Image source: Getty Images It might be obvious that the sooner we start saving and investing, the better our chances of reaching 60 with some decent passive income in the bag. How much we need depends on how much we hope to withdraw. There’s a rough rule that suggests taking 4% per year. The idea is that should still leave enough capital to grow with inflation for the future. Based it on that, the sums are easy. We need £500,000 by age 60 to take out £20,000 per year. 25 years? Nah! That’s not a trivial task. But the miracle…
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Image source: Getty Images Many customers of Greggs (LSE: GRG) choose its pies or sausage rolls for their stuffing. But the Greggs share price has had the stuffing knocked out of it, falling by 49% since the end of 2021. In other words, it has more or less halved. Could it double, getting back to just above where it was? I have been buying Greggs shares this year because of my optimism in the investment case. But I do see some possible hurdles along the way to recovery. A solid basic business case To start with, consider why investors used…
Image source: Getty Images J Sainsbury’s (LSE: SBRY) share price is trading around a level last seen in August 2021. This follows a 54% jump from the supermarket giant’s 10 April one-year traded low of £2.23. Such a rise, though, does not necessarily mean that there is no value left in the stock. This is because price and value are not the same thing. The former is simply a function of whatever the market is willing to pay at any given time. But the latter reflects the true worth of the underlying business’s fundamentals. So, regardless of the share price…
Image source: Getty Images FTSE 250 cell and gene therapy trailblazer Oxford Biomedica (LSE: OXB) may ring a few bells with investors without their remembering why. During the height of the Covid crisis, it was this firm that manufactured over 100m doses of AstraZeneca’s adenovirus-based vaccine. It did so at a record pace for such a vaccine and without a hitch in the process. Aside from providing such manufacturing services to top-flight pharmaceutical firms, it also works on its own therapies. These include experimental treatments for Parkinson’s, cancer, central nervous system disorders, and eye diseases. Since the firm’s one-year traded…
Image source: Getty Images The surge in Rolls-Royce (LSE: RR.) shares seems never ending. The British engineering firm is now worth £125bn in market cap. Its dizzying rise has propelled it to be the fifth-largest firm listed on the FTSE 100. The question I’m asking myself is: are we looking at Britain’s first trillion-pound company? For Rolls-Royce to reach the £1trn mark, the share price would need to rise by over eight times. A near tenfold increase in value would be some feat for a company that is already something of a giant. But, as I’ll get to, the future…
Image source: Getty Images Stuffing a Stocks and Shares ISA full of dividend shares is one way to try and build a sizeable second income. That can be a lucrative approach and doesn’t involve the time and effort of taking on a second job. How does it work in practice? Let’s get into it. How dividends can mean income The amount of income an ISA earns depends basically on two factors – how much is invested and at what dividend yield. Dividend yield is the annual income expressed as a percentage of the cost of the shares. So, for example,…
Image source: Getty Images I’ve been tempted to tuck into Diageo (LSE: DGE) shares for a long time. But based on their performance over the last four years, I’m very grateful for not pushing the Buy button. Once mighty… Back in late-October 2021, shares in the owner of brands such as Guinness, Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka were riding high. And with good reason. Having been sent indoors during multiple Covid-related lockdowns, it was only natural that people would want to get out there and enjoy themselves in pubs, bars and restaurants. But even consumption at home was still…
Image source: Getty Images I’ve been cheering on a UK stock that’s recovering from recent troubles at lightning speed, and I’m hoping there’s more action to come. The company in question is Burberry Group (LSE: BRBY). It used to reside in the FTSE 100 and now features in the FTSE 250. Although at the rate it’s going, not for long. Its shares plunged as luxury-fashion sales fell, Chinese demand weakened and heavy discounting hit its premium image. I dived in after the first profit warning, only to find myself sitting on a quickfire 40% loss as its troubles intensified. Burberry shares recover Then the…
Image source: Getty Images When it comes to buying stocks, I aim to try and strike a balance. My portfolio contains some relatively small, speculative names, but I also like to own shares in big established companies. These often tend to have strong competitive positions with economies of scale or entrenched customer relationships. But this doesn’t always come with a correspondingly high share price. Size matters There are a lot of advantages to owning shares in businesses that have been around a long time. One of the most obvious is that they often benefit from strong reputations. Take Legal &…
Image source: Getty Images The BAE Systems (LSE: BA.) share price is up around four-fold in the last five years. The surge, which isn’t even including dividends, has come on the back of a drastically different global outlook. The world is sadly a less peaceful place, and therefore defence spending is on the rise. What does the future have in store? Are overflowing tensions going to spur more growth in defence stocks? Or are we at the moment of peak hysteria? Are BAE Systems shares overvalued and perhaps in bubble territory? Personally, I think the former. And I believe a…