Portfolio Amendments – International Equities Portfolio

We are buying global Lithium company Albemarle (ALB US) with a 4% portfolio weighting. Lithium stocks have come under pressure as previously mouth balled supply comes back on stream, and this has created a strong risk/reward profile within the sector, both here and in the US, in our view.

We should have sold The Trade Desk (TTD US) several downgrades ago, with the stock moving from one of our top holdings to a significant detractor. We gave management too much time to address the challenges facing the programmatic advertising market, and last week’s quarterly update confirmed there is still plenty of work to do before the business can regain momentum.

That said, we continue to rate the TTD platform highly and would not be surprised to own the stock again in the future. For now, though, we need to see a tangible improvement in the financial metrics rather than simply relying on management’s confidence that a turnaround is coming.

Microsoft (MSFT US) has rallied nicely post results, pushing our prevailing weight up to ~7.3% of the portfolio. We are reinforcing our 6% target weighting, meaning we are trimming the position mildly.