European bank stocks have fallen to historically low multiples. The earnings outlook is uncertain and the banking environment is in flux. Tighter regulation, coordinated at the EU level, and challenging market conditions have forced banks to refine their business models and strategies – but all this has impacted their Return on Capital. European banks are…
It’s three months since the UK voted to leave the EU. In that time we have in place a new Prime Minister, a looser monetary policy and sterling is the weakest it has been versus the US dollar in over a decade. All in all, it’s been a dramatic quarter. While the FTSE 100 has…
Investors should not assume we have seen the full implications of the UK decision to go it alone. Like history, the future is another country; they do things differently there. One of the useful things taught in economics, is to distinguish between the ‘short term’ and the ‘long term’. John Maynard Keynes (whose wisdom has…
Wm. Morrison was a buy! You heard that message here last month ahead of these first-half results, and in the face of a massive uncovered bear position. (Clearly, too many hedge fund managers shop at Harrods and not Morrisons!) The grocer has managed to keep its customers happy, and the share price has responded in kind.…
There are scores of books for sale about the life, successes and investment philosophies of Warren Buffett. A quick search in the book section on amazon.co.uk for the Sage of Ohama’s name brings up no less than 5,591 relevant results. From classic read The Snowball, to collections of his timeless shareholder letters, along with hundreds…
Most of the time, when a stock has a dividend yield which is significantly higher than the market average there’s a good chance the dividend is about to be cut or suspended. It happened recently to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, although perhaps that is understandable since both are highly cyclical companies. It can also…
I had started this rummage in the hope of finding an underpriced investment. What I have discovered is a fairly valued share with, up until now, strong upward momentum, which seems to be coming back to its established trend support at around 1,500p. If the price does bounce from there it supports the view that…
Summary – India is starting to represent the new breed of high-growth emerging market, as Indian GDP grew by 7.5% in 2015, outpacing Chinese GDP growth (6.0%) for the first time. – While China has spent the past several years developing infrastructure and reaping the economic growth benefits of an emerging middle class, it is…
Does one chase this market into the mist and mellow fruitfulness of September or are most of the blackberries gone leaving only the thorns? According to the FTSE Actuaries Share Indices published by the Financial Times last week, the FTSE100 Index was valued at nearly forty times earnings and on a dividend yield of 3.7…
Barratt at 498p is still running strong on fundamentals and a great total return of capital gain and dividend buy. The full year results for Barratt Developments, (498p last seen) have contributed another lighted match to the bonfire of views on house building shares. Their share price has after all, had one hell of an…
