Phil Oakley
Phil was a professional share analyst for 13 years working for leading City institutions. He left the City to educate private investors and spent 3 years as senior investment writer for MoneyWeek magazine before joining us.
With my help you’ll learn how to identify high quality investments for your portfolio. My Step-by-Step Guide to Investment Analysis cuts through the jargon and teaches you how to do a fast but effective forensic analysis of stocks. My weekly articles build on this knowledge using topical examples and introducing new techniques. I also write an exclusive weekly newsletter for subscribers.
Latest Articles
- Buying quality on its own is no guarantee of success 15th May 2018 - There are many different ways to make money from the stock market. Over the last few years, one of the most popular and discussed strategies has been about buying the shares of high quality businesses or quality investing. Warren Buffett ...more
- Stock Watch: InterContinental Hotels 9th May 2018 - Disclosure: At the time of writing I own shares in InterContinental Hotels. InterContinental Hotels (IHG) can trace its roots back to the Bass brewing company. Bass, long known for its ales set about turning itself into a leisure conglomerate with ...more
- Dark days for regulated utility shares 24th April 2018 - Since they were privatised in the mid 1980s and early 1990s, the shares of regulated utility companies have found a place in many private investors' portfolios. Their main attraction has been an ability to offer a higher income than government ...more
- Key questions to ask company management 23rd April 2018 - If you are attending any events which enable you to meet company management face-to-face, take along Phil's handy crib sheet - a list of key questions to ask.
- Stock Watch: Cranswick 17th April 2018 - Cranswick is a UK-based food producer. It specialises in the production and selling of pork and poultry products. The sales mix of its business is as follows: Fresh Pork (34% of sales) - Cranswick is the third largest pig producer ...more
- Should investors avoid low margin companies? 10th April 2018 - Highly profitable companies can make outstanding long-term investments. Arguably, the best way to measure a company's profitability is to compare its profits with the amount of money invested to make them. This is known as the return on investment or ...more
Categories
2017 - 2018 Articles
- Buying quality on its own is no guarantee of success 15th May 2018 - There are many different ways to make money from the stock market. Over the last few years, one of the most popular and discussed strategies ...more
- Stock Watch: InterContinental Hotels 9th May 2018 - Disclosure: At the time of writing I own shares in InterContinental Hotels. InterContinental Hotels (IHG) can trace its roots back to the Bass brewing company. ...more
- A new issue that is already a winner 8th May 2018 - Looking through the prisms of profitability, debt, cash flow, strategy and valuation, Strix may be an exception to the rule that new issues make bad ...more
- Dark days for regulated utility shares 24th April 2018 - Since they were privatised in the mid 1980s and early 1990s, the shares of regulated utility companies have found a place in many private investors' ...more
- Key questions to ask company management 23rd April 2018 - If you are attending any events which enable you to meet company management face-to-face, take along Phil's handy crib sheet - a list of key ...more
- AGMs – If in doubt, ask 23rd April 2018 - Most companies will answer questions from shareholders and potential shareholders. At Annual General Meetings shareholders have a right to ask questions and get answers. A ...more
- Stock Watch: Cranswick 17th April 2018 - Cranswick is a UK-based food producer. It specialises in the production and selling of pork and poultry products. The sales mix of its business is ...more
- Should investors avoid low margin companies? 10th April 2018 - Highly profitable companies can make outstanding long-term investments. Arguably, the best way to measure a company's profitability is to compare its profits with the amount ...more
- Putting performance in perspective 9th April 2018 - To get a grip on where a company is going you have to understand where it has come from. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean reading every ...more
- Stock Watch: Domino’s Pizza 27th March 2018 - Domino's Pizza is a very good business. It has exploited the trend of the growth in take-away pizza superbly and now has a 46% share ...more
- Working out what could go wrong with a share 26th March 2018 - Investors pin their hopes on what could go right. The great product. The winning strategy. The growing market. The new technology. These may be good ...more
- Checking out a company’s cash conversion 21st March 2018 - A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the issues investors faced in working out a company’s true profits. In many cases, the ways in ...more
- Decrypting a company’s business model and strategy 13th March 2018 - While it’s comforting to know a business has enjoyed success, long-term investors must also form an opinion on its prospects if we’re to hold the ...more
- Stock Watch: Hollywood Bowl 13th March 2018 - Hollywood Bowl is the UK’s largest operator of tenpin bowling centres. It currently has 58 centres across the UK with 43 trading under the Hollywood ...more
- Can you trust a company’s profits? 7th March 2018 - This article is more suited to experienced investors. Profits are all important when it comes to investing in companies. To make money over the long ...more
- Stock Watch: Galliford Try 28th February 2018 - Shares in building and construction company Galliford Try have been hammered since it announced its half year results a couple of weeks ago. The results ...more
- How to read an annual report 27th February 2018 - Rule number one in long-term investing is to understand how the businesses you expect to profit from will make money - otherwise, how can you ...more
- A smarter way to use analysts’ EPS forecasts 21st February 2018 - Should investors pay much attention to analysts’ profit forecasts? There is a school of thought that suggests that they should not. Detractors say that forecasts ...more
- Stock Watch: City Pub Group 14th February 2018 - (LSE:CPC 196p, Mkt Cap £96.3m, EMS 1500, Analysts 2) City Pub Group listed on AIM back in November. The company currently owns 38 managed pubs ...more
- The Terry Smith algorithm 14th February 2018 - In this article I’ve attempted to find Fundsmith-like companies using SharePad. The results are mixed but there’s a lot to be learned from the experiment. ...more
- A checklist for busy investors 7th February 2018 - There are many full time private investors out there but for others investing is a hobby or something that they fit around their day to ...more
- Using SharePad’s “Live” tables in your own spreadsheets 30th January 2018 - Maybe you already download tables of data from SharePad by clicking on the sharing button in SharePad's blue Table view, but this data is dead. ...more
- Stockwatch: Avon Rubber
30th January 2018 - Avon Rubber is a good example of a company that fits into the category of a profitable niche business. It started off as a cloth ...more - A better way to track changes in company performance 23rd January 2018 - It doesn't take too much time to get a feel for how well a company is doing. Most people do this by looking at percentage ...more
- Stock Watch: Nichols 16th January 2018 - Soft drinks company Nichols (AIM:NICL) has been a good share to own over the last few years. It has many of the hallmarks of a ...more
- Buy and build 15th January 2018 - If you take a look at Diploma through the lens of SharePad's summary page (under the green 'Financials' tab), you will find it shares many ...more
- Magic Formula stocks for 2018 10th January 2018 - For those of you who like the idea of a buy and forget investing strategy then Joel Greenblatt's Magic Formula of buying good companies at ...more
- Settings for the big picture 3rd January 2018 - Happy New Year! I've started mine by tidying up my many desktops: my physical desk, my laptop's desktop, and SharePad. I did so much experimenting ...more
- Simple is best – Magic Formula Investing in 2017 19th December 2017 - If you were to ask me to recommend just one book on investing then I would struggle to think of anything better than Joel Greenblatt's ...more
- Stock Watch: Henry Boot (LSE:Boot) 6th December 2017 - Henry Boot is a Sheffield-based company which makes money from property and construction activities. It has four main sources of income: Buying land, getting planning ...more
- Two charts to unlock a company’s finances 6th December 2017 - By way of introducing two charts I'm routinely using to suss out how companies are financed - the twin pillars of debt and equity - ...more
- Searching for companies paying out more of their profits 29th November 2017 - One of the main considerations for people investing in shares these days is the dividend income they will get from owning them. With a world ...more
- Stock Watch: Fenner 22nd November 2017 - Over a decade ago when I was a smaller companies analyst in the City, UK engineering company Fenner was part of the portfolio of stocks ...more
- Is the current ratio an outdated measure of company safety? 15th November 2017 - One of the most commonly cited measures of a company's financial strength is something known as the current ratio. It is a measure of liquidity ...more
- The elusive hire firms you can buy and hold 14th November 2017 - Last week I introduced the listed plant and tool hire companies and mentioned in passing the industry has a bit of a boom bust reputation. Perhaps I ...more
- Income Opportunities From Dividends 10th November 2017 - In the last of his Investors Chronicle articles, Phil looks at companies reinstating dividends or starting to pay them for the 1st time. Read pdf ...more
- Homing in on hire firms 7th November 2017 - Homing in on hire firms When business is sluggish at construction sites and factories, tools and equipment are returned and hire companies make less profit. ...more
- How to steer clear of dividend traps 3rd November 2017 - First published in Investors Chronicle, Phil explains how to avoid the shares that might let you down. Read pdf article
- Finding safe high-yielding shares 27th October 2017 - First published in Investors Chronicle, Phil explains how to identify which high-yielding shares are most likely to maintain or grow their dividends. Read pdf article
- Stock Watch: Abcam – is lower profitability worth paying for? 23rd October 2017 - Abcam shares are more popular than ever. Perhaps they're worth it. Nailed on growth stock There's no doubt Abcam has grown. In performance terms it's ...more
- When valuations don’t matter and when they do 11th October 2017 - Lots of people will tell you that the price you pay for a share really matters. This is because it has a big say on ...more
- Stock Watch: Elegant Hotels Group 4th October 2017 - Elegant Hotels is the owner and operator of a number of upmarket hotels on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The company has been in business ...more
- Finding companies that speak your language 4th October 2017 - Finding companies that speak your language It's a commonly held view that the only bits of financial reports worth paying attention to are the numbers ...more
- How much is a company worth? A look at different ways to value shares 27th September 2017 - Two weeks ago I wrote about how to try and value companies that aren't making a profit. This week I'm going back to basics for ...more
- Tech recruiter is statistically attractive, but is it special? 26th September 2017 - There are two questions I ask of all companies I might invest in. Do the statistics indicate the business is highly profitable and, if they ...more
- 13th September 2017 - How to value loss-making companies One of the questions I am frequently asked is: "How do I value loss-making companies?". The short answer is that ...more
- How I choose my next share using filters and charts 13th September 2017 - After many years of investment I still feel a sense of anticipation when I examine lists of shares looking for new opportunities. It's like opening ...more
- Stock Watch: Redrow 13th September 2017 - The state of the housing market - and the direction of house prices in particular - is a key driver of Britain's economy. When house ...more
- Stock Watch: Scapa Group 5th September 2017 - Scapa Group has transformed itself over the last few years by following a strategy of offering more value to its customers. It has worked well ...more
- A blueprint for better long term investing 31st August 2017 - Holidays are great for switching off from the stresses and strains of the daily grind and concentrating on what's really important in life. I've just ...more
- Shares to hold to the grave, and beyond… 31st August 2017 - For my debut SharePad article, I've been invited to introduce my stockpicking strategy. It's a daunting prospect because strategy is everything. Without a strategy, luck ...more
- Stock Watch: Ashtead Group 10th August 2017 - Ashtead makes its money by renting out equipment to construction and industrial companies - things like aerial platforms, forklift trucks, tools, diggers, cranes, power generators ...more
- Stock Watch: Castings 25th July 2017 - Castings plc is a foundry business. Foundries are factories which produce metal castings. Castings has two in the UK - in the West Midlands and ...more
- Hunting in the minefield of cheap shares 18th July 2017 - Most people like a bargain. Bargain hunting on the stock market has long been a popular pastime or even a full time occupation for investors. ...more
- The case for dividend investing in dangerous markets 4th July 2017 - I am finding investing more than just a little bit frustrating these days. The reason for this is that I am struggling to find shares ...more
- Stock Watch: RPC 4th July 2017 - RPC (rigid plastic containers) designs and manufacturers plastic products for packaging markets. The company makes thousands of different products such as plastic bottles, food containers, ...more
- Stock Watch: James Halstead 27th June 2017 - James Halstead has been in business since 1915. It started out dyeing, finishing, waterproofing and rubberising textiles that were used in rainwear and outdoor clothing. ...more
- Making sense of highly priced shares 21st June 2017 - In my 20 years of investing I am finding the current stock market conditions the most challenging I have ever encountered. My investing career started ...more
- Stock Watch: Watkins Jones 14th June 2017 - Stock Watch: Watkins Jones Watkins Jones is a property developer, best known for building private student accommodation. It floated on AIM in March 2016. The ...more
- The case for enterprise valuations 6th June 2017 - A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the subject of PE ratios (click here to read the article) and the ins and outs of ...more
- Stock Watch: Howden Joinery Group (Howdens) 31st May 2017 - Howden Joinery Group is the parent company for Howdens. Howdens was established in 1995 with 14 depots by its current chief executive Matthew Ingle when ...more
- PE ratios and how to use them 23rd May 2017 - PE ratios and how to use them Price to earnings (PE) ratios are the most commonly used method of weighing up the value of a ...more
- Stock Watch: Smart Metering Systems (AIM:SMS) 16th May 2017 - I recently wrote about Smart Metering Systems in my exclusive weekly newsletter for SharePad and ShareScope customers. It's an interesting company so I have decided ...more
- Stock Watch: FW Thorpe 9th May 2017 - FW Thorpe was founded in 1936 and has been listed on the stock exchange since 1965. The company designs and manufactures professional lighting systems for ...more
- Looking beyond free cash flow 9th May 2017 - Ask me about the kind of financial characteristics I like to see in a potential investment and the first two I will usually cite are ...more
- Stock Watch: FW Thorpe 24th April 2017 - FW Thorpe was founded in 1936 and has been listed on the stock exchange since 1965. The company designs and manufactures professional lighting systems for ...more
- Analysing the stocks in a filter 19th April 2017 - Running filters or screens is a popular way of finding shares to invest in. Whilst screening can be very powerful it is important to recognise ...more
- UK Dividend aristocrats 30th March 2017 - Phil's Investors Chronicle article on how to be a successful dividend investor. Read the article
- Why depreciation matters and EBITDA doesn’t 30th March 2017 - When it comes to weighing up asset-intensive sectors, depreciation matters. It is a real cost. This does not stop people ignoring it and touting the ...more
- The end of “hidden debts” 28th March 2017 - Accounting is a dry subject but a very important one. I perfectly understand why private investors' eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the ...more
- Stock Watch: XP Power 15th March 2017 - XP Power is based is headquartered in Singapore and has manufacturing sites in Vietnam and China. The company makes power control systems which convert power ...more
- How to avoid value traps 10th March 2017 - In this instalment, Phil explains how to spot value traps and finds some cheap shares that might bounce back. Read the article
- Free cash flow: what it is and how to use it 3rd March 2017 - In this week's Investors Chronicle, Phil explains how to use free cash flow to your advantage. Read the article
- Stock Watch: Treatt plc (LSE:TET) 1st March 2017 - Treatt plc has been in business since 1886. Based in Bury St Edmunds, the company specialises in making and selling products based on essential oils. ...more
- Kraft-Heinz’s bid for Unilever 22nd February 2017 - Disclosure: Phil Oakley owns shares in Unilever Last week's bid by US food company Kraft-Heinz for Unilever caught many investors by surprise. But in retrospect ...more
- Weighing up investment trusts 15th February 2017 - Many private investors like to build a portfolio of individual shares in order to grow the value of their savings as well as trying to ...more
- Riding a retail roll out 8th February 2017 - Note: This in an advanced article best suited to more experienced and confident investors. One of the most profitable investing strategies can be to buy ...more
- Does Tesco buying Booker make sense? 2nd February 2017 - Mergers and takeovers are part and parcel of the investing world. However, I think it's fair to say that last week's (27th January 2017) announcement ...more
- Value investing today 26th January 2017 - One of the great things about investing is that there are lots of different ways for people to try and make money. This means that ...more
- If you want to beat the stock market own fewer shares not more 18th January 2017 - As a private investor managing your own share portfolio you have to achieve two things over the long haul to consider your efforts a success. ...more
- Sector Watch: Beverages 18th January 2017 - Companies which make and sell branded drinks have long been popular with investors. One of the main reasons for this is that as businesses they ...more
- Sector Watch: FTSE 100 and AIM 100 Miners 13th January 2017 - Mining companies are very difficult to analyse. Their profits and cash flows are very closely related to trends in commodity prices and sentiment towards the ...more
- Paying up for quality shares – how much is too much? 10th January 2017 - "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price." - Warren Buffett "The desirability of a ...more
- A great year for modified magic formula investing 4th January 2017 - A year ago I started a trial of three model portfolios based on Joel Greenblatt's magic formula approach (click here to read more about this). I wanted ...more
- What is investing? 10th November 2015 - Why do people invest their money rather than just save? It's not just about growing your savings so that you will have more money in ...more
- A brief guide to tax-efficient saving 9th November 2015 - Tax-efficient savings accounts (ISAs) and self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) are the best option for most savers and investors. Here's what you need to know. Savings ...more
- Choosing your first investments 8th November 2015 - For some people the thought of picking their own shares can be a little bit daunting. Rest assured, it doesn't have to be. Whilst it ...more
- Investing in funds, investment trusts and ETFs 7th November 2015 - Many investors like to build a portfolio of individual shares and even bonds but for some investors, investment funds can be a useful alternative. For ...more
- Investing your portfolio for retirement income 6th November 2015 - From what I can see we are still firmly in a bull market in shares. Momentum remains a strategy that is paying off handsomely with ...more
- Chapter 1: Introduction 14th October 2015 - If you are reading this, the chances are that you've decided to take control of your investments. You may have been investing for some time ...more
- Chapter 2: Balance sheets 13th October 2015 - SharePad is packed full of useful financial data. This data holds the key to understanding the financial health and value of any company you are ...more
- Chapter 3: Analysing balance sheets 12th October 2015 - In the previous chapter we looked at how a balance sheet was put together and the numbers that go into it. In this chapter, we are going ...more
- Chapter 4: Income statements 11th October 2015 - Hopefully, you will now understand balance sheets and how important and useful they are. Let's move on to a set a numbers which most people think are ...more
- Chapter 5: Analysing income statements 10th October 2015 - Now that we've dealt with the basic format of an income statement it's time to move on and show you how SharePad turns those numbers into really ...more
- Chapter 6: The cash flow statement 9th October 2015 - The last four chapters have been spent looking at the balance sheet and income statement and how to use them. In this chapter, we will ...more
- Chapter 7: Analysing cash flow statements 8th October 2015 - We did a little bit of cash flow analysis in the last chapter. In this one, we look at the cash flow ratios that SharePad calculates ...more
- Chapter 8: Is this a good business? 7th October 2015 - How to measure company returns In the previous chapter, we learnt that profits and cash received (cash flow) are rarely the same value. We looked ...more
- Chapter 9: Share valuations 6th October 2015 - How to tell when shares are cheap or expensive In the previous chapter we looked at how to find out if a company was any good or ...more
- Chapter 10: Value investing 5th October 2015 - The previous chapters have hopefully shown you how useful SharePad can be when you are sifting through the finances of a company. Information that might ...more
- Chapter 11: Dividend investing 4th October 2015 - If you are watching or listening to the news at the end of the day you will usually be told what happened to the stock ...more
- Chapter 12: Growth investing 3rd October 2015 - The last couple of chapters have focused on two particular styles of investing - dividend investing and value investing. Both these approaches to owning shares ...more
- Chapter 13: Investing in bonds 2nd October 2015 - Despite their names, ShareScope and SharePad are not just all about shares. They can help you with other investments as well. In this article I'm ...more
- Appendix A: Putting it all together 1st October 2015 - In this chapter, I use the data and tools in SharePad to show you how I analyse shares but it also applies to ShareScope. Even ...more
- Stock Watch: InterContinental Hotels 9th May 2018 - Disclosure: At the time of writing I own shares in InterContinental Hotels. InterContinental Hotels (IHG) can trace its roots back to the Bass brewing company. ...more
- Stock Watch: Cranswick 17th April 2018 - Cranswick is a UK-based food producer. It specialises in the production and selling of pork and poultry products. The sales mix of its business is ...more
- Stock Watch: Domino’s Pizza 27th March 2018 - Domino's Pizza is a very good business. It has exploited the trend of the growth in take-away pizza superbly and now has a 46% share ...more
- Stock Watch: Hollywood Bowl 13th March 2018 - Hollywood Bowl is the UK’s largest operator of tenpin bowling centres. It currently has 58 centres across the UK with 43 trading under the Hollywood ...more
- Stock Watch: Galliford Try 28th February 2018 - Shares in building and construction company Galliford Try have been hammered since it announced its half year results a couple of weeks ago. The results ...more
- Stock Watch: City Pub Group 14th February 2018 - (LSE:CPC 196p, Mkt Cap £96.3m, EMS 1500, Analysts 2) City Pub Group listed on AIM back in November. The company currently owns 38 managed pubs ...more
- Stockwatch: Avon Rubber
30th January 2018 - Avon Rubber is a good example of a company that fits into the category of a profitable niche business. It started off as a cloth ...more - Stock Watch: Nichols 16th January 2018 - Soft drinks company Nichols (AIM:NICL) has been a good share to own over the last few years. It has many of the hallmarks of a ...more
- Stock Watch: Henry Boot (LSE:Boot) 6th December 2017 - Henry Boot is a Sheffield-based company which makes money from property and construction activities. It has four main sources of income: Buying land, getting planning ...more
- Searching for companies paying out more of their profits 29th November 2017 - One of the main considerations for people investing in shares these days is the dividend income they will get from owning them. With a world ...more
- Stock Watch: Fenner 22nd November 2017 - Over a decade ago when I was a smaller companies analyst in the City, UK engineering company Fenner was part of the portfolio of stocks ...more
- Stock Watch: Abcam – is lower profitability worth paying for? 23rd October 2017 - Abcam shares are more popular than ever. Perhaps they're worth it. Nailed on growth stock There's no doubt Abcam has grown. In performance terms it's ...more
- Stock Watch: Elegant Hotels Group 4th October 2017 - Elegant Hotels is the owner and operator of a number of upmarket hotels on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The company has been in business ...more
- Tech recruiter is statistically attractive, but is it special? 26th September 2017 - There are two questions I ask of all companies I might invest in. Do the statistics indicate the business is highly profitable and, if they ...more
- Stock Watch: Redrow 13th September 2017 - The state of the housing market - and the direction of house prices in particular - is a key driver of Britain's economy. When house ...more
- Stock Watch: Scapa Group 5th September 2017 - Scapa Group has transformed itself over the last few years by following a strategy of offering more value to its customers. It has worked well ...more
- Stock Watch: Ashtead Group 10th August 2017 - Ashtead makes its money by renting out equipment to construction and industrial companies - things like aerial platforms, forklift trucks, tools, diggers, cranes, power generators ...more
- Stock Watch: Castings 25th July 2017 - Castings plc is a foundry business. Foundries are factories which produce metal castings. Castings has two in the UK - in the West Midlands and ...more
- Stock Watch: RPC 4th July 2017 - RPC (rigid plastic containers) designs and manufacturers plastic products for packaging markets. The company makes thousands of different products such as plastic bottles, food containers, ...more
- Stock Watch: James Halstead 27th June 2017 - James Halstead has been in business since 1915. It started out dyeing, finishing, waterproofing and rubberising textiles that were used in rainwear and outdoor clothing. ...more
- Stock Watch: Watkins Jones 14th June 2017 - Stock Watch: Watkins Jones Watkins Jones is a property developer, best known for building private student accommodation. It floated on AIM in March 2016. The ...more
- Stock Watch: Howden Joinery Group (Howdens) 31st May 2017 - Howden Joinery Group is the parent company for Howdens. Howdens was established in 1995 with 14 depots by its current chief executive Matthew Ingle when ...more
- Stock Watch: Smart Metering Systems (AIM:SMS) 16th May 2017 - I recently wrote about Smart Metering Systems in my exclusive weekly newsletter for SharePad and ShareScope customers. It's an interesting company so I have decided ...more
- Stock Watch: FW Thorpe 9th May 2017 - FW Thorpe was founded in 1936 and has been listed on the stock exchange since 1965. The company designs and manufactures professional lighting systems for ...more
- Stock Watch: FW Thorpe 24th April 2017 - FW Thorpe was founded in 1936 and has been listed on the stock exchange since 1965. The company designs and manufactures professional lighting systems for ...more
- Stock Watch: XP Power 15th March 2017 - XP Power is based is headquartered in Singapore and has manufacturing sites in Vietnam and China. The company makes power control systems which convert power ...more
- Stock Watch: Treatt plc (LSE:TET) 1st March 2017 - Treatt plc has been in business since 1886. Based in Bury St Edmunds, the company specialises in making and selling products based on essential oils. ...more
- Kraft-Heinz’s bid for Unilever 22nd February 2017 - Disclosure: Phil Oakley owns shares in Unilever Last week's bid by US food company Kraft-Heinz for Unilever caught many investors by surprise. But in retrospect ...more
- Does Tesco buying Booker make sense? 2nd February 2017 - Mergers and takeovers are part and parcel of the investing world. However, I think it's fair to say that last week's (27th January 2017) announcement ...more
- Dark days for regulated utility shares 24th April 2018 - Since they were privatised in the mid 1980s and early 1990s, the shares of regulated utility companies have found a place in many private investors' ...more
- The elusive hire firms you can buy and hold 14th November 2017 - Last week I introduced the listed plant and tool hire companies and mentioned in passing the industry has a bit of a boom bust reputation. Perhaps I ...more
- Homing in on hire firms 7th November 2017 - Homing in on hire firms When business is sluggish at construction sites and factories, tools and equipment are returned and hire companies make less profit. ...more
- Sector Watch: Beverages 18th January 2017 - Companies which make and sell branded drinks have long been popular with investors. One of the main reasons for this is that as businesses they ...more
- Sector Watch: FTSE 100 and AIM 100 Miners 13th January 2017 - Mining companies are very difficult to analyse. Their profits and cash flows are very closely related to trends in commodity prices and sentiment towards the ...more
- A great year for modified magic formula investing 4th January 2017 - A year ago I started a trial of three model portfolios based on Joel Greenblatt's magic formula approach (click here to read more about this). I wanted ...more
- Key questions to ask company management 23rd April 2018 - If you are attending any events which enable you to meet company management face-to-face, take along Phil's handy crib sheet - a list of key ...more
- Magic Formula stocks for 2018 10th January 2018 - For those of you who like the idea of a buy and forget investing strategy then Joel Greenblatt's Magic Formula of buying good companies at ...more
- Simple is best – Magic Formula Investing in 2017 19th December 2017 - If you were to ask me to recommend just one book on investing then I would struggle to think of anything better than Joel Greenblatt's ...more
- A blueprint for better long term investing 31st August 2017 - Holidays are great for switching off from the stresses and strains of the daily grind and concentrating on what's really important in life. I've just ...more
- Shares to hold to the grave, and beyond… 31st August 2017 - For my debut SharePad article, I've been invited to introduce my stockpicking strategy. It's a daunting prospect because strategy is everything. Without a strategy, luck ...more
- UK Dividend aristocrats 30th March 2017 - Phil's Investors Chronicle article on how to be a successful dividend investor. Read the article
- Value investing today 26th January 2017 - One of the great things about investing is that there are lots of different ways for people to try and make money. This means that ...more
- Buying quality on its own is no guarantee of success 15th May 2018 - There are many different ways to make money from the stock market. Over the last few years, one of the most popular and discussed strategies ...more
- A new issue that is already a winner 8th May 2018 - Looking through the prisms of profitability, debt, cash flow, strategy and valuation, Strix may be an exception to the rule that new issues make bad ...more
- AGMs – If in doubt, ask 23rd April 2018 - Most companies will answer questions from shareholders and potential shareholders. At Annual General Meetings shareholders have a right to ask questions and get answers. A ...more
- Should investors avoid low margin companies? 10th April 2018 - Highly profitable companies can make outstanding long-term investments. Arguably, the best way to measure a company's profitability is to compare its profits with the amount ...more
- Putting performance in perspective 9th April 2018 - To get a grip on where a company is going you have to understand where it has come from. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean reading every ...more
- Working out what could go wrong with a share 26th March 2018 - Investors pin their hopes on what could go right. The great product. The winning strategy. The growing market. The new technology. These may be good ...more
- Checking out a company’s cash conversion 21st March 2018 - A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the issues investors faced in working out a company’s true profits. In many cases, the ways in ...more
- Decrypting a company’s business model and strategy 13th March 2018 - While it’s comforting to know a business has enjoyed success, long-term investors must also form an opinion on its prospects if we’re to hold the ...more
- Can you trust a company’s profits? 7th March 2018 - This article is more suited to experienced investors. Profits are all important when it comes to investing in companies. To make money over the long ...more
- How to read an annual report 27th February 2018 - Rule number one in long-term investing is to understand how the businesses you expect to profit from will make money - otherwise, how can you ...more
- A smarter way to use analysts’ EPS forecasts 21st February 2018 - Should investors pay much attention to analysts’ profit forecasts? There is a school of thought that suggests that they should not. Detractors say that forecasts ...more
- The Terry Smith algorithm 14th February 2018 - In this article I’ve attempted to find Fundsmith-like companies using SharePad. The results are mixed but there’s a lot to be learned from the experiment. ...more
- A checklist for busy investors 7th February 2018 - There are many full time private investors out there but for others investing is a hobby or something that they fit around their day to ...more
- Using SharePad’s “Live” tables in your own spreadsheets 30th January 2018 - Maybe you already download tables of data from SharePad by clicking on the sharing button in SharePad's blue Table view, but this data is dead. ...more
- A better way to track changes in company performance 23rd January 2018 - It doesn't take too much time to get a feel for how well a company is doing. Most people do this by looking at percentage ...more
- Buy and build 15th January 2018 - If you take a look at Diploma through the lens of SharePad's summary page (under the green 'Financials' tab), you will find it shares many ...more
- Settings for the big picture 3rd January 2018 - Happy New Year! I've started mine by tidying up my many desktops: my physical desk, my laptop's desktop, and SharePad. I did so much experimenting ...more
- Two charts to unlock a company’s finances 6th December 2017 - By way of introducing two charts I'm routinely using to suss out how companies are financed - the twin pillars of debt and equity - ...more
- Is the current ratio an outdated measure of company safety? 15th November 2017 - One of the most commonly cited measures of a company's financial strength is something known as the current ratio. It is a measure of liquidity ...more
- Income Opportunities From Dividends 10th November 2017 - In the last of his Investors Chronicle articles, Phil looks at companies reinstating dividends or starting to pay them for the 1st time. Read pdf ...more
- How to steer clear of dividend traps 3rd November 2017 - First published in Investors Chronicle, Phil explains how to avoid the shares that might let you down. Read pdf article
- Finding safe high-yielding shares 27th October 2017 - First published in Investors Chronicle, Phil explains how to identify which high-yielding shares are most likely to maintain or grow their dividends. Read pdf article
- Finding companies that speak your language 4th October 2017 - Finding companies that speak your language It's a commonly held view that the only bits of financial reports worth paying attention to are the numbers ...more
- How much is a company worth? A look at different ways to value shares 27th September 2017 - Two weeks ago I wrote about how to try and value companies that aren't making a profit. This week I'm going back to basics for ...more
- 13th September 2017 - How to value loss-making companies One of the questions I am frequently asked is: "How do I value loss-making companies?". The short answer is that ...more
- How I choose my next share using filters and charts 13th September 2017 - After many years of investment I still feel a sense of anticipation when I examine lists of shares looking for new opportunities. It's like opening ...more
- Hunting in the minefield of cheap shares 18th July 2017 - Most people like a bargain. Bargain hunting on the stock market has long been a popular pastime or even a full time occupation for investors. ...more
- The case for dividend investing in dangerous markets 4th July 2017 - I am finding investing more than just a little bit frustrating these days. The reason for this is that I am struggling to find shares ...more
- Making sense of highly priced shares 21st June 2017 - In my 20 years of investing I am finding the current stock market conditions the most challenging I have ever encountered. My investing career started ...more
- The case for enterprise valuations 6th June 2017 - A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the subject of PE ratios (click here to read the article) and the ins and outs of ...more
- PE ratios and how to use them 23rd May 2017 - PE ratios and how to use them Price to earnings (PE) ratios are the most commonly used method of weighing up the value of a ...more
- Looking beyond free cash flow 9th May 2017 - Ask me about the kind of financial characteristics I like to see in a potential investment and the first two I will usually cite are ...more
- Analysing the stocks in a filter 19th April 2017 - Running filters or screens is a popular way of finding shares to invest in. Whilst screening can be very powerful it is important to recognise ...more
- Why depreciation matters and EBITDA doesn’t 30th March 2017 - When it comes to weighing up asset-intensive sectors, depreciation matters. It is a real cost. This does not stop people ignoring it and touting the ...more
- The end of “hidden debts” 28th March 2017 - Accounting is a dry subject but a very important one. I perfectly understand why private investors' eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the ...more
- How to avoid value traps 10th March 2017 - In this instalment, Phil explains how to spot value traps and finds some cheap shares that might bounce back. Read the article
- Free cash flow: what it is and how to use it 3rd March 2017 - In this week's Investors Chronicle, Phil explains how to use free cash flow to your advantage. Read the article
- Weighing up investment trusts 15th February 2017 - Many private investors like to build a portfolio of individual shares in order to grow the value of their savings as well as trying to ...more
- Riding a retail roll out 8th February 2017 - Note: This in an advanced article best suited to more experienced and confident investors. One of the most profitable investing strategies can be to buy ...more
- Paying up for quality shares – how much is too much? 10th January 2017 - "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price." - Warren Buffett "The desirability of a ...more
