Friday, April 25, 2014

PICK

PICK. That's a New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol for iShares Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) "MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers". It's also our latest position.

Our exposure to "Mining & Exploration" sector - one of the sectors we focus on - has been very low for quite some time (very low as in 1,4% in last portfolio update). I have been looking at various corporations for direct investment, but decided instead to go with an ETF.

After some research of various options, I homed in on the PICK. The fund invests in all the big names in mining space like BHP Billiton, RIO Tinto, Glencore Xtrata, Anglo American, "Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold" and VALE. All in all, there seems to be 246 holdings as of today. The index followed by the fund is "MSCI ACWI Select Metals & Mining Producers Ex Gold & Silver Investable Market Index" (means it does not invest in companies that are mainly Gold and Silver producers).

158 million USD in net assets is a decent amount of money and allows the funds to have reasonable 0,39% net expence ratio. The trailing 12 month yield is 3,52%. iShares gives also P/E figure of 21,07 and P/B of 1,72 for this fund. For some reason Yahoo Finance puts TTM P/E at 12. Finwiz.com on the other hand, shows very reasonable forward P/E figures for companies that are among the top holdings and listed in NYSE:
  • VALE (VALE) 7,6
  • RIO Tinto (RIO) 9,6
  • Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold (FCX) 11,0
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) 12,7