Recent market ructions have sent many shares tumbling — and perhaps created some buying opportunities. Amid the mayhem, I devised a straightforward screen. I simply looked for decent-sized businesses that were still expected to grow, paid a dividend and were conservatively financed, too I applied the following criteria within SharePad to identify some respectable candidates: […]
Category: Stock Screening
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Boohoo
Cash flow movements can often indicate whether or not a business enjoys a powerful operational advantage. A strong business might: Receive customer payments upfront for goods/services it has yet to deliver, and/or; Pay suppliers months after goods/services have been received. However, a weak business might: Receive customer payments months after its goods/services have been delivered, […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Greggs
‘Run your winners’ is popular stock-market advice. Great companies often remain great investments for a lot longer than most people expect… … and can deliver life-changing rewards to anyone who refrains from selling out too soon. Where can we find potential winners to run? I thought the best performing shares of 2019 would provide a […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Mears
This article has not turned out as I had expected. I searched on SharePad for magnificent dividend histories, and thought I would be evaluating a business with glorious financials and tip-top management. I have instead ended up with accounting alarm bells and a dissident shareholder trying to oust the boardroom. The screen I applied in […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Rightmove
Studying free cash conversion is vital when evaluating a set of accounts. The measure compares free cash flow to reported earnings, and can indicate whether a business is a ‘cash fountain’ or a ‘cash guzzler’. Ideally we want to own companies that generate plenty of spare cash, because such cash can: * Underpin accounting profits; […]
Finding companies that control their own destinies
Fallout from the demise of Thomas Cook reminds Richard of the virtues of vertical integration. In the month since the demise of Thomas Cook, the company that invented package tours, there has been much talk of rivals who will benefit from the fact that perhaps 2.5m Thomas Cook customers will be looking elsewhere for their […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Medica
Dynamic growth shares are among the market’s most exciting investments. Find a business that has expanded rapidly and offers the prospect of further earnings growth — but also has an overlooked share price — and you could be on to a winner. Let’s use SharePad to pinpoint a possible example. Filter criteria These days many […]
Filtering out the big spenders
Richard invents a new filter that promises to weed out big acquirers in a drive for simplicity he hopes will make investigating his next company easier. Complications tend to keep investors awake at night and wakeful nights are not conducive to long-term investment. You join me today on a quest for simplicity. Keeping it simple […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Hammerson
Buying a share at a discount to its book (or net asset) value ought to be the safest way of investing. Indeed, what could go wrong if you can effectively buy assets worth £1 per share for, say, 50p? The reality — sadly — is not always that simple. Let me show you what I […]
Finding the best companies to analyse
A wise man once advised investors to stick to their circle of competence. Richard uses SharePad to keep his eye on the prize, and it leads him to Bloomsbury Publishing… My base filter in SharePad currently returns a total of 596 shares listed in London. It does not do anything clever. It just excludes the […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: AG Barr
Quality companies undergoing temporary problems can often become attractive investment opportunities. On that basis, perhaps AG Barr is worth closer inspection. The soft-drinks manufacturer famous for Irn-Bru recently warned that profits would be lower than expected… and the share price plunged accordingly: However, AG Barr does boast a quality track record. During the last 40 […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Imperial Brands
Imagine this. You find a blue-chip company that offers: * 21 years of consecutive dividend increases, with the last ten years showing 10% per annum growth; * Management guidance of further 10% annual dividend growth “over the medium term”, and; * A share price with a 10% dividend yield. Too good to be true? Well, […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: JD Sports Fashion
Today I am revisiting the share screen that pinpointed Games Workshop back in January. The shares of the quirky wargaming retailer have soared more than 60% since that review… …and I wonder whether the same screen can unearth another promising opportunity. To recap, the exact criteria I am re-using are: 1) Annualised earnings per share […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Jupiter Fund Management
Today I have revisited a share screen that applies two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors — operating margin and return on equity (ROE). The exact criteria I re-used were: 1) An operating margin (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more, and; 2) An ROE (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more. Any business […]
Hidden treasure on your doorstep
Finding local businesses listed on the stock market is easy with the help of SharePad and Google Maps. Richard maps the market to find out what’s good in the ‘hood. When I wrote about Portmeirion last time, I promised to review a second “old favourite” in this article. In the meantime, though, I have been […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Domino’s Pizza
This in-depth article covers one of the most impressive UK growth stocks of the last 20 years — Domino’s Pizza. Domino’s appeared on my radar after I revisited one of my previous SharePad screens. The screen in question searches for companies with dependable dividends and reasonable yields. The exact criteria are: 1) 10 or more […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Abcam
Today I have returned to the share screen I employed to pinpoint Victrex the other week. To quickly recap, this screen applies two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors — operating margin and return on equity (ROE). The exact criteria I re-used were: 1) An operating margin (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more, and; […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Victrex
This week I am tracking down a potential long-term winner by employing two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors. The first measure is operating margin, which represents the percentage of sales converted into profit. In theory, a company exhibiting a high operating margin may enjoy pricing power over customers — which in turn may indicate a […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Renishaw
I am convinced the very best shares to own are often led by executives who truly act in the interests of ordinary shareholders. In particular, bosses who: * do not dilute investors by issuing shares willy-nilly; * create dependable returns through a rising dividend, and; * own a lot of shares themselves… …should deliver better […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Craneware
Years ago I read Super Stocks, an investment book that claimed to reveal “powerful new ideas” to uncover “opportunities for spectacular profits”. I sadly can’t recall identifying any “opportunities for spectacular profits”… …but the book’s “powerful new ideas” did make some sense — not least the concept of identifying companies that undertook significant research and […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Accesso Technology
This article has not turned out as I had expected. I was hoping to study a quality growth business that had seen its share price slump to attractive levels… …but instead I have ended up untangling some very awkward accounts and guessing whether management changes are signalling problems ahead. Sit back and brace yourself. The […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Hargreaves Lansdown
Quality companies often produce exceptional returns for ordinary investors. Just ask Terry Smith or Nick Train. These ace fund managers have delivered wonderful gains by investing in first-class businesses such as Diageo, Reckitt Benckiser and London Stock Exchange. Let’s use SharePad to find a quality company to study for ourselves. Immense figures imply an incredibly […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Apple
Being able to analyse international shares — at no extra cost! — is a wonderful feature of SharePad. And finding overseas shares within SharePad is easy, too. Simply click on Other Lists within the main toolbar… …and take your pick from the various US and European indices available. I have chosen the top 500 US […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Games Workshop
Could now be the time to return to dynamic growth shares? Wonder-stocks such as Fever-Tree, Boohoo.com and Keywords Studios are all well below their highs of 2018… …and I wonder whether the widespread selling has created a super-growth bargain somewhere in the market! Let’s employ SharePad to find out. I bought the shares at £8 […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Plus500
Before I start looking at Plus500 (LSE: PLUS), I have some good news…. …you can now employ my SharePad screening criteria with just a few clicks! The process involves SharePad’s amazing Filter library. This facility gives you complete access to numerous pre-defined filters that have been used within various SharePad articles. Just follow these instructions […]
How I build and manage my share portfolio
The key thing to stress at the beginning and, as many of you will already be well aware, there are many ways to become a good investor. There are many different techniques, many different styles and strategies from fundamental analysis, technical analysis to even astrology and Biorhythms. It sounds like a cliché but the best […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Somero Enterprises
How did your portfolio fare during 2018? If you managed to side-step the market falls, very well done. For the rest of us — including me — I guess we can only cross our fingers and hope the FTSE performs a lot better during 2019! Still, with share prices in the doldrums and many investors […]
A Special SharePad Investigation: Patisserie Valerie
Before I go any further, let me just state that I am not here to say “I told you so”. But whenever I have lost money on a share, I have always found going back to see where I went wrong to be very instructive. In fact, trying to spot the warning signs from any […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Mattioli Woods
Many years ago, one of my favourite sources for investment ideas was the Financial Times. However, the FT’s articles did not interest me, and nor did the Lex column. Instead, I studied a small table that was tucked away on those pages that listed every share price. You see, this table named the shares that […]
Screening For My Next Long-Term Winner: Warpaint London
I am always looking for shares that can double, triple, quadruple or more during the years ahead. And one good way of finding such great investments is to study shares that have, well, already doubled, tripled, quadrupled or more. Take Fever-Tree (LSE: FEVR). This tonic-water specialist has rewarded savvy investors handsomely since the firm floated […]
Stock Watch – Portmeirion
Portmeirion Group is based in Stoke on Trent and is a leading maker of homeware products such as tableware, cookware, placemats, candles and fragrances. It trades under some well-known brand names such as Portmeirion, Royal Worcester, Pimpernel, Spode and Wax Lyrical. Around half its products are manufactured at its own site in Stoke on Trent […]
Stock Watch: Morrisons – Is a bad business turning itself into a reasonable one?
Ten years ago, Morrisons was doing reasonably well. Under the leadership of Dutchman Marc Bolland it was wooing customers with a very simple and powerful strategy – offering good food at low prices. When he left to run Marks & Spencer, the supermarket industry was beginning to change and the company lost its way. It […]
