Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust posts drop in earnings

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has posted a 24.1% drop in earnings per share in its interim results, and warns the trend is expected to continue.

The FTSE 250 investment firm posted its results for the six months to 30 September on Friday.

Earnings per share were 1.23p over the period, compared with 1.62p for the same period last year.

It said the reason was the large number of companies, particularly in the US, reinvesting in future growth instead of paying cash out to shareholders.

“This trend of lower earnings, foreshadowed in the Annual Report, is expected to continue,” the report noted.

However it reminded shareholders of its role as a “long term growth investment trust with an objective to maximise total returns to shareholders, which it aims to achieve primarily through capital appreciation”.

Despite the results, the company did its bit to keep shareholders on-side by paying an unchanged interim dividend of 1.38p.

Shareholders were confident in the firm’s investment strategy, with shares up 4.60p (1.74%) to 269.70 at 0924 GMT.