As it stands, a very respectable 34% of UK 100 blue-chips offer income-seeking investors a projected dividend yield of 4% or better. The Bank of England may just have raised interest rates for the first time in a decade, but reversing last summer’s Brexit referendum emergency 25bp cut to return to a UK base interest…
This week will go down in the history books, if not for the temporary disabling of Donald Trump’s Twitter account then at least for the first Bank of England rate increase in over a decade. As a result, the question that almost all of my clients have asked me is how might this affect the…
Shares in IAG are off their best levels, having retreated from another attempt to climb back above the 640p cloud-line to revisit recent 19yr highs of 676p. This as CEO Willie Walsh introduces upgraded mid-term guidance (2018-2022 vs 2016-2020 prior) at today’s annual capital markets day. Average annual profits (EBITDAR) of €6.5bn are 22.6% higher…
It’s been a while since BT shares were top of the UK Index pile, and it was fleeting to say the least. Q3 financials were in-line with expectations, and management confident in reiterating 2017 guidance, but the shares have already breached this week’s 260p support. Income investors welcome the sweetener of an interim dividend fixed…
Next shares have extended their October reversal after a disappointing trading update. Poor Q3 sales growth (Retail -7.7% vs -3.7% est; Total +1.3% vs +2.9% est) and a narrowing of FY guidance (essentially a cut to the top end) have not gone down well. Directory Sales actually beat guidance, accelerating in Q3 (13.2% vs 11.4%…
Heavyweight BP’s Q3 results have sent its shares over 3% higher, adding a significant 12pts to the UK 100 index this morning. This comes after the oil major delivered a consensus-beating $1.87bn in Underlying Replacement Cost Profits (preferred industry measure), reporting its highest refining earnings in five years and good news of its E&P segment…