FundCalibre - Investing on the go

Investing on the go gives you direct access to the people who manage your ISA and pensions savings. Our hosts will be interviewing finance professionals on everything from their successes and failures to current ideas and insights. At meetings, before events and even if we bump into them on the street, we'll grab five minutes with these experts to discuss how your own personal finances could be impacted by topics such as US elections, the move from petrol to electric vehicles, the growth in artificial intelligence and robots, and so much more. Our ultimate goal is to bring to life the world of investments and uncover new and exciting opportunities, all while inspiring you to invest and giving you the confidence and knowledge to make the right decisions. To do this we often ask the managers why they are invested in individual companies. This is for illustration only and should not be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell that stock. The fund manager may or may not still own these companies at the time of your listening. For more investment research visit us at www.fundcalibre.com and follow us on twitter and facebook @FundCalibre

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FundCalibre - Investing on the go

365. Rethinking income: dividend growth and share buybacks

August 07, 2025 • Sue Noffke

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.