BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust Plc - Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK SUSTAINABLE AMERICAN INCOME TRUST PLC (LEI:549300WWOCXSC241W468)
All information is at 30 April 2024 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
 

At month end

1 Based on three quarterly dividends of 2.00p per share declared on 11 May 2023, 3 August 2023 and 2 November 2023 for the year ended 31 October 2023 and one quarterly dividend of 2.00p per share declared on 14 March 2024 for the year ending 31 October 2024 and based on the share price as at close of business on 30 April 2024.

² Excluding 23,284,492 ordinary shares held in treasury.

³ The Company’s ongoing charges calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding finance costs, direct transaction costs, custody transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain non-recurring items for the year ended 31 October 2023.

Tony DeSpirito, David Zhao and Lisa Yang, representing the Investment Manager, noted:

For the one-month period ended 30 April 2024, the Company’s NAV decreased by 2.2% and the share price by 0.6% (all in sterling). The Company’s reference index, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned -3.4% for the period.

The largest contributor to relative performance, stemmed from stock selection in consumer discretionary, with selection decisions in leisure products boosting relative performance. Selection decisions in information technology also boosted relative performance, with stock selection and allocation decisions in semiconductors and semiconductor equipment particularly beneficial to relative performance. Other modest contributors during the period at the sector level included selection decisions in health care and financials.

The largest detractor from relative performance stemmed from stock selection in consumer staples, most notably in consumer staples distribution and retail. Allocation decisions in utilities modestly detracted from relative performance, with an underweight allocation in electric utilities dragging on relative performance. Other modest detractors during the period included stock selection in materials and an underweight allocation to industrials weighing down relative performance.

Transactions

During the month, the Company’s largest purchases included Electronic Arts, Sempra and HP. The Company exited its positions in Zebra Technologies, Visa and Dollar General.

Positioning

As of the period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the reference index were in the health care, consumer discretionary and communication services sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the reference index were in the industrials, real estate and financials sectors.

Source: BlackRock.

23 May 2024

Latest information is available by typing blackrock.com/uk/brsa on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal).  Neither the contents of the Manager’s website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager’s website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.