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The FTSE 100 index has risen by around 18% in the past 24 months. Add in the dividends, the total return rises above 20%.
That’s a solid showing from the blue-chip index, especially considering all the economic and tariff uncertainty over this period.
However, one FTSE 100 investment trust has doubled that, delivering a share price return of roughly 55% since June 2023. The name in question is Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (LSE: SMT).
However, it has been far from plain sailing for this growth-focused trust in recent years. Indeed, despite this strong two-year showing, the Scottish Mortgage share price remains 35% off a peak reached in late 2021.
Here are three core reasons why I think the stock is worth considering right now.
Double-digit discount
One quirk of investment trusts is that they can trade at a discount to their underlying net asset value (NAV). In the case of Scottish Mortgage, with its share price currently at 996p, the discount to NAV is just over 11%.
In other words, investors can buy £1 worth of assets for just 89p.
While there’s no guarantee the discount will ever narrow, which is a risk, it also provides an attractive entry point for investors, in my opinion.
Privileged access
Scottish Mortgage is run by Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based asset management giant. Due to its scale and reputation for being a patient shareholder, Baillie Gifford gets invited by founders to invest in some of the world’s most exciting private companies.
For example, after it supported Tesla despite a lot of scepticism and criticism, Scottish Mortgage got to invest in Elon Musk’s other firm, unlisted Space Exploration Technologies (aka SpaceX).
This has been a 10-bagger since 2018, and is now the trust’s largest holding, at 7.2% of the portfolio.
That said, one risk I see here is Elon Musk’s fractured relationship with President Trump. This could easily see SpaceX’s $350bn valuation savagely marked down at the next opportunity, as investors worry about the potential ramifications of this falling out. And this would obviously reduce the value of Scottish Mortgage’s largest holding.
In a worst-case scenario, SpaceX could get fewer future US government contracts. Meanwhile, the firm’s gigantic Starship rocket spectacularly blew up on 19 June. While such explosions are part and parcel of rocket tests, this follows another fiery Starship failure a few weeks ago.
So, SpaceX is definitely facing a few challenges right now.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that Scottish Mortgage, unlike most other trusts, gets to invest in the world’s most exciting start-ups. It has positions in Stripe, TikTok-owner ByteDance, and Fortnite-maker Epic Games.
More recently, it has invested in quantum computer start-up PsiQuantum and British fintech Revolut. Both could go public over the next couple of years, potentially boosting Scottish Mortgage’s holdings.
The age of AI
A massive underlying theme of the portfolio is artificial intelligence (AI). The managers think this technology will have profound implications over the next couple of decades.
AI stocks held include chip titans Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Also in there is Amazon, whose AWS cloud computing platform is democratising the technology by making powerful AI tools accessible to a wide range of users and industries.
Scottish Mortgage offers a ready-made portfolio of top-tier AI companies.
