JPMorgan American Investment Trust: February 2026 update

• The managers invest in a mixture of faster growing companies as well as unloved value companies

• The managers also invest in one of JPMorgan’s smaller companies funds

• The trust has performed well since longest serving manager Felise Agranoff took over the management in August 2022

How it fits in a portfolio

JPMorgan American Investment Trust aims to deliver long-term growth by investing in a mixture of higher growing companies as well as a some unloved value companies. These are blended together to create a balanced investment trust. They also invest in higher risk smaller companies. This trust could form a core building block of an investment portfolio or diversify a portfolio focussed away from the US. Investors in investment trusts should be aware that they can trade at a discount or premium to net asset value (NAV).

Manager

The trust is made up of four co-managers with two managers focussing on the growth portfolio and two focussed on the value portfolio.

The growth portfolio is managed by Felise Agranoff and Eric Ghernati. Agranoff became co-manager of the trust in August 2022. She joined JPMorgan in 2004 working on the US large cap fundamental research team before joining the growth team as a research analyst in 2006. She also co-managers a number of other funds including the US mid-cap growth fund, US all-cap fund and Growth advantage fund.

Ghernati joined the trust in August 2024. He is responsible for the technology sector for the mid cap growth and small cap growth strategies and is co-portfolio manager of the JPMorgan US. technology strategy. Prior to joining JPMorgan in 2020, Eric spent six years as a buy side analyst for Lord, Abbett & Co., where he covered the technology sector.

The value portfolio is managed by Jack Caffrey and Graham Spence. Similar to Ghernati, Caffrey also became a co-manager of the trust in August 2024. He has been managing the focused dividend growth strategy since the inception of the offering. Before assuming this role in 2010, Jack was a Private Bank Equity Strategist.

Spence is the newest member of the team becoming co-manager in March 2025. Spence began his investment career in 2005 and has been a co-manager of JPMorgan’s value advantage fund since 2020 and a Portfolio Analyst of JPMorgan from 2013 to 2020.

The team are also supported by two co-managers focussed on investing in smaller companies. Lawrence Playford and Eytan Shapiro manage a small cap fund which makes up a small part of this investment trust.

Whilst the managers of the trust are experienced in their own right, they haven’t worked together on the trust for very long. However, they are supported by the extensive research team at JP Morgan.

Process

The trust aims to invest in US companies with strong fundamentals that are not fully appreciated by the market.

Both the growth and value managers follow a similar philosophy designed to identify durable businesses led by strong management teams. However, their processes differ.

The value managers look for companies who they believe are trading below their true value and have strong long-term prospects. They have particular interest in companies that have sustainable cashflow and a strong management team to unlock their true value.

Whereas the growth managers look for companies that are showing strong earnings growth which they believe have structural tailwinds to exceed the markets expectations.

This creates a concentrated portfolio that consists of blending both growth and value companies. This typically makes up 90-95% of the trust with the remainder invested in a small cap strategy, also managed by JPMorgan. A concentrated portfolio can mean each investment can contribute significantly to returns, although this approach increases risk.

Over the last 12 months the managers have made a number of changes to the trust. They recently reinvested in electric car manufacturer Tesla. The share price had come under pressure as demand began to stall for electric vehicles, however, the team have growing confidence in the company’s autonomous driving technology. They also added healthcare company Johnson & Johnson and industrial company 3M.

On the other hand, the managers sold three healthcare companies including UnitedHealth Group, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly.

The trust also borrows money to invest with the intention of increasing returns (known as gearing). This could magnify gains in a rising market, but also magnify losses in a falling market, so it increases risk. At the end of January 2026 gearing was 5.5% - marginally higher than their longer-term average.

Culture

JPMorgan is one of the world's biggest asset managers. It has investment professionals based all over the world, and the team behind this fund can tap into this experience and local knowledge.

ESG integration

JPMorgan committed to integrate ESG factors into its investment processes for active funds in 2016 and ESG is now a foundation for investment decisions across the firm. J.P. Morgan funds take a variety of different approaches, from quantitatively scoring companies on various ESG measures to help with portfolio construction, to more qualitative analysis achieved through fundamental research and company meetings. All fund managers have access to the central Sustainable Investing team, as well as thematic research and analytics, which focus on climate change and carbon transition.

Investment teams are required to demonstrate their progress on integrating ESG to the Sustainable Investing Oversight Committee, a group of senior managers from across the business. Their progress is measured against a multi factor framework and must satisfy several conditions before it is certified as ‘ESG Integrated’. If the strategy does not meet this threshold, the investment team in question will need to incorporate feedback from the Committee and reapply to restart the review process. Investment teams are then subject to ongoing monitoring. We like this objective approach to internal ESG accreditation.

The firm has detailed voting policies which are specific to each region they invest in and account for local customs. Investment teams and investment stewardship specialists in the relevant region are responsible for implementing those policies, based on their deep knowledge and experience of the country, sector and company. A detailed fund-by-fund and company-by-company voting record is available on the JPMorgan website, although voting rationale is not provided. Fund managers also regularly engage with the companies they invest in, and there are a number of case studies on their website and in their annual Investment Stewardship report.

In February 2024, J.P. Morgan Asset Management controversially withdrew from the Climate Action 100+ collaborative engagement initiative, citing that it had built up its own stewardship capabilities. Following a meeting with the firm’s Global Head of Sustainable Investing, we were left feeling confident that it remains firmly committed to sustainability

Cost

The trust's ongoing annual charge as at the end of January 2026 was 0.35%. Investors should refer to the latest annual reports and accounts and Key Information Document for details of the risks and charging structure.

If held in a SIPP or ISA, the HL platform fee of 0.45% (capped at £200 for a SIPP and £45 for an ISA) per annum also applies. Our platform fee doesn’t apply if held in a Fund and Share Account.

Investment trusts trade like shares, both a buy and sell instruction will be subject to the HL share dealing charges within any Hargreaves Lansdown account, except online in the HL Junior ISA. From March 2026, the amount clients pay to invest with us will change. Find out more about these changes.

Performance

Since the longest serving manager Agranoff joined the trust in August 2022 the trust share price has grown 53.32%* compared to 50.20% for the average trust in the AIC North America sector. The trust’s Net Asset Value (NAV) has also grown 54.50% over this time. Past performance is not a guide to future returns.

Over the last 12 months the trust has had a more difficult time, returning -4.84% compared to 11.19% for the average trust in the AIC North American sector. The trust’s NAV has grown 0.66% over this time.

The trust’s investment in technology company HubSpot was one of the largest detractors over the last 12 months. Investors are concerned that the cloud-based software company could be at risk from the advancements of AI. Healthcare company UnitedHealth also detracted as they reported substantially lower earnings than the market was expecting, they are also exposed to government’s Medicare funding cuts which could damage future growth. Energy company EOG Resources and industrial company Honeywell International also detracted.

On the other hand, investment in HCA Healthcare was one of the largest contributors over the last 12 months. Technology company Broadcom has also performed well as they benefited from significant spending on AI chips. Financial services companies Morgan Stanley and Capital One Financial Corp also performed well.

At the time of writing the trust trades on a discount of 3.59% which is in-line with its average of -3.25% over the last 12 months.