UK stocks look cheap on so many different valuation metrics, not just one or two, suggesting a robust, genuine investment opportunity is available to long-term investors. So why does nobody seem convinced?This article explores the scepticism surrounding the UK?s market?s attractive valuation and examines the underlying evidence to support it. Shares concludes UK stocks really are a compelling inve

More and more UK companies are buying back their own shares. Data collected by Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, shows share buybacks at FTSE 100 companies are running at an aggregate value of £18.3 billion so far in 2024.Despite being only two months into the year, the value of buybacks already equates to 35% of the whole value of buybacks in 2023.This isn?t just a UK phenomenon either

It has been a difficult year for investment trusts as a whole. Discounts have widened across various sectors and there have been a series of failed continuation votes and mergers. Yet some trusts have still done extremely well - relative both to the wider market and their peer group. In this article we shine a light on the biggest outperformers in some of the Association of Investment Companies' m

Retailer Marks & Spencer (MKS) is the gift that keeps on giving. Its share price is up 162% since October 2022, dividends are back after a four-year absence, and analysts keep finding reasons to upgrade earnings forecasts. In fact, the analyst consensus earnings estimate has increased 11 times this year, according to Stockopedia data.Earnings growth is a key driver for share price growth so it mak

Value stocks have outperformed growth stocks by 12% since Pfizer (PFE:NYSE) announced the first effective Covid-19 vaccine on 9 November 2020. That's comparing the MSCI World Value index against the MSCI World Growth index.We have reason to believe the value investing style could soon deliver even bigger outperformance given the shift in the backdrop from cheap money to more normalised interest ra

Value-focused trust delivered 3.4% NAV total returnMarks & Spencer among best-performersCar maker Stellantis is a new purchaseValue-oriented investment trust Temple Bar (TMPL) outperformed the FTSE All-Share index in the half ended 30 June 2023 as strong share price performances from the likes of Marks & Spencer (MKS), EasyJet (EZJ) and Standard Chartered (STAN) more than offset disappointing show

If you blinked, you might have missed it, but there was a flicker of life in the UK stock market in July. The FTSE 250 index of medium-sized companies jumped by almost 4% in one day, its best showing for over a year. The FTSE 100 also ended the month at its highest level since May.In and of itself this isn't too remarkable; markets rise and they fall, capriciously and sometimes sharply. But this l

Finally, everyone is talking about UK stocks. The spotlight is back on the country after the UK's FTSE 100 was one of the few major indices globally to record positive returns in 2022 and this year it has broken through the 8,000 level and hit a new record high. Hopefully, this will lead to the return of foreign investors who have shunned the UK since the Brexit vote in 2016.Investors can either b

Retired civil servant Mark is a relatively late starter when it comes to managing his own investments, but he is making up for lost time - taking up the maximum ISA allowance of £20,000 apiece for himself and his wife each year.The 61-year-old already has a workplace pension to help fund the cost of living, but that didn't stop him wanting to start a personal investing journey after finishing wor

The idea behind value investing is to buy shares for less than they are worth in the hope they reach their so-called 'fair' value and generate a better than market return.This article explores popular yardsticks used to find value shares, explains how they are used and highlights the advantages and drawbacks.Before starting it is worth bearing in mind that none of the metrics discussed are perfect

Aunique advantage of investment trusts versus other types of funds are their independent boards of directors which offer additional oversight for investors and have a legal responsibility to protect shareholders' interests. The role of the board is both vital and varied.It ranges from scrutinising the performance of the fund manager and negotiating charges to proposing mergers between trusts and f

TEMPLE BAR INVESTMENT TRUST (TMPL) £11.64Loss to date: 1.9%Original entry point: Buy at £11.87, 13 January 2022Recent choppy market conditions have left our 'buy' call on Temple Bar (TMPL) 1.9% in the red, but we still believe the UK equity income trust is well-positioned in an environment of runaway inflation and rising interest rates given its focus on value stocks.A five-for-one share split i

The year so far has seen significant volatility for global stock markets driven by concerns over red-hot inflation, the impact on share prices of rising interest rates and war in Ukraine.Crunching the latest data from Winterflood Investment Trusts, Shares has spotted that discounts to net asset value have widened on a variety of trusts with interesting strategies and prospects.BANKERS ON SALEFor i

It's been a miserable start to the year for a lot of investors, leading many people to ask if we're seeing more than a simple pullback from last year's successful run for stocks and shares.The key headwinds to markets have been clear for months, namely higher rates, an impending reduction in central bank stimulus, and rising inflation, yet investors only now seem to worry.January has seen a clear

There are many compelling reasons to buy Shell (RDSB) right now.Oil and natural gas prices are strong which will boost its earnings. The stock should benefit from the current shift in market dynamics towards 'value' stocks.An imminent simplification process is set to make the shares more investable and the company's positioning going into an energy transition looks increasingly robust.The current

Investors spooked by the recent sell-off in technology stocks need to understand that some parts of the market are still doing very well - this is not an all-sector global market slump.While the US tech-heavy Nasdaq index is down about 6% year to date, we've seen the FTSE 350 oil and gas sector rise by nearly 17% over the same timeframe, the UK's banking sector is up by 15% and the tobacco sector

January has seen a rotation in the market, with investors moving out of technology-related stocks and into more value style investments where the story is all about slow to medium growth today, not super levels of growth in the future.The UK market has quite a few stocks that fall under the value category - namely immediate profit and cash flow, or 'jam today', trading on undemanding ratings versu

As companies rushed to cut or suspend dividends in the wake of the pandemic this had a knock-on effect on the investment trusts which held their shares.Thanks to the ability to use revenue reserves to smooth out any volatility in dividend payments, there was a lag effect in place.Between January and June 2021, payouts from investment trusts fell 3.1% to £891.9m, even though dividends from UK stoc

Having underperformed the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 350 for the best part of 10 years, September 2020 saw the FTSE 350 banks index stop making decade lows and start to make short-term highs, much to the excitement of analysts and investors.As the market rotation towards value stocks took hold, the UK's unloved banks jumped sharply in the final quarter of last year.At the start of this year, the narrat

After more than a decade of domination for growth stocks, global markets are finally seeing a shift into value.This in turn has benefited funds pursuing a value investing style. Growth performed relatively well through the initial course of the pandemic with technology stocks leading the way, but the key catalyst for the long-awaited rotation into value was 'Pfizer Monday' on 9 November last year.