Company News

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 ...

Laggard Unanswered Questions at Eleco

I received an unhelpful response to a question today (19th May) from Eleco (ELCO). I have been a shareholder for some time in this construction software company. The company announced on the 26th of April that it had received a requisition notice that covered resolutions to reappoint two directors, that all directors stand for re-election at future AGMs and that the remuneration committee report be approved. It was certainly unusual that such resolutions were not on the AGM agenda on the 6th ...

OCDO : OCADO – 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 Ocado, but wish I had! Ocado summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 13th, 2021. The share price is worth a recap. The Stocko data shows the graph since IPO, which I think was around 160p. It looked like Ocado was overpriced as its share price collapsed to 80p, on Guy Fawkes' day Nov 5, 2012. If you had ...

PRU : Prudential – 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 Prudential and M&G. PRU summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 13th, 2021. The Pru demerged M&G in Oct 2019, and now focuses on the Far East. The Stockopedia graph shows the modest share price increase since demerger and the (good) long term growth. However, Stockopedia now labels Pru as a "momentum trap". The Minerva report highlights various issues: Remuneration Report: Benefit concerns. High bonus ...

RDSA : Royal Dutch Shell – 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 Shell and have done so for 30+ years. Shell summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 13th, 2021. The share price is up nearly >50% from its ludicrously low £9.00 on 28 Oct 2020 (I should have bought then!) and is now £14.30 (@7/5/21). In 2018, Shell was £27 a share. The share price fluctuates wildly, sort of correlated with oil ...

LLOY : Lloyds Banking Group – 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 Lloyds. Lloyds summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 20th, 2021. The share price is up nearly 100% from its recent nadir of 24p  (22 Sep 2020) and is now 46p (@7/5/21). Like the other UK banks, Lloyds has performed woefully over 20 years, as the Stockopedia data shows. The best US banks (JP Morgan, Goldmans) have a different trajectory. Government ...

BP – 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 BP and have held for >30 years, having first bought when the Government floated part of BP at 330p a share. I was about 30 years ago a (remuneration) consultant to BP and met their senior executives and directors and was very impressed. The share price did eventually get up to £6+ and there were good dividends, but then came the disaster ...

AZN AstraZeneca – 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 AZN and have held for many years. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research and ...

Standard Chartered – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research and Company Research buttons in the header on any ShareSoc webpage. This ...

AV : AVIVA – 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 Aviva. My history of owning shares is interesting. When I became a director of ShareSoc in 2016, I started attending the Aviva AGM, mainly to ask a question of the Chairman about the pay of the Aviva directors and senior executives and whether, as leading asset owners and fund managers, they were setting a good example for other companies. Aviva AGMs ...

BA. Bae Systems – 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 Bae, as I do not buy shares in companies that produce guns/weapons that kill people. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has ...

GSK Glaxo – 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 Glaxo and have held for over 20 years. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research ...