Baillie Gifford’s £3 billion Monks Investment Trust plc said the fund produced a net asset value (NAV) total return of +29.2% for the six months to October 31, 2025, compared to +24.2% for its comparative index, the FTSE World Index.
The share price total return was +35.2%, as the global fund’s share price discount to NAV narrowed.
Monks stepped up its share buyback activity over the summer and bought back approximately 19 million shares over the six months to October 31 at a cost of £268 million.
The “discount” of the investment trust narrowed from 10.1% to 5.9% over the six-month period.
The fund’s biggest holdings in the period included Nvidia, TSMC, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Prosus, Alphabet and Mastercard.
“Management is investing for future growth too with new plants in Arizona (US), Japan and Germany better positioning the company to meet demand and grow its market leading position (it has over 60% global market share). We believe TSMC remains a foundational enabler of AI over the next decade and beyond.
“The largest detractor was Elevance Health (health insurance). While revenues grew +14% y/y (pricing and continued growth in Medicare Advantage), earnings declined -21% y/y as its Medicaid (government sponsored) programme saw costs increase and profitability fall. Management repurchased over $2bn of shares year-to-date and has indicated a return to 12-15% earnings growth over the next couple of years as its ability to re-price contracts plays through.
“It is not all bad news, Carelon, its managed-care services arm, is growing strongly (revenues +36% y/y). Elsewhere, some stocks that we do not own (or where we own a smaller proportion than the index) have found strong favour in recent months amid AI fuelled excitement. This hindered relative performance. Examples include an underweight position in Alphabet and nothing in Broadcom or Tesla. These are deliberate choices and reflect the quality of return opportunity we can see elsewhere in the portfolio … “
The fund’s managers are Spencer Adair, Malcolm MacColl and Helen Xiong. Adair will retire on March 31, 2026. The portfolio will continue to be managed by the Global Alpha team at Baillie Gifford. This will comprise current managers MacColl and Xiong, who will be joined as co-managers by Michael Taylor from April 1, 2026.
The managers added: “Earlier this year, we trimmed several ‘Rapid’ growth positions, namely DoorDash (food delivery), Shopify (ecommerce), and Cloudflare (cloud and internet services) after strong share price performance. Execution remains impressive at each, but we prefer position sizes that reflect the upside we see.
“We have continued to keep a steady hand on the valuation tiller. We sold Atlas Copco (industrial compressors), a world class business by any standard, because the qualities we admire had become fully reflected in the price. Selling a great company is never easy, but discipline on price creates room for broadening the base of growth within the portfolio.
“We also trimmed our position in Comfort Systems (heating ventilation and air conditioning installer). The company has benefited from a surge in data centre demand which has driven a doubling in its order book over the past two years. It is executing well and bringing innovative solutions to market, like its modular offerings which are built offsite and can cut production timeframes by up to 40%. While its shares re rated significantly (to 35x forward earnings), we have moderated the position size but remain supportive long term owners given its growing opportunity set.
“Similarly, we trimmed AutoZone (car part retailer) which has seen its share price rise +45% since we purchased the shares for Monks in June last year. It has been executing exceptionally well, opening over 300 net new stores over the past twelve months (its highest run-rate in 20 years) and driving steady sales growth. The shares have rerated to 27x forward earnings, so we have taken some profit.
“We have redeployed capital into a wide range of new ideas. Dollar General (discount retailer) has over 20,000 locations across rural America and offers low-cost consumables and household items. Having executed poorly in recent years, the return of its former CEO (Todd Vasos) promises a turnaround. He has a formidable track record of execution, and we believe the ‘dollar store’ value proposition remains attractive.
“We think growth will be delivered via a combination of store roll outs and greater efficiency and is not reflected in its high-teens earnings multiple. We have also purchased positions in MSCI, whose data and analytics are deeply embedded in investment workflows and provide subscription like durability, and Coinbase, a trusted, regulated US digital asset platform. The story here is broader than trading: revenues from custody, payments (including stablecoins), and subscriptions are growing, which we think should make earnings more resilient over time.”