Richard is a highly-respected investment writer well-known for his Share Sleuth portfolio, a model portfolio he runs for the investment platform Interactive investor. Richard eats his own cooking – buying good businesses at reasonable prices and holding them for the long-term in his Self Invested Personal Pension.
I’m a long-time ShareScope and SharePad fan and my aim is to help you find better companies faster using the fantastic tools at your disposal. My focus is on finding businesses we can reasonably expect to prosper for many years. As well as analysing data, I work out the strategies companies are following and try to verify that they are working in the real world by quizzing executives, visiting companies, trying their products and observing how they operate.
Six shares achieve less than three strikes. Among the haul of heroes are card shop or “celebrations destination” Card Factory, a software provider to the construction industry, and cosmetics brand Warpaint. Meanwhile, Richard’s pursuit of Spirax continues, even though traders are losing confidence in it. First off 5 Strikes, and six companies with good track
Just two shares out of six to publish annual reports in the last fortnight achieve less than three strikes. Richard introduces M Winkworth and Churchill China, before discovering that Spirax makes your toast (and his). The two shares to publish annual reports, pass my minimum quality and achieve less than three strikes in the last
This week Richard surveys an unusually high-quality crop of shares and takes a closer look at Nichols. The soft drinks company owns the Vimto brand and its secret formula. Six of the 14 companies that published annual reports in the last fortnight and passed my minimum quality filter have impressive financial track records. That’s a
Richard looks beyond Morgan Sindall’s excellent numbers to find any Big Obvious Objections (or Boo’s) to investing in the business. Meanwhile, 11 shares make it through the 5 Strikes filters. In the last fortnight 21 companies have published annual reports and passed my minimum quality filter. Eleven of them achieved less than 3 strikes. 5
In 2021, traders gobbled up shares in cake store franchise Cake Box, then spewed them back out. Today, the company earns twice as much in turnover than it did in 2020, but the share price is not much higher. Bonanza! 5 Strikes Twenty-nine shares have published annual reports and passed my minimum quality filter in
They say elephants can’t gallop, but Pets At Home is an elephant in UK pet care, and it has been trotting along nicely. Richard takes a closer look at the pet store chain dominating the market. Of the ten shares to publish annual reports in the last fortnight and pass my Minimum Quality filter, four
The trickle of annual reports in January and February has turned into a stream. It will soon be a flood. Eight companies have achieved less than three strikes. Richard takes a closer look at Dotdigital, which achieved only one strike last November. Of the 13 companies that published annual reports in the last fortnight, a
Richard digs deeper into Spirax’s annual report to discover why its numbers have deteriorated and consider whether the company can re-establish its tremendous long-term track record. 5 Strikes Only four companies have published annual reports and passed the minimum quality filter since my last article. Only one of them achieved less than 3 Strikes, and
Six years after selling Science, a share that today has no strikes to its name, Richard looks at the consultancy’s last annual report to see where the company’s strategy took it. Since last time, only three companies have published annual reports and made it past my minimum quality filter. I assigned all of them 4
January is a quiet month for annual reports, so Richard mines the list of shares that passed the 5 Strikes test in 2024 and should pass it again in 2025. Spirax Sarco catches his eye. Only two shares have published annual reports in the sleepy post-New Year reporting season. That is because the many companies
Cerillion has a perfect track record selling software to a challenging sector. Goldplat knows how to profit consistently from miners in troubled economies. Renew has figured out how to make big returns from labour intensive infrastructure repair and maintenance. All pass the 5 Strikes test. Unsurprisingly companies haven’t been busy churning out annual reports over
Richard makes a rare find, a company with no strikes to its name. He also stripped down his 5 Strikes system and checked its components to make sure it was fit for the purpose in 2025. Happy New Year! And a propitious one it is too, because the only company to have scored less than