Murray Income’s results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2026 were not great – a NAV return of 15.1% compared to a benchmark return of 21.9%. However, since the appointment of Artemis as the manager in March 2026 and its rejig of the portfolio, the NAV and share price are up 9.1% and 11.5%, respectively, well ahead of a 4.7% return from the benchmark.
The dividend was increased by a penny to 41p, marking the 53rd consecutive year of dividend increases on the trust. The net revenue per share was 40.6p. However, share buybacks shrunk the amount that needed to be paid out, so there will not have to be any transfer from revenue reserves.
The board bought back 4.6m shares (4.7% of the opening shares in issue) at an average discount of 8.3% – which added 0.4% to the NAV return. The discount narrowed from 9.6% to 6.7%.
The legal, corporate and admin costs related to the transition came in at £600k. On top of that, stamp duty on purchases of new portfolio investments amounted to £3.9m (75% of the portfolio was traded). However, we are still in the initial fee waiver period for Artemis – it agreed not to charge a fee for the first nine months – but these will then shift to being charged at the lower of market cap and NAV [which is a structure that we approve of]. Artemis has also contributed £150k towards marketing the trust.
Artemis is keen to use Contracts for Difference (CfDs) in its management of the portfolio and the board is putting in place the structures to accommodate that.
The new management team notes the increase in M&A activity in the UK market – MUT held SEGRO and easyjet that were bid for during the period and amongst the largest positive constributors to returns. They say that these “are yet another sign of the undervaluation of parts of the UK equity market in our view, and there are several more names in our portfolio that we believe could be vulnerable to an approach. This should underpin share prices as M&A approaches once again look to be ticking up for UK companies.”
The managers also highlight the gap between UK and international valuations – the portfolio trades on 12.4x earnings, the All-Share 12.7x, and the World Index 23x.
QuotedData’s James Carthew said “Artemis has been managing Murray Income for around six months now. It is great to see the improvement in its performance, in what has been a turbulent period mainly thanks to the Iran war. There has been considerable dispersion of returns across the UK equity income sector over this period, with Murray Income sitting in the middle of the performance table. So, too early to get excited, but a step in the right direction.”
