[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images The London stock market has long been a popular hunting ground for investors seeking a large and reliable passive income. FTSE 100 shares in particular have proven reliable dividend plays with the UK’s premier index packed with cash-generating companies in mature industries and strong payout cultures. That said, UK stocks have lost some of their lustre from a dividend perspective more recently. Underlying dividends (which also exclude special dividends) dropped 0.6% in 2024, representing the second successive year of declines. On a global basis, shareholder payouts rose 6.6%, according to Janus Henderson. In the US,…
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[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images A FTSE 100 share I’d written off has suddenly hit the rocket boosters, soaring 65% in a year. Did I see it coming? Yes and no. Yes, because Prudential (LSE: PRU) looked like a brilliant prospect to me, but never fulfilled its potential. No, because I was completely blindsided by the recovery when it finally came. Prudential share price flies Prudential had re-engineered itself to focus on massive pension, health insurance and investment markets across Asia and Africa. Analysts applauded its brillant strategy, which gives it huge growth potential from millions of global emerging middle class consumers.…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images The Tesco (LSE: TSCO) share price has taken me by surprise. I thought this FTSE 100 blue-chip might turn out to be a bit of a plodder. How wrong I was. The grocery chain’s a massive operation with around £70bn turnover, and tight profit margins of roughly 3.5%. It carries huge fixed costs including a nationwide chain of stores, more than 300,000 staff, and a complex logistics network. Add in fierce competition from German discounters Aldi and Lidl, and the challenge seems enormous. Brilliant FTSE 100 stock Yet over the past five years, Tesco’s taken on all-comers…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images The FTSE 100 is well known for its world-beating dividend yields, but it seems to be having an all-round stormer of a year. London’s leading index is having one of its best years this century. Investors are flocking to the biggest British stocks. Why? The defensiveness of the index likely plays a part, as will those bumper dividends. The Footsie average dividend yield outperforms what’s on offer from most other developed countries, not just at the moment, but historically too. Dividend hunters are looking at well over double in percentage terms compared to the S&P…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images There can’t be many stocks that have jumped in value this year and still offer a very chunky dividend yield. But I’ve spotted one from the FTSE 250 that I suspect is flying under the radar of plenty of income chasers. What is this ‘secret’ FTSE 250 stock? The stock is question is Ninety One Group (LSE: N91). Formerly a part of Investec, the investment manager has a focus on emerging markets, such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. Its share price has been charging ahead in 2025. A gain of 60% vastly outperforms that…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images Babcock International Group (LSE:BAB), the FTSE 100 defence, aerospace and security company, has seen its share price soar by 156% since the start of November 2024. It has some civilian customers but most of its business comes from the sale of military equipment as well as the provision of front-line support and training. The group’s involved in every one of the UK’s naval programmes comprising submarines, aircraft carriers and frigates. On the up Over the past four financial years, the group’s grown rapidly. During the year ended 31 March 2025 (FY25), its underlying earnings per…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images FTSE homebuilder Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW) paid a dividend last year of 9.46p. This gives a standout dividend yield of 9% on the current share price of £1.05. By comparison, the current average yield for the FTSE 100 is 3.3% and for the FTSE 250 it is 3.5%. The firm’s dividend yield is also double the ‘risk-free rate’ (the 10-year UK government bond yield) of 4.4%. Looking ahead, consensus analysts’ forecasts are that Taylor Wimpey’s dividend yield will remain above 8% until 2027. How much passive income? Passive income is money made with minimal effort,…
[ad_1] Image source: Vodafone Group plc The Vodafone (LSE:VOD) share price has been consistently above 80p since the start of July. At the end of October 2024, the stock was changing hands for 72p. Today (3 November), an investor could buy one for 92p. In my opinion, an increase of 26% over 12 months is a pretty good performance. However, it has to be acknowledged that 40 members of the FTSE 100 have done better, including Airtel Africa (167%) and BT (31%), the two other telecoms companies on the index. But these things are all relative. The last time Vodafone’s…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images Every man and his dog seems to be mentioning an upcoming stock market crash these days. The CEO of JP Morgan, Jaimie Dimon, spoke about his worries in an interview with the BBC. And the Bank of England warned of a possible “sharp correction” thanks to AI-related stock valuations. How serious are these warnings? And where better to find the answer than straight from the source? Maybe we need AI to predict an AI stock market crash. I asked ChatGPT: “How serious are the concerns about an upcoming stock market crash because of AI? And…
[ad_1] Image source: Getty Images It’s no secret that growth stocks in the artificial intelligence (AI) space are making investors a lot of money right now. Over the last few months, well-known stocks such as Nvidia, Alphabet, and Palantir have soared. But not every AI stock’s making headlines and seeing huge amounts of hype. Here’s a look at three lesser-known shares that are quietly making investors a fortune. A vital data player First up, we have Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW). It offers solutions that enable businesses to get their data structured properly for AI use. Late last year, I named this…