Equity prospects
Technological progress is being driven largely by advancements in semiconductor chips, which allow ever more computing power to be utilised.
Telecom Plus is better known by its trading brand, Utility Warehouse (UW).
Eagle-eyed readers may notice a new name in the FTSE 250. Dowlais span out of Melrose and incorporates the former automotive arm of historic British engineer GKN.
Ceres Power is a developer of solid oxide-based hydrogen power technology.
Richemont is a Swiss-based luxury goods holding company which owns an array of brands including jeweller Cartier, watchmaker Roger Dubuis and James Purdey & Sons, maker of some of the finest 'London…
There’s a good chance that those opting for a G&T as their drink of choice this summer will top off their Gordon’s or Tanqueray with a Fever-Tree tonic.
W.A.G Payment Solutions (trading as ‘Eurowag’) is a fleet management and payments platform targeted at commercial road transport (CRT) companies in Europe and now covers c. 86,000 vehicles. The…
Whilst structured as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Big Yellow is quite different to other REITs.
Cranswick is a food producer specialising in high quality, predominantly pork and chicken products sold mostly into UK retail.
The UK high street has not been an easy place to operate in recent years but Greggs has bucked this trend.
Howdens manufactures and sells kitchens having seen success with a steady climb in trade accounts over time.
RS Group, formerly Electrocomponents, is a global industrial and electronic product and component distributor which stocks more than 700,000 products from switches, pulleys and sensors through to…
In its simplest form ServiceNow (NOW) can be described as a software company that helps businesses automate their processes.
Recently I travelled to San Francisco and Seattle on a US company roadshow.
Zurich based Barry Callebaut (BC) trades and manufactures cocoa based ingredients for sweets, pastries, drinks-out-of-vending-machines, ice creams and desserts as well as actually making some of…
Sage is a software company specialising in accounting, payroll and payment systems for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).
Mainstream consumer fashion has appeared a relatively out of favour investment segment.
Globant is a 19 year old tech stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange which might suggest it’s become ‘old hat’ but, I’d caution such a view.
CarMax is America’s largest second hand car dealer with 230 shops.
Accenture is a professional services firm which focuses on strategic and IT consulting, technology integration services and management of IT operations.
Shell is in the midst of a corporate makeover.
Ukraine’s conflict has created wide-ranging ripples through global markets.
Rarely do software companies have the longevity of Adobe.
The name Vodafone, deriving from voice data fone, aptly covers much of what the business provides.
At first glance Associated British Foods (ABF) presents a slightly confusing investment case; a business of two parts.
B&M are a leading UK value retailer who focus primarily on physical retail sites versus online retail.
CrowdStrike is a cloud-native cyber-security company with a platform specialising in endpoint security.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is a DNA/RNA sequencing company.
Barclays has been in the news recently with the resignation of Jes Staley.
L’Oréal is a European beauty conglomerate that owns some of the best known beauty brands in the world (e.g. Lancome, Garnier, La Roche-Posay).
UBS takes about 50% of its revenues from Wealth Management.
An increasing portion of the global economy is now reliant upon digital technologies.
Nike is the global leader in sports apparel and footwear and is regarded as one of the strongest fashion brands globally.
You will undoubtedly have heard Moderna’s name in recent months as a developer of one of the vaccines for COVID-19.
Imperial Brands (IMB) is a multinational nicotine (née tobacco) company. They are the fourth largest nicotine company globally, and their largest markets are the USA and Germany. The Tobacco & Next…
For the last year and a half, the UK’s property market has boomed. Record low interest rates, temporary government cuts to stamp duty on purchases up to £500,000 and a competitive UK mortgage market …
Darktrace is a cyber-security platform that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect, investigate and respond to cyber threats in real time.
When you think of online marketplaces, which provide a platform for third parties to sell their products and services on, most think of Amazon and eBay. For home buying, Rightmove. For cars,…
There is little doubt that the demand for plant-based fast food is on the rise as consumers become more environmentally and ethically conscious. Yet, there is still a big market for meat,…
Today, ASOS is best recognised as a leading online fashion retailer.
Assura is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that specialises in UK primary care medical centre real estate.
CyberArk shares are traded in America, although the company can trace its origins to the Israeli defence forces.
Tesco needs little introduction - it’s one of the UK’s top retailers in groceries and merchandise and has a market capitalisation of £20bn.
MarketAxess is where most corporate bonds get traded, particularly American ones and in the smaller deal size (below $5 million).
The London Stock Exchange Group, an exchange where shares and bonds are traded, also incorporates a range of clearing and settlement business as well as price information and index sales.
Segro is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that specialises in owning and developing warehouses, data centres and logistics sites in the UK, focussing on ‘edge-of-town’ spaces.
Terry Smith, founder and CEO of Fundsmith wrote in 2010 about the rationale for investing in Del Monte, which most people associated as a canned fruit producer.
Edwards Lifesciences’ roots date to 1958, when Miles Edwards set out to build the first artificial heart.
We have all heard of eBay and PayPal. eBay used to own PayPal before spinning it off as its own entity in 2015.
Pearson supplies courseware to students globally.
Coloplast’s products are not quite dinner party conversation, as they help us when our plumbing stops working properly.
Previously a sprawling healthcare conglomerate, Cooper Companies has now found its focus within the speciality contact lens and women’s healthcare markets.
Ferrari is an ultra-luxury car manufacturer with an iconic brand packed full of racing pedigree.
CRH is a leading global manufacturer and distributor of construction materials.
The weather is getting nicer and although we can’t enjoy pub gardens (yet), I am still craving a good G&T.
There is not a more formidable e-commerce business than Amazon.
Tobacco companies have historically shown themselves capable of withstanding everything regulators have thrown at them.
Big Yellow is a UK listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Disney makes and sells films as well as running its Parks & Resorts division.
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (Spirax) is one of the true great multi-national British engineering companies, comprising three complementary niche businesses operating in thermal energy management market,…
Ofwat regulates the water companies. On 16th December 2019 Ofwat publishes its determinations for how water companies will get rewarded in the next regulatory period called AMP7 (2020 to 2025).There…
Diageo, at first glance, is an international drinks producer and distributor operating across developed and emerging markets. But, if you look deeper at the company you quickly discover that it…
Typically Amazon is viewed as the world’s largest e-commerce store, you can near enough buy any item, from A to Z. Yet, Amazon should be viewed through a different lens. Amazon does far more than e…
Diploma PLC is a holding company comprised of a number of international operating businesses. These specialise in the supply of consumable products and services into three distinct sectors and…
Bank of America, as the name suggests, is an American bank through and through. Close to 85% of revenues and profits come from America and its 210,000 employees staff its 5,000 branches across the…
Walt Disney Company (Disney) is more than a mouse with big ears and amusement parks. The empire now includes films made by Pixar (Toy Story), Marvel Studios (Avengers), Lucasfilm (Star Wars) and 20th…
Standard Chartered is a restructuring story. The bank is led by CEO Bill Winters, who took over a bit of a mess back in 2015. From 2000 Standard Chartered pursued what they now see as a flawed policy…
Intuitive Surgical is a company which develops and manufactures surgical robots, and is the global leader. These however aren’t the fully automated robots that you may be thinking of.Intuitive’s…
Often in the news for the wrong reasons, Facebook is not a company which many would call a success. But from a financial perspective the business has performed incredibly well since its stock market…
Barclays Bank has been in the news recently, but not quite for all the right reasons. An American shareholder activist called Ed Bramson has been pushing for the bank to restructure its investment…
Illumina is one of the few companies which is at the cutting edge of improving our quality of life. It develops highly complex machines which sequence or ‘read’ genomes. Genomes contain our complete…
You probably don’t know this but the probability that you have a Givaudan product in most of your domestic consumables is very high.Givaudan is based in Switzerland and makes fragrances and…
You might not know it, but without Cranswick your traditional Sunday morning breakfast might be significantly different to that which you are used to today.In the 1970s the business was formed when a…
Compass haven’t had it easy. December 2017 saw the tragic passing of the impressive CEO, Richard Cousins. This was closely followed by the resignation of long serving CFO, Johnny Thomson and global…
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Unilever is a global consumer goods company whose vast portfolio of products operate within four broad segments: Personal Care, Foods, Refreshment and Home Care. Brands you might recognise include…
RELX is an information provider to specialist professional sectors, namely Science,Technology and Medicine (STM), Legal and Insurance.
When you think of Microsoft you typically think of its Windows operating system. This is however only a small part of its diversified technology empire.
Hunting manufactures and distributes equipment that enables the world’s oil and gas companies to drill for and then extract their oil and gas hydrocarbons.
It would be easy to write about all the reasons to be impressed by Amazon. Whether it be their globally leading cloud-computing business, their e-commerce platform which continues to dominate the…
Intuitive Surgical are the global leader in robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery through the “da Vinci System” as well as the related instruments and accessories.The da Vinci System comes in…
British American Tobacco (BATs) and their peers have been plagued over recent years by concerns over pro- health legislation threatening parts of the industry. Thus far, tobacco giants have survived…
AB Foods (ABF) is split into five rather different divisions, Sugar, Agriculture, Retail, Grocery and Ingredients. By far the largest of these is Retail or more accurately, Primark, a budget fashion…
Renishaw aren’t your average FTSE250 Industrial. In 2013, a decision was made that investors would only get to see management twice a year; once at the AGM and once at an investor day, which we…
In 1928 the first Micky Mouse cartoon ‘Steamboat Willie’ appeared in theatres. 90 years later, Walt Disney looks like a very different beast. Media Networks now makes up roughly half of the company…
PZ Cussons (PZ) is a global FMCG company, owning well-known brands such as Imperial Leather, Carex, and Original Source, to name a few.
During the 1990’s, WiFi was invented and began to be commercialised. Those that made the WiFi transmitters were tipped to be the companies through which to play this leap forward in technology.…
In February 2016, GVC acquired bwin to become one of the largest multinational sport betting and gaming groups. More recently the Group has come to investors’ attention over its potential tie-up with…
We last wrote about Electrocomponents in the Spring 2017 edition when the shares were trading at £4.95 on what seemed like an expensive 45x historical PE rating.
Clipper Logistics (Clipper) run a predominantly UK based business focused on returns, delivery, packaging, and click and collect services. When an item is ordered online from one of a number of…
We first mentioned NMC when the shares were reaching up to the £18 level. Each share now costs you close to £32 and the company is a proud new member of the FTSE100.To recap, NMC runs hospitals and…
A deep knowledge and understanding of Smurfit Kappa means a quite surprising increase in one’s vocabulary; OCC, kraftliner, testliner, recycled containerboard, virgin containerboard and corrugated…
Vodafone has been through a lot of change over the last few years. Most of this is thanks to a huge investment programme in Europe called Project Spring. The result of which is that Vodafone is now…
Warren Buffet once said “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.” As one of very few pharmaceutical companies with AAA rated corporate…
Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) took on more leverage when it bought BG back in early 2016.
In 1993, Victrex was formed following a management buyout from Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). They took with them their then patented product Polyaryletheretherketone (PEEK), a polymer that…
Other products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, gold, industrial minerals, coal and uranium. Aluminium is the second most important asset representing close to 16% of operating profits.
Lloyds is the strongest name within the UK banking sector. It has a secure and improving capital position and a notable cost advantage with an industry leading cost / income ratio of just 46%.
In corporate finance the ‘pecking order theory’ would tell you that the cheapest form of finance is internally generated cash, the next cheapest is debt and the most expensive, and therefore the most…
Intertek is one of those companies that piggy backs on global trade. Technically the company is a global leader in testing, inspecting and certifying products, commodities and services. For a…
Pepsi was first introduced in 1893, the creation of a US pharmacist who sought to invent a drink designed to boost energy. Success came in the midst of the great depression in 1936, when they aired a…
Genus is a specialist in applying biotechnology to the science of animal breeding and genetic improvement. The technology is applicable to all kinds of livestock and they currently commercialize…
Electrocomponents describe themselves as a high service distributor for engineers.
NMC runs hospitals and chemist shops in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a 25% market share in a population that has grown from 200,000 in the 1960s to over ten million today. Health insurance is…
DCC is one of those companies that slipped into the FTSE100 without many people noticing. On the face of it, DCC is a distributor of heating oil, LPG, technology and healthcare products, and waste…
Next is a UK-based retailer selling clothing, footwear and accessories. The company operates through four main business segments: Next Retail, a chain of more than 500 stores in the UK and Ireland;…
Marks and Spencer Group (M&S) is a well-known retailer dividing its stores into General Merchandise and Food or sometimes Simply Food. This divides not only its stores but also its profitability and…
Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) is one of the largest global oil majors with revenues split, in financial reporting terms, between its Upstream, Downstream and Integrated Gas divisions.
To pay or not to pay. HSBC is a global bank with 58 million customers across its retail and commercial banking franchises. About 40% of revenues and about 80% of operating profits come from Asia with…
There are more searches on Google for 'big yellow storage', or other permutations, than for 'self-storage', according to the Big Yellow Group. Indeed you may have heard about or seen the brand…
Under the backdrop of a zero interest rate environment, post financial crisis de-risking and restructuring alongside continued litigation, the UK banking sector remains unloved.
RELX, or until recently Reed Elsevier, is a world-renowned information provider to specialist professional sectors.
Smith & Nephew (SN) is a global medical devices business operating in three main segments: Orthopaedics, Endoscopy and Advanced Wound Management (AWM). Traditionally SN relied on demand from the…
Renishaw is a United Kingdom-based, specialist electronic engineering company operating in three segments: metrology, healthcare and additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing.
Experian is an information services firm best known for providing consumers and businesses alike with credit reports, but they are also engaged in fraud prevention, targeted marketing offers, and…
Equiniti Group plc is principally a provider of share registration, pension payment and administration services to a range of organisations. It also benefits from various cross-selling opportunities…
Aggreko is a global supplier of temporary and/or emergency power supply equipment to a wide array of industries. It has significant earnings exposure both to Emerging Markets and commodity driven…
Cobham is a well managed aerospace specialist which has grown steadily for a number of years, both by acquisition and organic growth. It has assembled an array of high-grade defence and aerospace…
Associated British Foods (ABF) remains an interesting growth story. It’s low cost, international clothing chain, Primark enters its inaugural US roll-out on September 10th with a carefully planned…
Despite lacking strong comparatives, Whitbread has started the year well in both core divisions. Analysts are comfortable with the underlying UK economic recovery and point to major drivers this…
Amec made the major acquisition of US peer, Foster Wheeler in 2014. This effectively doubled Amec’s global scale, mainly in downstream oil services and onshore US. The timing of this deal was…
Shell point out the highly complementary overlap of BG Group, particularly in Liquefied Natural Gas and BG’s deep water assets in Brazil.
As with all the oil services sector, Hunting shares sold off significantly on the back of weakness in the oil price.
Shaftesbury represents a unique cluster of London based retail assets, backed by extremely high management ability within this sector and locality. As the company highlights, this collection of…
J Sainsbury is a leading UK grocery chain. After a generation of growth in retail space, the UK grocery market is in excess supply and suffering a price war as ultra low cost competitors enter. J…
Howden is a well run cyclical company benefiting from a strong UK building market. Earnings have been growing well in excess of 10% for a number of successive quarters. 2014 was the best year for…
Negative like-for-like sales of some -4% for the first time since 2009 caused recent disappointment at Burberry. This was despite concerted 4% growth in the nascent brand entry level route of Beauty.…
Berkeley Group is a major FTSE 100 quoted, prime property developer within the London region. It has a highly regarded management team and has pioneered several major luxury projects in areas…
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