BMO continues to increase dividend- BMO Capital and Income Investment Trust plc (BCI) has increased its annual dividend for the 25th year running. This year, the total dividend increased by 2.8% year-on-year, with the final dividend per share totalling 10.95 pence. Share price total return for the year was 5.3% (2017: 15.8%). The NAV per share rose 5.5% while the benchmark, the FTSE All-Share Index rose 5.9% over the same period. The revenue return per share was 11.7p, which is unchanged from last years results.
BMO Capital and Income Investment also changed its name this year on 9 November, 2018. The previous name for the fund being F&C Capital and Income Investment Trust. BMO decided that it would be better for the brand if everything want branded under on name and that it would lead to less confusion.
Steven Bates, chairman of BCI, had this to say about the outlook of the fund: “As I write, markets are suffering another bout of jitters. Sometimes, this seems to be because economic activity is too strong, which means more rate rises; sometimes it’s because economies are too weak, which means pressure on corporate profits; and sometimes it’s because something unpleasant has happened to Italy, or China or Brexit or free trade. In any event, the economic expansion and the bull market which has accompanied it, is quite long in the tooth. Bull markets, though, do not die of old age. They generally finish on the back of a liquidity squeeze caused by higher interest rates. While this outturn looks feasible in the US where the economy has done much better than other developed countries and where the stock market has done exceptionally well, the likelihood of much higher interest rates on this side of the Atlantic is remote. In the UK, we still do not know what will happen on Brexit and the level of uncertainty posits an accommodative monetary policy. Other things being equal, this is positive for equity markets, but we can expect any upward trend to be interrupted by periods of uncomfortable volatility as the politics unfold and the cycle matures.”
BCI- BMO continues to increase dividend