Liontrust Global Dividend Fund Q4 2021 review | Insights

Past performance does not predict future returns. You may get back less than you originally invested. Reference to specific securities is not intended as a recommendation to purchase or sell any investment.

The Liontrust Global Dividend Fund returned 6.4% in the fourth quarter, compared with 7.3% from the MSCI World Index and 6.1% from the IA Global Equity Income sector (both comparator benchmarks)*.

United Health (+28%) continues to execute every quarter and was the top performer for the Fund over the final three months of the year. After decades consolidating the healthcare insurance industry (still only at 10-12% market share), the company is starting to benefit from its use of big data insights across its business. In particular, the Optum division that provides data insights to optimise healthcare treatment is enabling a once slow and efficient US healthcare sector to drive productivity improvements.

With healthcare spending as a 20% of US GDP − there is significant opportunity for United Health to drive significant customer value across various healthcare verticals. As a result, we see the company which has averaged 19% p.a dividend growth over the last 5 years, as one of the world best income stocks that hardly anyone else owns.

One of the top performing stocks for the year was Intuit (+26%), which we bought in late March 2020. The US accounting software giant has continued to execute across all divisions and gained significant share in the small-to-medium enterprise accounting market. However, the company’s share price has begun to run far ahead of intrinsic value and in November we reviewed the holding and sold. In addition, we reduced our target weights in Costco (+26%) and Estee Lauder (+22%) due to our valuation discipline as these core holdings extended their strong share price performance.

Unfortunately, during this time we did not hold several strong performing income stocks, popular to our peers, such as Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Relx and PepsiCo. While several of these stocks are on our Global Innovation 200 Watchlist, at typically over a 25x price to earnings ratio, and without exceptional growth prospects, they are too expensive for us.

After selling Anta Sports (-7%) in February this year due to the stock hitting our price target, in October we made a new investment in the company. Anta’s stock price peaked in June this year but has fallen 38% after supply chain issues related to the shortage of cotton in Q3.

This Chinese sports apparel retailer is better positioned in China with its brands, distribution, and online presence than Nike, Adidas, Lululemon and other domestic brands across mid-market and high-end sports apparel. With the Chinese governments shift to supporting domestic champions, we see the current stock price weakness a great opportunity to buy a high-quality business at a large discount to its intrinsic value.

This new investment takes our China weighting to 10% and towards the upper limit of how much capital we are comfortable allocating to China given the political and regulatory risks – but at current stock market prices of our Chinese holdings, we see these risks more than priced in.

A new holding for the fund, Epiroc (+22%) benefited from improved order flow for heavy underground mining machinery. Epiroc, based in Sweden, spun out of Atlas Copco a couple of years ago and has gone from strength to strength as a stand-alone company. Importantly, the company generates a large proportion of revenue from high recurring aftermarket sales, making Epiroc a high-quality capital goods manufacturer.

On top of expected organic growth of 4-6% per year from pricing improvements in the aftermarket – Epiroc has shifted to offer customers the ability to convert traditional combustion engines to electric power trains. The payback for this investment is between 2-3 years and makes underground mining safer and cleaner – this rapidly accelerating demand is driving both improved order flow and stock price strength.

We expect 2022 to present its fair share of surprises for investors. However, we believe that being invested in innovative global leaders equips us with the strong underlying fundamentals to deliver strong capital and income growth, and the resilience to deal with the challenges that are sure to be thrown our way. Meanwhile, our valuation discipline and strong bench of stocks in the form of our Global Innovation 200 watchlist gives us a toolkit that will hopefully help mitigate downside if volatility becomes extreme.

Discrete years' performance (%)**, to previous quarter-end:

	Dec-21	Dec-20	Dec-19	Dec-18	Dec-17
Liontrust Global Dividend C Acc GBP	16.1%	16.7%	34.0%	-5.2%	6.9%
MSCI World	22.9%	12.3%	22.7%	-3.0%	11.8%
IA Global Equity Income	18.7%	3.3%	18.6%	-5.8%	10.4%
Quartile	3	1	1	3	4

*Source: FE Analytics as at 31.12.21

**Source: FE Analytics as at 31.12.21. Quartile generated on 07.01.22

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Key Risks

Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of an investment and the income generated from it can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed. You may get back less than you originally invested. The issue of units/shares in Liontrust Funds may be subject to an initial charge, which will have an impact on the realisable value of the investment, particularly in the short term. Investments should always be considered as long term.

Investment in funds managed by the Global Equity (GE) team may involve investment in smaller companies - these stocks may be less liquid and the price swings greater than those in, for example, larger companies. Investment in funds managed by the GE team may involve foreign currencies and may be subject to fluctuations in value due to movements in exchange rates. The team may invest in emerging markets/soft currencies or in financial derivative instruments, both of which may have the effect of increasing volatility. Some of the funds managed by the GE team hold a concentrated portfolio of stocks, meaning that if the price of one of these stocks should move significantly, this may have a notable effect on the value of that portfolio.

Disclaimer

This is a marketing communication. Before making an investment, you should read the relevant Prospectus and the Key Investor Information Document (KIID), which provide full product details including investment charges and risks. These documents can be obtained, free of charge, from www.liontrust.co.uk or direct from Liontrust. Always research your own investments. If you are not a professional investor please consult a regulated financial adviser regarding the suitability of such an investment for you and your personal circumstances.

This should not be construed as advice for investment in any product or security mentioned, an offer to buy or sell units/shares of Funds mentioned, or a solicitation to purchase securities in any company or investment product. Examples of stocks are provided for general information only to demonstrate our investment philosophy. The investment being promoted is for units in a fund, not directly in the underlying assets. It contains information and analysis that is believed to be accurate at the time of publication, but is subject to change without notice. Whilst care has been taken in compiling the content of this document, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by Liontrust as to its accuracy or completeness, including for external sources (which may have been used) which have not been verified. It should not be copied, forwarded, reproduced, divulged or otherwise distributed in any form whether by way of fax, email, oral or otherwise, in whole or in part without the express and prior written consent of Liontrust. Always research your own investments and if you are not a professional investor please consult a regulated financial adviser regarding the suitability of such an investment for you and your personal circumstances.