Maynard wrote investment articles for The Motley Fool UK between 1999 and 2014 before becoming a full-time investor at the start of 2015. As well as the articles he writes for ShareScope, Maynard publishes his own investment blog at maynardpaton.com.
I’ve developed my investing approach after years of learning about the stock market and experiencing what actually works for me. Important influences on my style include the strategies of Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and Jim Slater. I look to invest in respectable smaller companies run by capable managers that trade at modest valuations and to hold them for the long term.
Let’s start with a wealth warning: This article covers bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain; I am not a bitcoin expert; The bitcoin price is highly unpredictable; Argo’s share price is highly unpredictable, and; Argo issues frequent updates. The upshot is my logic and calculations may be completely wrong or out-of-date by the time you read what
For some time now IG Group has been flashing on my SharePad filters. The three screenshots just below show IG offers: High margins; Decent returns on equity; Cash-rich accounts; Attractive five-year growth; A lack of past acquisitions, and; A modest P/E. Those characteristics are an unusual mix in a market presently bereft of obvious quality
Welcome to a series of occasional articles in which I shine an investigative spotlight on particular small-caps. My aim is to demonstrate how to analyse companies in SharePad and beyond to help you become a more informed investor. I start today with LoopUp (LOOP), a £44 million developer of software for remote meetings and conference
Happy 2021! I trust SharePad will help bring you good fortune in what could be another twelve months of financial thrills and spills. As usual I plan to trawl the market for interesting shares that I hope assists your company analysis and stock-picking. I start the year with Avon Rubber, a FTSE 250 member that
I am always looking for ‘multi-baggers’ — investments that can double, triple, quadruple or more. And here’s some very good news: I have stumbled on a company that can find them for me. Not just the occasional five-bagger or ten-bagger mind, but 20-baggers. It’s incredible stuff, especially as the track record of success extends for
Today I have returned to one of my favourite SharePad screens. This screen applies two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors — operating margin and return on equity (ROE). The main filter criteria are: 1) An operating margin (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more, and; 2) An ROE (latest and 10-year average) of 20%
I am not a great fan of the fund-management industry. I cannot think of another sector where the employees collect enormous salaries while the customers pay hefty fees and sometimes get nothing in return. Quite often us amateur investors are better off with simple index trackers rather than falling for the industry’s persuasive advisers and
First, a wealth warning. The last price-to-book ‘bargain’ I looked at for SharePad was Hammerson. Back then the property group’s £5 billion asset base could be acquired for a £1.6 billion market cap. Investors were in theory able to purchase £1 of assets for just 30p. Twelve months on, and the share price below tells
They say mums always know best. Mine has bought Fever-Tree tonic waters for some years now and I recently asked whether she remained a customer. This was her response. “While we don’t buy many commercial drinks for home consumption these days I would still definitely buy Fever-Tree, generally the original tonic water. I went into
Let me start by thanking you for clicking on an article with Headlam in the title. Rest assured, not everyone will want to read about this rather dull business that has suffered badly during the pandemic. But for us contrarians, now may be the time to consider such stocks — unloved names that the market
Has the market become too obsessed with ‘pandemic-proof’ shares? I ask because my SharePad screening has brought Frontier Developments to my attention. The shares of this computer-game developer have leapt 66% so far this year as industry sales rally during the lockdown. However, Frontier’s accounting looks rather questionable and the near-£800 million market cap seems
One way to invest during the pandemic is to consider shares that have climbed higher as the market has dropped. Such companies may well be ‘safe havens’ — businesses that are coping well with the lockdown, or perhaps even benefitting from the crisis. I applied the following simple criteria within SharePad to identify potential ‘pandemic-proof’