Fund Focus: the names on Artemis Global Income's heels

I wouldn’t expect an income fund to shoot the lights out, but one such name has certainly done that. Artemis Global Income I Inc (B5N9956) has returned around 25% so far this year, having already done big numbers in 2024 and 2023. 

It has returned around 165% over the last half decade, making it the best-performing “generalist” global equity fund.

This success doesn’t come without its worries – that the fund behaves too much like a momentum portfolio and might be due a pullback or, for example, that it relies too much on financials (42% of assets). 

But it is good to see an active fund that has a differentiated approach, including look well beyond the US, delivering the goods with consistency. 

But what of the competition? As alluded to above, classic “income” sectors like financials have had a good run, and geographies beyond the US have also started to come through on the performance front. 

That means that some other global income funds have also done very well – and outperformed most growth-oriented portfolios over a five-year period. 

And some very different approaches are on offer here.

Five funds on Artemis Global Income’s heels

As noted, these funds perform pretty well versus more growth-minded funds over a five-year spell. If we look at some of the best-performing growth funds over five years, Ranmore Global Equity D GBP (BV8GHL6) has returned around 144%. 

Artemis SmartGARP Glb Eq I Acc GBP (B2PLJP9) is on around 123%, with Royal London Global Equity Select M Acc (BF93W97) and Orbis OEIC Global Equity Standard (BJ02KW0) each on around 115%.  

But most other generalist global growth funds sit behind these names over the time period – including high flyers such as WS Blue Whale Growth I Sterling Acc (BD6PG56). 

 The second name in the table is likely well known to a good number of readers, given its distinctive approach. Murray International likes to look past the likes of the Magnificent Seven shares (surprisingly popular in many income funds), and to diversify well past the US. Around a fifth of the portfolio apiece sits in Europe and Asia. 

That has often led it to act as a good diversifier against a global or US tracker, though this does cut both ways when it comes to performance. 

The trust, for example, made massive gains in 2022 when “growth” shares and the MSCI World index struggled, but then delivered some anaemic returns amid the rising markets of 2023 and 2024. It did well last year, when US equities were out of favour and investors turned elsewhere. 

The trust has at times delivered a very chunky share price dividend yield. That seems to have come in recently on the back of strong performance and stands at around 3.6%, which is admittedly competitive versus that of many other global income funds. 

Who else? 

Royal London Global Equity Income has also had a good showing though it seems pretty focused on tech and on growth. Its top 10 holding list includes Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), though we also get the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) in there. The fund comes with a (trailing 12-month) dividend yield of 2.3%. 

As mentioned earlier, classic “growth” stocks are worryingly well represented in many a global income fund – though some managers may argue they are targeting dividend growth rather than being simply obsessed with yield here. 

But it does mean that some income funds look far too similar to their growth-minded counterparts. 

Most of the names in this table do well to buck that trend. Liontrust Global Income & Growth has a decent trailing yield of 3.9% and includes the National Bank of Greece, Rexel SA (EURONEXT:RXL), Glencore (LSE:GLEN), Informa (LSE:INF) and AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN) among its top holdings. 

Its biggest sector weightings are to financials and to industrials. 

If we look at the Invesco Global Equity Income trust there’s an interesting mix of exposures. 

Yes, we get some names associated with the artificial intelligence (AI) theme among its top holdings, from Microsoft to Texas Instruments Inc (NASDAQ:TXN) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR (NYSE:TSM). 

But there’s also Standard Chartered (LSE:STAN), Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (LSE:CCEP), Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) and even 3i Group Ord (LSE:III). 

As that last name shows, the investment team does have something of a penchant for UK shares. The UK accounts for 27% of the portfolio, with 46% in the US, 17.2% in Europe and just under 10% in the Pacific rim region. The trust’s shares yield 4%. 

Income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are pretty common nowadays and one name does duly make the cut here – though it’s worth remembering some of its competitors don’t sit in the relevant fund sectors and wouldn’t come into consideration here. 

This particular ETF tracks the Nasdaq Global High Equity Income index, which targets companies with good dividends and yields around 4.4% on a trailing basis. 

It stands out in quite a few respects, particularly in having just 14% of its portfolio in the US. But it does look like a classic income fund in other ways: think its chunky, 45% allocation to financials shares, plus a decent level of exposure to energy shares. 

There’s certainly no guarantee of a continued hot streak for Artemis Global Income, or for other global income portfolios. But the names currently doing the best are adopting some very different approaches.