Smithson Investment Share Discussion Threads

[malcolmmm] 30/4/2020 16:21

Bought some of these a few days ago, also BRSC at 9015p which seem to be recovering.

[bezer] 28/4/2020 11:00

As from just a few minutes ago, Smithson hit £13.00. It is now in profit YTD. An incredible achievement. It will be fascinating to read the factsheet due out next week to see the performance against the benchmark since inception.

[hectorscrackhouse] 13/4/2020 09:25

I know he's owned Church and Dwight before, perhaps he has bought it again.

[bezer] 09/4/2020 20:46

As we go into this Easter Weekend, we have the "scores on the doors". Since Jan 1st 2020 YTD: Fundsmith T Class Equity -5.09%. Smithson Investment Trust -5.39%.

In this year from hell?!

LOADS of luck - I managed to top up on Smithson at below inception price on March 20th. Very fortunate. I wonder if I have joined the ELITE, not only was I an original Smithson Investor, I can add I bought just north of £20K at below inception price - £9.58. Very, very lucky. Be safe people.

[hectorscrackhouse] 09/4/2020 10:17

Good morning Jgun,

Yes, I just watched the presentation. Interesting shout on the Alphabet as he is monitoring that, but was a little wary of the lowish ROCE. He already has Visa so not certain he would add another of the same ilk like Mastercard, but maybe.

Not sure of his rationale for owning Novo Nordisk, but not other large pharma, was clear.

He was interested in the consumer side of GSK, if they spin it out, but not the Pharma side; similarly, he liked the consumer side of JNJ but admitted that the Pharma side had actually prospered more since be bought it. He doesn't like lumpy revenue from drug developers but the larger the Pharma the less lumpy, surely. I have been buying Roche as its ROCE IS > 30 and its FCF is about 6.9&. Of course, as soon as I started buying it the price has dropped, so WTF do I know.

Good luck with your investments.

Here is a link to the presentation. I would be interested in anyone else's take.

[edwards9] 08/4/2020 23:41

Or JD Sports

[jgunnsm2] 08/4/2020 20:08

At the AGM he made a good case for Alphabet. Much more of a guess at the 2nd one as they like millions of transaction companies so Visa or MasterCard.

[battyliveson] 06/4/2020 11:06

I believe he mentioned a blip due to an exposure to China. Could it be Burberry?

B

[hectorscrackhouse] 05/4/2020 18:55

Not sure about that Bez, The Denmark increase might be because Coloplast and Novo Nordisk have held up well and therefore account for a higher proportion of the assets.

Similarly, L'Oreal has not tanked and may account for the slight change in France

The only thing I can see is that Consumer Discretionary has gone up from 2.7 to 3.3% so that might be a clue.

[bezer] 05/4/2020 18:29

hectorscrackhouse: I was asking the same question. I looked at the geographical split between the latest Fundsmith Factsheet and last month's. My guess is whatever they are, (both will be Large Cap) one is Danish, the other French. Interesting to see if I am right.

[hectorscrackhouse] 05/4/2020 18:05

According to his 'Corona letter' Terry is buying two news stocks for the main fund. Any idea what they could be ?

[bezer] 31/3/2020 13:27

The Smithson AGM and update has just been posted on their website in the TV section. This should be most interesting!

[essentialinvestor] 19/3/2020 17:07

Very significant weighting to the US equity market.

With coronovirus cases just taking off stateside.

[steve3sandal] 29/2/2020 16:16

None of my business but 4/6 basstrend ITs are doing pretty much the same thing with quite a lot of stock overlap. So.....this is not diversification unless it’s a tilt within a wider pot. No surprise they all did the same. I held/hold Throgmorton Smithson and Scottish Mortgage. Discount widening from premium in sone cases. Provided the world isn’t going to hell in a handcart all well in Top up mode IMO. The experts suggest staying the course.

[lomax99] 29/2/2020 15:14

Yes, so much for funds diversifying risk. I am down almost as much, on average, on my funds (investment and unit trusts) as I am on my individual stock selections! From your list I hold ATT, THRG and SSON.

[thelongandtheshortandthetall] 29/2/2020 14:52

basstrend

They probably dropped further because they went from a premium above NAV to a discount on a much lower NAV.

Big fan of SSON here BTW

[basstrend] 29/2/2020 13:30

Yes the SSON share price got clobbered, along with the global markets in general. This is down to general panic and hysteria over the coronavirus of course. Some might argue that some stocks were getting a 'bit toppy' too so maybe some form of correction was due at some point. I'm not sure about that.

I hold six investment trusts in my SIPP, including SSON and they all took a severe bashing last week.

In just one week the average drop was 17%, which is quite a bit higher than the global markets dropped in the last week. Not sure I understand why ITs suffered worse (other than travel related stocks) compared to other stocks and indices..

Anyway, here's the drop I observed on the 6 trusts mentioned above, in the last 5 market days only -

18.95% ATT - Allianz Technology Trust
18.28% THRG - BlackRock Throgmorton Trust
18.85% MNL - Manchester & London Inv Trust
14.86% PCT - Polar Capital Trust
13.69% SMT - Scottish Mortgage Trust
17.39% SSON - Smithson Inv Trust

NB the average 5 day drop across these 6 IT's is: 17% - quite shocking really!

[spacecake] 29/2/2020 11:41

FEET pain a small dividend.
Anyway the share price got well and truly clobbered this week, coronavirus panic or something in the results ?

[chucko1] 26/2/2020 08:44

Some time ago, in one of his annual proclamations, TS explained in detail why he paid no dividends. If you want income, sell a few shares yourself as and when. The return analysis backed up the concept that it all amounted to the same thing as him paying them himself. The idea is that his funds will return more if kept invested, of course.

[wirralowl] 26/2/2020 08:36

Thanks bezer

[bezer] 25/2/2020 14:25

WirralOwl: For the time being there will be no dividend paid. The below is from the Interim Financial Report, dated August 2019.

Dividends
The Company's principal objective is to provide shareholder returns through long-term capital appreciation rather than income. In accordance with the Company's policy, an interim dividend has not been declared by the Board.
This position will be kept under review. It should not be expected that the Company will pay a significant annual dividend, but the Board intends to declare such annual dividends as are necessary to maintain the Company's UK investment trust status.