What Stocks Are Collateral Damage In The Woodford Crisis?

Neil Woodford is one of the most famous stock pickers in the UK, and his flagship Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) managed £10.2bn at its peak.

But it’s fair to say that Woodford is going through a bit of a dark time at the moment. At the time of writing, the WEIF was worth just £3.7bn after a trickle of withdrawals started to turn into a flood.

Withdrawals Blocked

As a result, Neil Woodford made the highly unusual decision to block all remaining investors from making withdrawals from the fund for at least 28 days.

This was “necessary to protect investors’ interests,” said Woodford.

However, the backlash has been severe. As well as provoking the ire of investors, and earning some damaging press coverage in the process, Woodford’s decision has had a knock-on effect on the wider stock market.

Further Impact

Any stocks and listed funds which are connected to Woodford have seen a sharp drop in value over the past few days. This has been a cause for some introspection in the stock-picking world, where many day traders have been able to make index-beating returns by simply mirroring Woodford’s equity portfolio.

Woodford’s FTSE 250-listed Patient Capital Trust Fund closed 7.2 per cent lower on the 4th June 2019, while the FTSE 100-listed investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown – whose clients represent around 30 per cent of the investment in the WEIF – ended the trading day down 4.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, Woodford’s favourite stocks also took a hit, as investor confidence dipped. So which stocks are collateral damage in the Woodford crisis?

Stocks To Watch

As of 30 April 2019, the WEIF was invested in 101 listed and unlisted companies. Here are all of the companies that hold a one per cent share or more in the fund, along with their portfolio weightings:

• Barratt Developments – 7.53%
• Burford Capital – 5.78%
• Taylor Wimpey – 5.37%
• Provident Financial – 4.81%
• Theravance Biopharma – 4.71%
• Benevolent AI – 4.47%
• IP Group – 3.30%
• Countryside Properties – 3.13%
• Autolus – 3.13%
• Oxford Nanopore – 2.57%
• Imperial Brands – 2.36%
• Raven Property Convertible Pref 6.5% – 2.18%
• Stobart – 2.14%
• BCA Marketplace – 2.10%
• NewRiver REIT – 1.91%
• Purplebricks -1.87%
• Honeycomb Investment Trust -1.83%
• Eddie Stobart – 1.72%
• Crest Nicholson – 1.72%
• Redde – 1.69%
• Industrial Heat – 1.67%
• Oakley Capital – 1.59%
• Woodford Patient Capital – 1.56%
• Viamet -1.48%
• Prothena – 1.46%
• Proton Partners International – 1.46%
• Kier – 1.42%
• Paypoint – 1.26%