26th Sep 2018 11:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - North American Income Trust PLC said on Wednesday it outperformed one of its benchmark indices while undeperforming against another in the first half of its financial year, due to a strong performance in the period.
North American Income reported a net asset value total return of 7.2% over the six months to the end of July, outperforming the Russell 1000 Value Index return of 6.7% but behind the S&P 500 Index return of 9.7%.
North American Income declared a second quarterly dividend of 8.0 pence per share, taking its total dividend in the first half to 16.0p, up 6.7% from 15.0p the year before.
Net asset value per share stood at 1,451.3 pence as at July 31, up 5.3% from 1,377.6p at January 31. The share price was 1,350.0p on that date, widening the discount to net asset value to 7.0% from 5.6%.
Shares in the fund were quoted at 1,375.30 pence on Wednesday, down 0.2% on the day.
"The manager believes that empirical evidence continues to indicate a robust US economy, which thus far has translated into a healthy start to the third-quarter 2018 earnings season. However, there has been a growing variability of results across the economy and there have been examples of margin pressure driven by higher input costs from rising raw materials prices as well as labour costs," said Chairman James Ferguson.
"These pressures may largely abate given the ability to push through prices despite near-term lags in passing through such costs. In addition, demand in the housing and automotive markets has become more erratic as high housing prices have yet to generate a strong supply response, and vehicle sales appear to be flattening," Ferguson added.
Related Shares:
North American