Company News

Alliance Trust Resets Dividend

An announcement this morning from Alliance Trust (ATST) says that the board has concluded that an increased dividend “will benefit existing shareholders and enhance the attractiveness of the Company’s shares”. They expect the overall annual dividend to increase by 32.5% over the 2020 dividend. The proposed increase will be well covered by distributable reserves and income it is suggested although no doubt some of the extra dividend cost will come from capital. ATST had a reported yield of 1.43% last year according ...

BHP – Company Information and Vote Guidance 2021

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in BHP and have recently bought some more.  With sales of c.£50bn, their EV (Enterprise Value = market cap plus debt) of £100 bn is 2 times turnover and this looks much more reasonable than the Diageo shares I recently reviewed and sold. The BHP p/e (forecast) ratio is a very modest 7. For over 15 years BHP have met annually with shareholders ...

City of London Investment Trust Annual Report

I have been reading the City of London Investment Trust (CTY) annual report in advance of their AGM on the 28th of October. This is one of my oldest shareholdings – first purchased in 2011 with an annual total return since of 11.5% p.a. according to Sharescope. Historically it has been a good performer, if somewhat boring. That’s OK but last year was a disappointing one. Has Job Curtis, the long-time manager, lost his touch? Last year the trust supplied a share ...

DGE : Diageo – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I do not own shares in Diageo, but my wife does, in her ISA. She bought in 1998 at £7.16 and they are now £35. With sales of £12.7bn, their EV (Enterprise Value = market cap plus debt) of £95 bn is > six  times turnover and I don't see great barriers to entry at the global level or from supermarkets going direct to wine ...

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Proposes Name Change – Roger Lawson says Vote Against!

This article represents the views of its author, not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) is proposing to change its name. The managers are currently Aberdeen Standard Fund Managers Limited but the name “Standard Life” has been sold to Phoenix Group so a change of name is not unreasonable. Of course this is the kind of problem that arises when a trust is named after the fund manager. It also causes problems if the board of directors ...

TSCO – TESCO Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I am not qualified to give financial advice and nothing in this blog should be construed as such. I own shares in TESCO. It is one of my largest holdings and I have owned Tesco shares since the 1980's. Tesco performed very well in the 1980's and 1990's gaining market share and growing fast and its out of/ edge of town superstores were a winning formula. ...

Palantir: The Next Tesla, or a Financial Black Hole?

This is a guest article by Tim Sunderland, founder of Mitto Markets. The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The Tesla Comparison Admittedly, the timing isn’t ideal when comparing Palantir to a company whose Commander-in-Chief (or Technoking as his official job title states) is pumping out Crypto tips not even the Salvation Army would take in. But despite Elon’s quasi-Twitter-God-like status wearing thin with even his most faithful acolytes, let’s not forget that Tesla’s ...

ShareSoc Patron Lord Lee Parliamentary Question about Bacanora take-over

The background is that ShareSoc was approached by the Bacanora Lithium Shareholder Action Group which is being run by Dee Patel who asked for ShareSoc’s assistance. We have helped them in explaining some key issues in how to run a campaign, how to obtain the shareholder register, problems with voting nominee shares, etc. We also thought whether a takeover would be in the UK public interest issue. We drew this to the attention of ShareSoc Patron Lord Lee, who has now tabled ...

Bacanora “offer” by Ganfeng

By Cliff Weight. Please note these are my personal views and do not necessarily represent ShareSoc's views. I have never owned BCN shares, but am considering buying. Bacanora is subject to a possible offer from Chinese firm Ganfeng at 67.5p. The Takeover panel have issued a put up or shut up notice. A shareholder action group has been formed, with 400 investors who collectively own 7% of the shares. To join click here https://savebacanora.com/blog/ They also have an active WhatsApp group. The background ...

Scottish Investment Trust Reviewing Management Arrangements

I wrote about the Scottish Investment Trust (SCIN) back in February and commented negatively on its underperformance in recent years. Their investment style has been based on a contrarian approach, i.e. picking cheap stocks that look undervalued but which might recover. The article included this comment: “It would appear that they adopted the new investment style five years ago which might be identified as when under-performance took off. If an investment strategy does not work, how long should you persist with ...

RKT : Reckitt Benckiser – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I do not own shares in Reckitt, because their EV (Enterprise Value) is four times turnover and I don't see great barriers to entry. Summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 28th, 2021. The share price over 20 years is wonderful, as the Stockopedia data shows. I have attended several of the company's AGMs, because (i) DSW, the German equivalent of ShareSoc asked me to ...

HSBA – HSBC Holdings Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in HSBC. HSBC summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 28th, 2021. HSBC has gone back to its roots and now focuses on the Far East. The Stockopedia graph shows the lack of long term growth over the past 20 years and the volatility of the share price which lost two thirds in the Covid Bear Market. It has now recovered to ...