Fidelity Global Dividend: March 2025 fund update

• Daniel Roberts is a highly experienced income investor and uses a clear and effective process

• A global equity income fund with a valuation focus, which could work well alongside US-dominated or global growth funds

• Global income funds have struggled in recent years and generally underperformed global growth funds, however, this fund’s long-term performance has been strong

• This fund features on our Wealth Shortlist of funds chosen by our analysts for their long-term performance potential

How it fits in a portfolio

The Fidelity Global Dividend fund aims to deliver long-term income and growth, with a focus on providing some shelter in weaker markets. Daniel Roberts’ unconstrained investment approach allows him to invest anywhere in the world, but he tends to favour large companies from developed markets. He won’t compromise on quality and is mindful of valuation – how much a company’s share price should be compared with its prospects. The fund could provide international diversification to an income-focused investment portfolio and work well alongside ‘growth’ orientated funds.

Manager

Daniel Roberts is a seasoned investor with 21 years of experience under his belt. Prior to joining Fidelity in 2011, he worked at Gartmore and Aviva Investors running UK and European income funds. He has managed this fund since launch in January 2012, looking for the same type of companies as his previous funds but with a much richer hunting ground - the whole world.

Roberts stepped down from managing the Fidelity Global Enhanced Income fund on 30 April 2022, which means he can dedicate his time to the Global Dividend fund. Fred Sykes and Jochen Breuer, who were appointed co-managers of Global Enhanced Income in April 2021, continue to run the fund using the existing investment process.

Roberts is the lead manager of this fund and carries out a lot of his own analysis, but he can make use of the large pool of Fidelity analysts available to him, totalling over 170 globally. He also benefits from the idea sharing and challenge provided by Fidelity’s Equity Income team.

In October 2024 Tristan Purcell was named assistant portfolio manager for the fund. Purcell joined Fidelity in 2017 and has 7 years of experience as a research analyst, covering European capital goods and US insurance companies. We think this is a good evolution of the team structure.

Process

Roberts entered the investment industry around the time of the Dot-com crash, so he’s seen first-hand the risk of companies’ share prices rising too far without enough earnings growth support, making them ‘overvalued’. It means he pays close attention to valuations and makes sure he doesn’t buy shares at a price he believes is above the company’s future growth potential.

Roberts’ approach focuses on individual company analysis, paying close attention to their financial accounts to ensure the company dividends are sustainable. He also assesses how a company has fared during different market conditions, looking to identify predictable revenue streams and resilience. The manager favours companies with simple business models, sensible management teams and healthy balance sheets whilst avoiding companies with too much debt.

The process whittles down a universe of 3,000 companies to a portfolio of between 40-60 holdings. These tend to be larger companies, at a size of $5bn and above. While the manager can invest in higher-risk smaller companies, he has tended not to make use of this flexibility. European companies make up 45.5% of the fund, which includes exposure to areas like the France and Germany, while 15.4% is invested in the UK. 28.2% of the fund is invested in the US, but this is much less than the benchmark. Roberts can also invest in higher-risk emerging markets. There’s a broad range of themes in the fund with a focus on more defensive sectors like consumer staples.

Roberts focuses on the long-term sustainability and growth of dividends, rather than high dividends now that may not grow further or be cut. This means there’s no minimum yield (income) requirement for any single investment and the manager invests in some companies with a yield lower than the market if there’s an expectation it will grow over time. The manager targets a yield of at least 25% more than the benchmark. Remember yields are not a reliable indicator of future income and income isn’t guaranteed.

Over the last 12 months, Roberts has kept true to his strict valuation approach. He currently believes the market is very expensive and so has only found a few new companies that look attractive. He added British multinational food service company Compass Group and Finnish elevator and escalator installer Kone Oyj.

In contrast, Roberts sold a number of investments. He sold US technology company Intel. Roberts believes the new management team that has come in has made significant changes to the business and he is unsure how it will play out so decided to move on. He also lowered his exposure to UK technology company RELX. RELX has been a benefiter of advancements in artificial intelligence and the share price has reflected that. Roberts is now concerned that it has become too expensive so has sold some of shares to reflect that risk.

Please note charges can be taken from capital, which can increase the yield but reduces the potential for capital growth. Roberts has the flexibility to use derivatives in this fund, which adds risk if used.

Culture

Fidelity was founded in 1969 and is a global investment manager. The company remains privately owned, which means its managers can focus on the long-term interests of investors rather than short-term shareholder demands. That’s helped the firm develop an investment-focused culture, where investment ideas are openly discussed and debated, and information is shared amongst the firm’s various teams.

The company's scale means investment teams are well-resourced and fund managers are well-incentivised. We think it's positive that all Fidelity fund managers are incentivised based on the longer-term performance of their funds. We think this aligns their interests with those of investors.

ESG integration

Fidelity has committed to improving its approach to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in recent years. The firm developed a structured engagement program which allows it to be more systematic in its engagement on environmental and social issues, became involved in more collaborative engagement initiatives and introduced ESG data into fund managers’ quarterly reviews to raise awareness of ESG issues. The firm also bolstered its dedicated ESG team, which writes regular ESG reports on companies held by Fidelity fund managers. The firm votes where it is possible to do so and quarterly voting reports are posted online, complete with rationales for votes against management and abstentions.

In June 2019, Fidelity launched its own proprietary ESG ratings tool. It scores thousands of companies based on their ESG credentials on a forward-looking basis, with investment analysts tasked with the job of ensuring the ratings are up to date. The ratings system was later updated to include an assessment of each company’s ability to manage negative externalities. Fidelity also developed a climate rating which highlights companies where engagement is most necessary if the firm is to achieve its aim to halve portfolio emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

While Fidelity has made strides forward at the firm level, we don’t think this has fully fed through to the fund level. Although there is plenty of ESG information available to all Fidelity fund managers, we’re not yet convinced they all put it to full use.

Cost

The fund is available for an annual ongoing charge of 0.91%. The HL platform fee of up to 0.45% per year also applies, except in the HL Junior ISA, where no platform fees apply.

Performance

Since the fund launched in 2012 it hasn’t kept up with its benchmark, the MSCI AC World Index (MSCI ACWI). Over this time the fund has returned 289.71%* compared to 348.27% for the MSCI ACWI. However, the fund has performed better than the average fund in the IA Global Equity Income which returned 217.98%. Remember past performance is not a guide to future returns.

It’s important to remember in recent years, global equity income funds haven’t tended to perform as well as the broader global market. The US market, the technology sector, as well as other high-growth areas have performed well. These areas don’t pay much in the way of dividends though, so many global income funds don’t have as much invested and have missed out on some of the gains made. That said, many have focused on achieving a sustainable and growing income.

Over the past 12 months the fund returned 16.47% marginally outperforming the MSCI ACWI which returned 16.10%. They also outperformed the average fund in the IA Global Equity Income which retuned 12.02% Roberts’ conservative approach and focus on high-quality companies means the fund performs differently to its peers at times. Historically, it’s performed better than peers in falling markets, but has tended to marginally lag them in a rising market.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was the largest contributor to performance. The company sells some of the most advanced chips needed for AI and benefited from increased demand as companies sought to leverage advancements in AI. Swiss healthcare company Roche also performed well, benefiting from strong demand for new drugs.

On the other hand, American marketing and media company Omnicom was the largest detractor of returns. The fund’s investments in South Korean technology company Samsung and French industrial company Vinci also hurt performance. Given Roberts’ focus on sustainable dividend growth, he didn’t invest in US semiconductor company Nvidia or US technology company Apple. Not owning these companies hurt performance compared to the benchmark.

Over the longer term we believe this fund benefits from the experience of a well-resourced manager with the potential to deliver good returns for investors, but this isn’t guaranteed. The fund is likely to lag the broader global market when the US and high-growth sectors are performing well, but the reverse is also true. We expect it to provide more resilient returns when markets are volatile.

The manager has a good record of growing the fund’s income over time, and the fund currently yields 3.0% but remember income is variable and can change over time. Yields are not a reliable indicator of future income.