365. Rethinking income: dividend growth and share buybacks

Sue Norfolk, manager of the Schroder Income Growth Trust, shares how UK companies are adapting their capital distribution strategies with a shift towards share buybacks and stable dividend growth. We also cover the evolving landscape of domestic versus international opportunities, sector-specific insights into financials, consumer discretionary, and industrials, and how geopolitical tensions are factored into portfolio decisions. Finally, we examine the fund’s bottom-up stock selection approach, recent adjustments in holdings like AstraZeneca, GSK, and Burberry, and the current valuation-driven opportunities in the market.

What’s covered in this episode:

• Schroder Income Growth’s dividend hero status
• Dividends, share buybacks or social dividends?
• How volatility is factored into the portfolio
• Staying focused on bottom-up stock picking
• The impact of US politics on the trust
• Right and wrong tariff calls
• The attractive nature of UK mid-caps
• A closer look at financials and customer discretionary
• Making calls on defence and industrials
• Why this manager favours AstraZeneca over GSK
• Doubling down on Burberry
• Why UK equity is still attractive today

More about the trust: Launched in 1995, the Schroder Income Growth Trust’s principal aim is to provide real growth of income in excess of the rate of inflation. It invests mainly in the shares of UK larger and medium-sized companies, although it can also invest some of the portfolio in the shares of firms listed abroad.

Learn more on fundcalibre.com

Please remember, we’ve been discussing individual companies to bring investing to life for you. It’s not a recommendation to buy or sell. The fund may or may not still hold these companies at the time of listening. Elite Ratings are based on FundCalibre’s research methodology and are the opinion of FundCalibre’s research team only.