
Lol, u sure it's up?
chc15
28/7/2020
11:24
MRCH is up all of 3p ?I'll soon be able afford that private jet!
gateside
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