magazine archive
magazine archive
Under The Bonnet
Why US-listed Verizon appears in so many UK investors’ portfolios
Thursday 08 Aug 2019With more than 155m subscribers New York-listed Verizon Communications is America’s second biggest mobile phone network and its rough $232bn market value ranks it 21st in the S&P 500. It covers more of the US than any rival and its network is widely seen as the best quality available in its...
Why returns from Imperial Brands have gone up in smoke
Thursday 25 Jul 2019Share in Tobacco manufacturer Imperial Brands ( IMB ) moved higher on a decision to make its dividend policy less generous. While this seems counter-intuitive the move went some way to alleviating concerns the company was paying out too much to shareholders and that its dividend growth was...
The key reasons why you need to invest in Microsoft
Thursday 18 Jul 2019While everyone will know Microsoft as a brand, the inner workings of its business are perhaps less well known among investors even though it is widely held, either directly through shares or via investment funds. No company did more to seed the personal computing explosion in the 1980s and 1990s,...
Why Wizz Air wants to lower fares but increase extras
Thursday 11 Jul 2019He made his name as the man who brought Pringles to Hungary. Now Wizz Air ( WIZZ ) co-founder and chief executive Jozsef Varadi is once again trying to create waves in Eastern Europe. The Budapest-based airline has expanded significantly as passengers across the region take advantage of the cheaper...
Why new float Loungers can buck the high street gloom
Thursday 04 Jul 2019In our view there are two key things which stand-out about newly-listed casual dining outfit Loungers ( LGRS:AIM ) which make it an interesting investment proposition. First, because each Lounge is a hybrid format, it doesn’t compete directly with restaurants, coffee shops and bars in a local area...
Now is not the time to invest in Lloyds Banking
Thursday 27 Jun 2019The last 20 years have certainly been eventful for Lloyds Banking ( LLOY ) , a stock owned by a large number of retail investors thanks to a history of generous dividends. From a sleepy high street also-ran it has grown through a series of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) into the largest UK-...
Reckitt Benckiser’s new chief executive has a difficult job ahead
Thursday 20 Jun 2019The retirement of company veteran Rakesh Kapoor as chief executive potentially spared the board of consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser ( RB. ) from a tough decision after a promising start to his tenure tailed off badly. Given that Reckitt has just confirmed Kapoor’s replacement – an external...
How Future bounced back to join the FTSE 250
Thursday 13 Jun 2019Magazines as a format emerged to serve people’s interests and hobbies, and they have developed over time to cover everything from politics and gardening to photography. The industry has gone through significant change in recent years because of people’s increasing reluctance to hand over hard-...
How does Shell make its money and should you buy its shares?
Thursday 30 May 2019With a market cap of more than £200bn Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSB ) is comfortably the largest company on the UK stock market. To put its position into perspective, it accounts for around 10% of the FTSE 100 index on its own. Given its heavyweight status in London and the...
Battle of the broadcasters: why is STV beating ITV?
Thursday 16 May 2019What is ITV’s ( ITV ) counterpart north of the border getting right that its former parent is getting wrong? Both are under relatively new management and Carolyn McCall at ITV and Simon Pitts at STV ( STVG ) arguably face the same challenges of a difficult consumer backdrop and political...