Image source: Getty Images The FTSE 100 index of stocks is well and truly back, delivering a stunning 21.4% total return over the past year. If you’d put £20,000 in an index tracker fund last December, you’d now be sitting on a cool £24,280. Those who’d invested more would have naturally made an even greater pile of cash, and certainly more than putting money in an S&P 500 fund. This US share index has delivered a weaker (if still pretty decent) 14.6% return during the last 12 months. But can the FTSE 100 continue its stunning recent form? Top value…
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Image source: Getty Images Not surprisingly, when I asked ChatGPT to come up with the ‘ultimate’ income stock, the software pointed out that there isn’t a single dividend share that will suit everyone. Instead, it said there are plenty of candidates to choose from and that it’s necessary to consider the history, consistency and sustainability of payouts. When pushed to give me the names of some of these companies it warned that the list did not comprise recommendations but “classic examples of stable, dependable dividend payers”. What did it say? The software pointed out that Procter & Gamble and The…
The question of whether quarterly earnings reporting helps or harms long-term value creation has returned to the US policy agenda. As a former fund manager, I can appreciate the appeal, but as someone who currently spends her days analyzing investor decision-making data, I see the implications of a shift to semi-annual reporting as far broader than the familiar short-termism argument suggests. Reducing the cadence of earnings releases would amount to a major behavioral intervention in how market practitioners learn, recalibrate, and compete. While proponents argue that quarterly disclosure causes both companies and investors to fixate on short-term results (McKinsey research…
Image source: Getty Images The BP (LSE: BP) share price has had an okay run in 2025. Nothing special, it’s up a modest 12%, but not too shabby either, especially after adding the 5.5% trailing dividend yield. Performance looked better a month ago, but the shares have sagged 7% since then, and as someone who holds the stock, I’ve got the uneasy feeling that there’s a lot more trouble to come in 2026. In fact, I’m worried BP is in for a proper battering. It wouldn’t be the first time. The Deepwater Horizon tragedy in 2010 cast a pall over…
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Image source: Getty Images I made a dreadful mistake when I bought Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) shares in 2023. I didn’t buy anywhere near enough of them. What was I thinking? I obviously liked the stock. I’d tracked it for years, as the FTSE 100 bank pieced itself together after the financial crisis. The shares flatlined for years but with the clear-up work completed, I thought their time had come. Yet the rest of the market didn’t see it my way. I thought it was a screaming buy, with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just five or six, and a price-to-book (P/B) ratio…
I’d coveted Diageo (LSE: DGE) shares for years. So when they dipped after a profit warning back in November 2023, I snapped them up. Profits slipped due to troubles in just one corner of its vast global market, Latin America and the Caribbean. Cash-strapped drinkers were trading down to cheaper local brands, plus there were stocking issues. It didn’t seem lethal to me. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the start of the FTSE 100 spirit giant’s precipitous decline. The Diageo share price has now plunged 56% over three years and 33% over 12 months. Every time it falls into…
Image source: Getty Images The five-year price chart for Greggs (LSE:GRG) shares shows plenty of ups and downs. Despite this volatility, compared to December 2020, it’s now (12 December) virtually unchanged. After five years of going nowhere, investors are likely to be disappointed. On the other hand… But long-standing shareholders have enjoyed some reasonable dividends over this period. In fact, the group’s declared payouts of 346p a share since the pandemic forced all of its stores to temporarily close. This means a £10,000 investment made on 11 December 2020, would now have earned £2,153 in dividends. This is equivalent to…
Image source: Getty Images If the forecasts of analysts prove to be correct, three of the shares in my Stocks and Shares ISA will increase in value by a combined 25% in 2026. This assumes an equal investment in each. I would certainly be happy with that. But how likely is this? Let’s take a closer look. RELX Analysts have set a 12-month price target for RELX (LSE:REL) shares that’s 43% higher than today’s (12 December) value. To try and achieve this, the provider of analytics and decision tools for professionals and businesses is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI)…
Image source: National Grid plc I know, I know. Lots of small, private investors like me love the passive income prospects of National Grid (LSE: NG). Utilities are seen as defensive businesses. National Grid aims to raise its dividend in line with inflation so, in theory, what the shares generate in passive income maintains its purchasing power over time. At the start of 2025, just as now, I had no plan to buy National Grid shares. Since then they have moved up 16% (almost in line with the 17% growth seen in the FTSE 100 so far this year). But…