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SSE Results – not all they seem at first glance

SSE, the energy company formerly called Scottish & Southern Energy, published their  annual results yesterday (for the year to March 31st).  The first page of the "preliminary announcement" looked positive. It talked about Adjusted Earnings per Share up 4.1%, Adjusted Profit before Tax up 9.6% and the Full Year Dividend increased by 3.0%, among other things. But this writer was immediately suspicious because there was no mention of revenue trends in these "headline" figures - something of importance and usually included. Revenue ...

Internet for Investors Course

Do you make the most of the internet when investing? Are your investments based on the most intelligent research and can you easily monitor them using the internet? Even if you use the internet extensively already, you might be missing out on many useful information resources.Our new training course entitled "The Internet for Investors" aims to improve your skills in this area. It will cover:News and alerting services.SharesSoc’s own websites and member network.Fundamental data & portfolio analysis sites (four sites will ...

Surprises on Remuneration at the Kentz AGM, and opposition also at Hiscox

Surprises on Remuneration at the Kentz AGM,  and opposition also at Hiscox Last week (on Friday the 16th May), both the Remuneration Policy and Remuneration Report resolutions were voted down by shareholders at the Kentz Annual General Meeting. This is one of the few companies where such resolutions have been lost in the current AGM round and the first where the Remuneration Policy vote has been defeated. That vote was only introduced in the last year by new Government legislation, but oddly ...

Should you buy shares in Saga?

Here are some quick comments on the Saga IPO from skimming the prospectus before all the media do their in-depth analysis of what will no doubt be examined as a possible punt by both the millions of Saga customers and stock market speculators. Saga customers are favoured slightly in that they get one free share for every 20 purchased if they hold them for a year - hardly enough I suggest to sway my decision being one of their customers. But ...

Delays in SIPP and ISA transfers

Last week I complained to Hargreaves Lansdown about the delay in transferring a SIPP to another broker. The receiving broker has been chasing it but to no effect. It has been "pending" now for almost two months and I cannot understand the reason for such a long delay. What do I read on Friday but a number of similar complaints from readers of Investors Chronicle. There seems to be a consistent problem here, even where the transfer should be fairly straightforward. If for ...