After last week?s market spasm over hints from Fed officials that rates may need to rise rather than fall due to the resilience of the US economy, this week the focus moved on to earnings with around one third of S&P 500 companies posting first-quarter updates.So far most firms have beaten estimates, leading to slim gains for the indices, but an increasing number have tempered their guidance for t

Digital coupons business jumps 17% post New York IPOJoins Reddit and Astera Labs as major new listings this yearAt $103.25 day one close, Ibotta market cap over $3 billionThere?s been plenty of talk about an IPO (initial public offering) market revival this year, and Ibotta?s (IBTA:NYSE) blistering New York debut will only bolster that narrative.On its first day as a public company, shares in the

At the centre of the current boom in generative AI (artificial intelligence) is chip maker Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ).It designs some of the fastest computer chips in the world which are needed to run data hungry LLMs (large language models) capable of understanding natural language.Readers may be familiar with Nvidia?s historical link to the gaming industry, but less familiar with the US giant?s connec

The biotechnology sector should be a major beneficiary of an ageing world population and strained government health budgets as companies develop new drugs to treat chronic diseases.After underperforming the major indices since the end of the pandemic, the NBI (Nasdaq Biotechnology Index) offers great relative value and the prospect of superior earnings growth.The sector trades at a 18% PE (price t

International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) 650pGain to date: 4.8%We said to buy shares in International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) on 1 June 2022 at 620.1p as there was an opportunity to buy cheaply into a sector that had been heavily sold off.Biotech can be a high-risk place to invest and so using an investment trust or fund is often a better way to get exposure as the risks are spread across a portf

Since inception in October 2019 RTW Biotech Opportunities (RTW) has delivered 65.3% growth in NAV (net asset value), smashing the performance of the Russell 2000 Biotech index which is down 0.7% as well as the NBI (Nasdaq Biotech Index) which is up 20.6% over the same period.Despite the superior performance to the benchmark and peers, the shares trade at an unwarranted 23% discount to NAV, represe

With so much macroeconomic uncertainty, the recent mergers and acquisitions spree has lost momentum apart from one sector.Big pharmaceutical firms are awash with cash, yet patent cliffs (expiration of patent protection) present challenges which can be partially fixed by buying smaller biotech firms with products almost ready to go to market.International Biotechnology Trust's (IBT) Ailsa Craig and

- Activist Carl Icahn takes 1.4% Illumina stake - Shares jump 17% after falling 57% over two years- Pfizer acquires Seagen for $43 billionUS gene sequencing giant Illumina (ILMN:NASDAQ) saw its shares jump 17% overnight after activist investor Carl Icahn revealed a 1.4% stake and launched a proxy fight to gain board seats.According to the Wall Street Journal Icahn said: 'We are convinced that at l

- Investment manager wants to terminate contract- Current fund managers to stay on for smooth transition- Likely to be strong interest from other fund managersBiotechnology specialist International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) said investment adviser SV Health Investors had given notice to terminate the management of the trust from 9 February 2024 or earlier if agreed by the parties.SV Health Investo

The brutal sell-off in biotechnology stocks has presented an opportunity for well-positioned specialist managers to exploit rare bargains in a sector which has historically outperformed the market.We believe the International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) is a great way to get low risk exposure to this exciting space.The trust trades at a slight discount to net asset value (NAV) and unusually in the s

While it may be slightly out of favour with investors at present, healthcare is a good addition to any portfolio. It tends to be relatively insensitive to what's happening in the wider economy and demographic drivers, particularly in the West, are likely to underpin demand in the years to come as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.Investment Trust Polar Capital Global Healthcare (PCGH) trades at

When Kate Bingham, managing partner of SV Health Managers LLP was appointed chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force by the Government, it made life awkward for the team managing the International Biotechnology Trust (IBT).That's because Bingham oversees the unquoted part of the portfolio, representing around 11.2% of the trust's assets and to ensure there were no conflicts of interest, the managers pre

Revenue reserves are often touted as a major advantage of owning investment trusts over traditional funds (also called open-ended funds). However, there can be some misunderstanding over how this feature works, which we will now explain.Investment trusts (also called closed-ended funds) are allowed put aside up to 15% of their income to support dividend payments during harder times, which is calle

International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) 793pGain to Date: 73.5%Original entry point: Buy at 457p, 19 March 2020Napoleon supposedly preferred lucky generals to good ones, and while our timing to buy International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) was lucky, coming as it did a few days before equity markets bottomed, it also demonstrated the sense in buying quality assets managed by an experienced team at a

With the world paying more attention to health issues, drug companies are likely to be more in demand with investors as the year progresses. There is a big opportunity to buy cheaply now before the tide turns.Large cap biotechnology companies are trading at one of their largest valuation discounts to the S&P 500 index in decades. The one-year forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio has fallen from 26

The biotechnology sector has been in the doldrums relatively speaking over the last five years having under-performed the FTSE World index by 48% and the MSCI World HealthCare index by 39%.According to Bloomberg data the sector is trading on a one-year forward price-to-earnings (PE) multiple of just 9.9 times, the lowest in 25 years.We have delved into the issues that have been driving performance

There are many reasons why investors are attracted to the healthcare space including the chance to back companies which are making a big change to people's lives as well as finding the next wonder drug and potentially enjoying large profits from its commercialisation.Investing in this space can be very risky as it can take companies many years to put their drugs through trials to get them approve,

We think International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) offers an attractive entry into a biotechnology sector which has several value opportunities at present due to pricing concerns in the US.The trust's benchmark is the NASDAQ Biotech Index, which has consistently outperformed global equity and healthcare indices over the last 20 years.International Biotechnology Trust invests in biotech and life scie

Publisher Bloomsbury (BMY) gains 6.3% to 220.1p as it posts full year results ahead of expectations and delivers a very robust outlook for the year ahead.Pre-tax profit, before one-off items, is up 10% to £13.2m in the 12 months to 28 February. The company also notes that a strong autumn book list and the acquisition of I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd (IBT) will mean performance for 2018/19 will be well a

Investment trusts are starting to embrace a technique to ensure shareholders receive dividends every year or enjoy a better yield than in the past. It's caused some controversy in the market and could become a hot topic over the coming months.The strategy involves selling little chunks of an investment portfolio to fund dividends. The technical description is paying dividends out of capital.The te