Today’s featured company is a departure from the riskier and possibly sexier future opportunities and in many ways, Warehouse REIT (WHR) is a boring real estate investment trust, which is not known for its sex appeal or excitement. Sometimes, boring companies build wealth by stealth, as is the case with Warehouse REIT. It invests in […]
Markets sold off sharply towards the end of last week, with the FTSE down almost 3% to 7,106. IAG (the old British Airways) and Rolls Royce were both off c. 10% last Friday. Novacyt was up +27% last week, after the company said its genesig® COVID-19 Real-Time PCR tests have been approved in the UK […]
One of the best things you can do to really understand a business is to spend some time studying how and from where a company generates its revenues. A series of simple and straightforward questions can allow you to gain a great deal of insight into how a company works. All of the information you […]
Richard was so impressed by his first look at newly listed Marks Electrical, he was tempted to buy something from the online retailer of cookers and other domestic appliances. As for the investment, he was tempted too… I do not know whether it is a glitch or a feature, but a quirk of SharePad has […]
The FTSE 100 fell in the second half of last week, but at 7,202 still remains around the top of its previous May-Oct trading range. The Nasdaq was up +1.75% and the S&P +0.5%. Brent Crude fell back below $80 per barrel, suggesting that tensions between the EU and Belorussia are not having a wider […]
A couple of months ago I wrote an article extolling the virtues of selling Covered Calls on FTSE 100 stocks. The technique involves selling Call options on shares you already own to bring in additional income. When you combine the technique with a portfolio of dividend-yielding shares, you can create a veritable income machine. However, […]
Aquis Exchange is taking on the London Stock Exchange by offering unlimited trading for a fixed monthly fee. MaynardPaton studies the disruptive qualities, favourable economics and profit potential of the challenger’s trading platform. Investors love ‘disruptors’. Find a pioneering upstart that is stealing market share from industry dinosaurs, and your portfolio may enjoy a huge […]
The FTSE 100 rose +0.8% towards 7,400 before dipping back slightly on Friday to 7,353. That was a better week compared to the Nasdaq 100 and S&P500, down -2% and -1% respectively. However, the FTSE outperformance has mostly been driven by a weak pound, which fell to 1.34 to the dollar, as currency markets reacted […]
Richard likes a business that is in control of its own destiny. He takes a look at DFS plc, the sofa seller that unexpectedly featured in his list of vertically integrated businesses. Of all the names that came up in my trawl for vertically integrated businesses, sofa seller DFS was perhaps the most surprising. To […]
The FTSE 100 hit a high for 2021 at 7,314. The S&P500 also continued to trend upwards, hitting a new high of 4,680 and now up +25% since the start of the year. In contrast, the FTSE China 50 Index is down -16% since the start of the year. The US bond yield was at […]
A cash flow analysis of a company has long been seen as a good thing for an investor to do. Often, if you want to get a feel for what’s really going on with a company and the numbers it produces, its cash flow statement will tell you a lot more than its income statement. […]
The FTSE 100 was flat last week, drifting around 7,226. Nasdaq and the S&P500 did better, up +2.8% and +1.1% respectively, following strong results from Google and Microsoft. Apple and Amazon signalled that disruption and costs from supplying customers with physical products were rising. Facebook became Meta. Name changes should not affect share prices, but […]
Our funds expert embraces his inner bear, focusing on a long-established and successful Russian investment fund. For those worried about the fragile US monetary order, or wanting to play the upside in energy prices, Russia is a great starting point. And valuations are cheap. Before we delve a little deeper into our new fund for […]
In the chaotic business conditions we are experiencing, self-reliance has been a source of competitive advantage. Since we do not ever know what the future will hold, Richard goes in search of companies that have an element of vertical integration. I hope it is not smugness, but I have felt a sense of satisfaction when […]
It has been a turgid couple of months for small cap investors. Many stocks are well off their highs. There are no longer placings where investors can’t write tickets quick enough. The capital tap (for now) is no longer gushing and we’re seeing companies sell off as people become wary of a possible recession. At […]
30-bagger Goodwin has pivoted towards higher-margin contracts to widen its competitive ‘moat’. Maynard Paton weighs up the engineer’s haphazard financials with the delightfully old-school management. This quote from Richard Beddard caught my eye the other week: “If something truly special is incubating, we may profit from our investment for decades.” I am always up for […]
With the FTSE 100 reaching 7235 last week, the index finally seems to have broken out of the trading range that it has occupied since May. The index’s all time high is 7,903 reached in 2018. ITM, the hydrogen company raised £250m through an over-subscribed placing at a 16% discount. There’s still plenty to worry […]
It’s nice to be back writing some articles for SharePad. As some of you may know, I worked for ShareScope between 2014 and 2018 and helped to design many of the financial analysis features that are in the SharePad software. I remain a very happy user of SharePad today and use it extensively for my […]
Animal breeder Genus Plc is at the forefront of animal genetics and highly valued by investors, yet standard measures of Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), a marker for quality, indicate only modest levels of profitability. Unusually (for me) I rediscovered Genus because of an idea, rather than as a result of trawling through shares in […]
Another volatile week, with the FTSE 100 falling to 6,950 but recovering to 7,080 on Friday. The AIM index is up +24% in the last 12 months, but more recently has given back performance relative to the FTSE 100 +18% because that index has a higher weighting towards bank and oil sectors. Paul Hall, from […]
The FAANGs — the name given to five of the best performing tech stocks, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (now called Alphabet) — have produced fantastic returns for years. However, regulatory headwinds and a reopening economy have led some analysts to sound a note of caution. Is it time to ditch the Faangs? Over […]
Empyrean Energy PLC (EME) is a small Australian oil 7 gas exploration company with huge potential upside if it can succeed with the drill. The company has big hopes for black stuff turning into gold, or wads of cash for investors and the board. The CEO, Tom Kelly, has serious skin in the game. Empyrean […]
We take a look at 5 new IPOS listed on the LSE over the past few weeks, including: Oxford Nanopore Technologies ONT Made Tech MTEC Peel Hunt PEEL GreenRoc Mining GROC Net Zero Infrastructure NZI OXFORD NANOPORE TECHNOLOGIES Opening date 30 September 2021 Issue price 425p Market cap £4.5bn Ticker ONT At the helm Dr […]
The FTSE 100 had a volatile week, rallying, selling off then recovering to 7,040 last Friday. The Nasdaq100 was down -4% and S&P500 -3.3% last week. US 10y Govt bond yield continued to trend upwards to 1.55% versus a low of 1.19% at the start of August. The UK 10y bond yield is up even […]
I don’t trade indices as I much prefer equities – however one thing I learned from the pandemic is that instead of shorting 30-40 stocks, I could’ve easily boosted my returns by putting on an index short. Once you go above 20 shares, you start to significantly correlate the very index you’re trying to beat. […]
Richard goes hunting in his own portfolio for companies incubating better businesses. They may be undervalued as a result. As promised, this week I am following up my last article on past pivots that worked with an article about live pivots that look like they are working. I used the word pivot to describe a […]
Markets lurched downwards at the start of last week, with the FTSE 100 falling to 6,906 before recovering to 7,067. Nasdaq and the S&P also recovered during the week to 15,316 and 4,449 both moving less than half a percent. The FTSE China 50 was down 3.6%, and down 18% since the start of the […]
I’m back at school and in my last year, studying for my A levels. It has been great having time during the summer break to read some new books. What I’ve been reading Tom Dorsey’s – Point & Figure Charting I started with a book from Tom Dorsey, kindly recommended to me by Michael Taylor […]
Specialist SIPP firm Curtis Banks has seen its dividend go up but shares go nowhere during the last five years. Maynard Paton now wonders whether the small-cap’s recurring income and high margins make it a ‘QARP’ stock. Shares offering ‘Quality At a Reasonable Price’ have been hard to find during the last few years. But […]
UK and US markets remain quiet, with the FTSE 100 at 7,013, struggling to keep its nose just above 7,000 last week. There continue to be spikes and drops in some commodities; earlier this year it was Rhodium hitting $25,000 an ounce, now Uranium is up +48% in the last 3 months, while Iron Ore […]
In the first of two articles, Richard celebrates perhaps the sweetest investment of them all: The humdrum business that incubates a better one. Though my stock-in-trade is businesses reliably executing established and successful strategies, my biggest winners have often been businesses that pivoted. They incubated better businesses from within the business they already operated. In […]
The FTSE 100 was down -1.4% this week to 7,048. The Nasdaq and S&P500 also fell, but less than -1% each. The FTSE China 50 was up +1% last week, the Mumbai and Russian stock exchanges remain the best performing YTD, both up +25% since the start of the year. Oxford Nanopore, the maker of […]
Our funds specialist returns form a summer break with a new addition to the Prudent 15. It’s a lending fund that has built up a solid track record and offers cautious, income-oriented investors a solid 8% plus yield. My latest addition to the Prudent 15 is a slightly alternative income-oriented fund that has built up […]
Acquiring private companies that make precision instruments has propelled SDI shares to 12-bagger status over the last five years. Maynard Paton recaps the story and prospects of the ‘buy and build’ specialist. Everybody loves a share that keeps going up. SharePad lists 168 names that have delivered 15% or more annualised turns during the last […]
The FTSE 100 was up less than half a percent last week to 7,164, towards the top of the trading range that it has occupied since early May. The Nasdaq 100 was up +1.1% ahead of the S&P500 +0.6%. The China 50 was one of the best performing major indices up +2.8% to 18,291 as […]
Inspired by Maynard’s article on Hornby’s turnaround, Richard examines the history of Games Workshop to imagine what challenges lie ahead if Hornby is to emulate the success of this outwardly similar hobby business. The idea for this article came from Maynard’s article about Hornby. To my mind he convincingly described a turnaround that is already […]
The FTSE 100 was up half a percent last week to 7,124. The Nasdaq 100 had a better week +1.2% and the China 50 rebounded +4.5%, though that index is still down -14% in the last 3 months. The US 10-year bond yield finished last week at 1.35%, recovering from a low of 1.19% in […]
Breakouts are an excellent way to swing trade and profit from bull markets. I love breakouts because they’re a high probability pattern of continuation and also because it means that the price is rising. However, many people try strategies that that are inherently risky. Sadly, one private investor commented that they’d invested into a stock […]
Since the post-pandemic stock market boom, analysts and experts have warned us that the market was overvalued. Some have gone even further and submitted that we’re in a bubble that is set to burst. However, prices keep rising, suggesting many investors believe there is still value to be found. So which is it? Is the […]
The FTSE 100 fell 2.5% last week and remains at the level it was in early May, at 7,048. The China 50 Index was down even more sharply 7.6% to 16,959. Alibaba fell 15% last week, and Tencent was also down 11%. The damage is being done by new data privacy laws that Beijing will […]
Richard goes deep into Oxford Instruments’ annual reports and SharePad for answers to three questions to establish whether it is a good “pick and shovel play”. In my last article I explained how I used custom tables to find Oxford Instruments, a highly profitable business that seemed to have lost its way and then found […]
Events at Hornby prove how turnarounds can take years. But fresh capital, better management and a return to profit could mean the model-train specialist is over the worst and finally heading towards a proper recovery. Turnarounds can be tempting. You find a business that has hit big trouble with a stock price at rock bottom… […]
Bruce looks at how stock market indices can be skewed by a few large winners. The same goes for portfolio returns. Stocks covered this week are BOTB’s profit warning, plus H1 results from Clarkson, Ocean Wilsons and Georgia Capital. The FTSE was up +1.0% to 7,193 last week, outperforming the S&P500 which was up 0.5% […]
Journeo PLC (JNEO) is a tiddler I have had on my watchlist for a year or more. At today’s share price of 122p, the market cap is just £10.7 million, so very much at the lower end of valuations of the companies I have covered. Many investors would view this as a concern, a risk […]
I should start by saying that I am no technical analysis whiz, and this article will likely bore those with an encyclopaedic knowledge of buy/sell signals and chart shapes (cup and handle, anyone?). I got into investing after I started working at ShareScope, and I desperately wanted it to be easy. Technical analysis seemed like […]
Last week the FTSE 100 was up +1.1% to 7,111, Nasdaq was up 1.5% to 15,181, outperforming the S&P 500, up +0.8% to 4,429. Both the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong and the FTSE China 50 Index were up less than 1% last week. The US 10Y bond yield continued to fall to 1.19% […]
We looked at two potential stage 2 stocks a few weeks ago here. The issue with some AIM stocks is that they don’t offer the liquidity that some traders prefer. In this article, we’ll look at some FTSE miners that trade on both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indices. These stocks are traded in […]
Filters are one of the most powerful tools in SharePad, but Richard has been experimenting with another way to discover investment ideas and increase his “market intimacy”. Traders, of course, have price charts to guide them. Many investors focus on financials, and use filters to find new shares with attractive financial characteristics. Being a buy-and-hold […]
The FTSE 100 bobbled about just above 7,000 last week. Nasdaq 100 was down less than half a percent, as strong results from Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple all beat analyst forecasts on the top line. This was offset somewhat by Amazon, which reported sales growth slowing as lockdown measures eased. Maybe Jeff Bezos has timed […]
Our funds specialist returns with a star performer in the relatively unloved European equities space: Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust. He reckons now is the time to focus on fast growing European small caps. This week I have a relatively short note for you, outlining why I think now might be an interesting moment to […]
ASOS share news Fashion website ASOS is among the market’s greatest growth stocks, but a recent update knocked 18% off the share price. The P/E may not be outrageous if huge warehouse and IT costs can one day deliver a suitable return. One of my favourite screening strategies is to hunt for attractive growth companies […]
Markets sold off at the beginning of last week, with the FTSE 100 falling to 6,849 before recovering to above 7000 at the end of the week. We saw similar sell offs in the Europe and the US markets, including Nasdaq which was down -2.5% early last week, which seems odd if jitters were caused […]
In this article I will dig a little deeper into buying breakout stocks and identifying stock breakout signals. I will share with you what I look for in a breakout from a technical, fundamental, risk-to-reward and time-to-reward viewpoint. This article will include elements from all my previous ShareScope articles (which you can read here), which […]
We take a look at 5 upcoming IPOs and recent IPOS listed on the LSE over the next few weeks, including: 1 BIG TECHNOLOGIES 2 GENINCODE 3 MICROLISE GROUP 4 BIVICTRIX THERAPEUTICS 5 ZENOVA GROUP Big Technologies IPO Expected opening date Late July 2021 Expected issue price TBC Expected market cap £500m Ticker TBC At […]
Richard was a long-term shareholder in Castings PLC, but he sold his entire holding in 2020. What did he see in the company? Why did he lose confidence after so many years? And what has changed to make him think perhaps it could be a good long-term investment after all? Castings PLC and I have […]
The Bank of England released its twice yearly Financial Stability Report last week. The report says that UK bank balance sheets are in much better shape than the 2007-8 crisis and they expect impairments in 2021 to be lower than the £22bn credit losses taken last year. The “guardrails” against shareholder dividends have now been […]
Greg Robinson from Fire Revolution spells out how you can double or even treble increase dividend yield with covered calls.
I am sure many readers will be familiar with the impact of COVID-19 on the foreign exchange market. Subjugated to the rises and falls of major economies, the foreign exchange market faced wrath like so many other industries. As unemployment reached unimaginable figures, remittances fell to tragic lows. The year 2020 is a year of […]
Warren Buffett admitted the other year that he had not bought shares at an IPO since 1955. “They’re picking the time to sell to you; I like it when I am picking the time to buy“, the investing master warned when asked about flotations. Mind you, every great share went public at some point… and […]
Just as I thought the FTSE 100 was breaking out of its trading range 7000-7200 markets dipped at the end of last week to leave the FTSE at 7084. The US 10 year Government bond yield fell to 1.33%, down from a peak of 1.74% at the end of March, suggesting that bond markets have […]
Investors often find resilient businesses occupying specialist niches. Richard takes a first look at Sopheon, which makes software that helps big businesses manage the many products they are developing, and the strategic projects they are working on.
William, our youngest SharePad subscriber, is relatively new to the world of investing and trading. He has kindly offered to share his experiences so far, and is keen to learn more.
We take a look at 8 recent IPOs listed on the LSE over the past month and whether they’re worthwhile investments.
The FTSE 100 at 7,145 appears to be breaking out of the trading range that it has occupied since the beginning of May. The S&P +15% since the start of the year, is still ahead of the Nasdaq +13% although last week the latter was closing the gap, reporting a positive +1.5% gain. Amazon is […]
Our funds specialist returns with another new suggestion for the Dynamic 35, Digital 9 Infrastructure, although he argues it could also sit inside the Prudent 15 list as well. This fund is an asset-backed infrastructure fund with an exciting technology customer base who want to buy into a new digital world through mobile phone towers, […]
The FTSE 100 is up +10% since the start of the year, currently at 7,120. The best performing stock in the FTSE 100 in H1 was Royal Mail +72%, followed by Entain +61% and Ashtead +57%. The worst was Fresnillo -29%, the Mexican based silver miner. This was followed by food retailers: Tesco -24%, Just […]
Equals Group Plc (EQLS) is a provider of international payment services. The company operates through the following segments: Currency Cards, International Payments, Travel Cash, Banking and Central. It develops a cloud-based person-to-person payments platform that enables personal and business customers to make payments in a range of currencies and countries. The company was founded […]
I was at lunch this week with some trader friends, discussing the market and the various strategies you can use to make money. We came to the agreement that in the small caps space, having an informational edge is definitely an advantage. Knowing what you own and why you own it is one of Peter […]
The FTSE 100 finished the week flat, ending at 7,130. Both Nasdaq and the S&P500 also moved less than 1%; it was almost as if the sun was shining and traders were watching football matches. There were more significant moves in Govt bond markets, the US 10y bond yield rising to 1.57%, responding sharply to […]
We take a look at UK IPOs due to be listed on the LSE over the next month and how their sector has been performing this year.
Will tech stocks still provide reasonable returns for the rest of the year? Or are bank stocks a better bet?
The FTSE remains range bound, up less than +1% to 7,125 last week, still below its 2021 high of 7,130 reached in early May. The S&P500 was flat at 4,239 and Nasdaq was up +1.4% to 13,960. Though companies are talking about input cost inflation, most commodities are also off their recent highs, with the […]
Impressive profit growth, a ‘scalable’ business, hefty insider ownership and a P/E re-rating have helped Impax Asset Management become a huge share winner. Maynard Paton looks closer at the ‘green’ fund manager.
Richard examines Next’s bold strategy as it seeks to win the Internet by becoming an enabler of fashion brands. Surprisingly the strategies of the racier names in fashion retail look staid in comparison.
Last week Brent crude was up +4% to $71 per barrel which helped BP +6% and Shell +4% lead the FTSE 100. Since the 7th May high the index has kept a narrow range between 7,130 and 6,950, currently 7,060. In the US, car companies like GM were up +7% (or +52% since 1st Jan) […]
The FTSE 100 is up +10% since the start of the year, currently at 7,120. The best performing stock in the FTSE 100 in H1 was Royal Mail +72%, followed by Entain +61% and Ashtead +57%. The worst was Fresnillo -29%, the Mexican-based silver miner. This was followed by food retailers: Tesco -24%, Just Eat […]
We take a look at UK IPOs listed on the LSE over the past month and how they’ve performed upon opening.
If you believe cryptocurrencies are the future, then the bank notes and passports printer De La Rue (DLAR) is not for you.
The FTSE was quiet remaining just above 7,000 through the week. Looking at the five best performing stocks since the start of the year (Ashstead +53%, Entain +47%, Evraz +38%, Glencore +38%, Lloyds +37%) and the worst five (Tesco -24%, Just Eat -23%, Fresnillo -19%, London Stock Exchange -18%, Ocado -16%) it’s hard to discern […]
The market has been risk-off in the last few weeks. Why? It’s anyone’s guess. The Talking Heads will say inflation, price of lumber rising, price of lumber falling, geopolitical tensions… If only they could tell us before the event instead of finding reasons for why things happened after the event.
Richard’s pursuit of Quarto, a publisher of illustrated books, takes him on a trail that leads to Hong Kong and Delaware. What he finds is anything but a straightforward turnaround.
This week I look at Cerillion, the telco billing Group; Sanderson Design Group, the wallpaper and interior design company (previously known as Walker Greenbank); SigmaRoc, which is acquiring concrete quarries, and Games Workshop which needs no introduction to most readers.
Our funds expert turns his attention to the slowly recovering property-focused real estate investment trusts sector. His new addition to the Dynamic 35 is a very actively managed pan European fund of funds that invests across a wide range of real asset-backed niches.
WANdisco has raised $217 million since 2012 yet has never made a profit. But could deals with Microsoft and Amazon finally trigger a sales boost? The board’s optimism is not backed by its share dealing.
Markets sold off last week, with the FTSE 100 down -2.3%, S&P 500 -2.8% and Nasdaq 100 -4.5%. The best performing index was Brazil’s Bovespa, which was still up less than 1%. Despite the sell-off being attributed to inflation, the UK 10Y bond yield at 0.86% and US 10Y bond yield at 1.64% remained steady. […]
We take a look at UK IPOs due to be listed on the LSE over the next month and how their sector has been performing this year.
There is an old stock market maxim that says we should “sell in May and go away.” Like most proverbs or cliches, it has a foundation in truth.
Moneysupermarket wants to get to know us, so it can sell us more products. Innovation and diversification are the pillars of a strategy responding to a maturing market.
It’s good to have management with experience of boom and bust cycles, so Bruce looks at two companies run by Chairmen over 80 years old. With the FA Cup and Champions League Final later this month he starts with some football stories from his time at Seymour Pierce.
We take a look at UK IPOs listed on the LSE throughout April 2021 and how they’ve performed upon opening.
Bruce looks at tech stocks reporting Q1 results in the US, Google vs Facebook, and the resurgence of Microsoft. Plus a mix of UK companies reporting this week, including Tristel, Water Intelligence, HeiQ and Sylvania.
Do we wait for dips? Buy now? Buy more? Is it all over now, again?
Markets have been very strong recently, so it’s important not to get carried away. Bruce looks at stocks with accrued income, % revenue recognition, acquisition and fair value accounting adjustments.
April is typically a strong month – perhaps because of all the tax-selling clearing and reducing sell pressure. New ISA money tends to enter the market too. Cash is a position, but many punters feel it burning a hole in their pockets and so tend to end up spending it.
I like companies that boast significant net cash. I therefore apply certain filter criteria to identify some reasonable cash-flush businesses.
Bruce wonders if value vs momentum factors is really the best way to think about companies on the stock market. He also looks at the Novacyt profit warning, The Mission, and two high performance stocks: Volex and Impax.
What defines a worthy stock for investment or retirement income? Unfortunately, for many investors, the answer is a stock that pays dividends. While dividends are a factor (among many) that can be used to judge a stock, it isn’t necessarily the most important or profitable determination to make when investing.
Investing in mining stocks is always a speculative exercise. Where are we in the cycle?
A company’s strategy should not just tell us what it wants to achieve, but why and how. Richard introduces a simple framework for analysing strategy and highlights a good strategy, and one that is more difficult to fathom.
We are most of the way through result season for companies with December year ends. Bruce discusses how companies with patchy track records can border on evasive in their RNS disclosure, without quite crossing the line to unacceptable. Often the share price reactions suggests that investors aren’t fooled though.
