Documents and announcements
If, like Annabel, you’re heading on a summer holiday soon, be sure to pack a good book or two to read on the beach. But should you tire of the plot twists of the latest thriller, don’t forget there is a cornucopia of free reading material on the AIC’s website.
The humble annual report may not be a page-turner, but it is packed with interesting and highly relevant information on an investment company. Increasingly, these reports are well designed and even visually appealing, making reading them less of a chore.
Or, if you are pressed for time, there’s the latest factsheet. The term is often a misnomer as they typically run to two, three or more pages in length, but they offer a more digestible account of the company’s latest portfolio and performance, often with the added insight of manager commentary.
A company’s most recent annual reports, interim report (produced at the half-year mark) and factsheet can all be found on the document tab of each investment company on theaic.co.uk. Helpfully, the date of each report appears beneath it, so you can quickly check which are most up to date.
But that’s not all. For those who want the most recent possible information, there is a Morningstar-generated factsheet for each investment company. The Morningstar factsheet is updated on a daily basis and filled with the latest information available for that company in a consistent format. And unlike the official factsheet, it really is just one page in length.
Another way to access annual reports, interim reports and factsheets is from our document library, which can be viewed here.
We have an announcement to make
Official stock exchange announcements are yet another valuable source of information for the investment company shareholder. There are two ways to access these.
If you want to see the announcements for a specific investment company, first search for the company to find its profile page, then navigate to the ‘Announcements’ tab. Here you can view all announcements for that company, covering the release of results, dividends, corporate actions or general updates.
If you want to see announcements for the whole investment company universe, you should head to the announcements page. Here, you can search by company or date range, as well as by the type of announcement you want to see.
For example, in the screenshot we have opted to show announcements categorised as ‘results’ or ‘dividends’ over the last week. Just click on an announcement to read it.
One important note: NAV announcements, in which investment companies release their latest net asset value per share, are hidden by default. Many companies release them daily so if we showed them, it would be hard to see the wood for the trees. However, you can view them all by clicking on the red button ‘View NAV announcements’.
Remember, stock exchange announcements can also be added to the alerts function if you wish, so that you receive timely email notifications when your chosen investment companies release information.
But if you do go to the beach this holiday, don’t spend all your time checking emails. The markets will still be there when you get home.
