Brooks Macdonald Group (BRK)

US stocks ended down yesterday after the Federal Reserve cut its forecast for GDP growth with financial stocks and the Dollar selling off in late trading as the prospect of further interest rate rises receded. Typically as the Dollar falls, commodity prices get a boost and this is feeding through into strength in miners and energy producers in the UK this morning with BHP (BHP), Rio Tinto ...

Would you like some help in spotting individual companies that could be interesting candidates for a dividend reinvestment strategy? This article discusses a way to find stocks that are highly cash generative and so have the potential to pay more and more dividends each year. We also run through some stocks that have been suggested by stock screening systems, based on criteria meant to find ...

Managers and board room teams have, hopefully, a lot of knowledge about the businesses they run or oversee on behalf of shareholders. At the top of their respective industries, most senior staff at public companies will have worked through numerous economic and stock market cycles. They understand probably better than anyone else the key drivers of profitability within their business ...

The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) turned 21 in June yet many investors remain conflicted about the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) junior market. For some AIM has really matured into adulthood, others believe it remains the difficult child of the stock market family and is best avoided. AIM was launched on 19 June 1995 with a clear objective to attract small companies from around the ...

The market buzzes marginally higher in opening trade in London with a mixture of industrials and engineers setting the tone, while many investors eyes will be turning to Ofcom's early findings over UK broadband investment, with early indicators that it will not force leading player BT (BT.A) to spin-off its Openreach national infrastructure network. Investors welcome the news, shares in the telco ...

Firmer metal prices help miners to early gains in London as the FTSE 100 treads water ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen this evening. A second reading of US first quarter GDP at 12.30 BST could provide some clues on Yellen's outlook for interest rates in an address which is scheduled after markets close in the US. Overnight, stocks gained in Tokyo and Hong Kong but fell ...

Tavistock Investments (TAVI:AIM), a top 10 UK financial adviser network, hit break-even in the second half of its financial year according to a trading update issued ahead of full year results. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), after excluding non-underlying items, is now expected to show a profit for the year to 31 March 2016, chief executive Brian Raven ...

Investors are delaying decisions to commit money to wealth management products because of market volatility, according to Brooks Macdonald (BRK:AIM) co-founder and chief executive Chris Macdonald. Plans at Brooks to launch two new funds in the latter half of 2015 were deferred because of a lack of institutional take-up. And two funds which were launched failed to reach critical mass, incurring ...

Higher-rate taxpayers are increasingly looking for alternative tax benefits as the government tightens up the roles around pensions. This is making venture capital trusts (VCTs) a popular choice for people across the country. Venture capital trusts are funds that allow investors to claim up to 30% income tax relief on up to £200,000 invested in a VCT per year. You need to hold the investment ...

It’s not an easy time to be an asset manager. Tumbling equities markets spell bad news for businesses which earn fees based on a small percentage of their clients’ funds and this is the situation many of the sector’s firms find themselves in. There are still a few diamonds in the rough and thanks to the recent equity sell-off the sector is now trading below its long-term next 12 month ...

'Financial policy has dominated markets since 2008. That emphasis is slowing; business profit and valuation cycles are becoming increasingly important.’ This statement from Ewen Cameron Watt, chief investment strategist at BlackRock, is extremely important for anyone investing in 2016. We are at a tipping point with economic growth and interest rates where the gradual removal of monetary ...

UK shares rally in early trade on Wednesday ahead of Chancellor George Osborne’s joint Spending Review and Autumn Statement. Osborne is widely expected to announce deep cuts to public sector spending when he kicks off the Autumn Statement at 11.30 this morning. He could also unveil tax changes to pensions, motoring, savings and housing. The UK housing market is anticipated to be sharply in ...

Recruitment companies are volatile stocks with zero future earnings visibility and trade at heady valuations – a punchy cocktail for even the most risk-tolerant investors. Operating earnings across the sector’s major UK-listed stocks collapsed by 80% the year after the financial crisis before tripling again the year after. Stock prices fared similarly. Over time, it has been demonstrated that ...

Brooks MacDonald (BRK:AIM) £17.30 Loss to date: 8.9% Original entry price: £19.00, 24 September 2015 A sale of £11.2 million worth of shares at £17.00 by founder Chris Macdonald and long-time chief financial officer Simon Jackson means our Brooks Macdonald call sinks promptly into the red. We’re sticking with the stock though in hindsight the timing was extremely poor. Only in ...

By one measure, wealth manager Brooks Macdonald (BRK:AIM) has been the best performing London-listed stock of the last decade. While this would normally be a warning sign, Brooks’ operational performance over the years has been so strong we would argue the stock price is actually only just managing to keep up. On a risk-adjusted basis, returns at Brooks have been matched only by ...

The stock market’s smallest and riskiest companies have always held fascination for private investors. On the premise that ‘elephants don’t gallop, but fleas leap,’ to borrow Jim Slater’s often quoted phrase, it’s easier for a tiny company to double its size, and investor’s money, than for a big one. Let’s face it, a blue chip company worth £1 billion will find it much harder to ...

For now at least, interest rates remain at record lows, leaving investors forced to continue quests for high and sustainable income – see Shares, Cover, 30 Oct. Besides bonds and equities, one key source of distributions is the relative safe haven of property, an asset class to which investors seeking diversification of income could turn. One innovative income vehicle to examine further is the ...

Can investors make money out of companies that provide them with investment services? They certainly have in recent times. The question now is should you buy into the rally in the hope of further gains, take money off the table or simply maintain your current exposure to the sector? We think the rally has further to run but favour a selective approach and our key buys are Aberdeen Asset Management ...

Despite the events in Ukraine prompting volatility, the FTSE 100 remains near its 1999 all-time closing peak of 6,930 and the FTSE 250 is also within striking distance of its all-time high. But the cynics and sceptics point out how the FTSE Aim All-Share, the broadest benchmark for the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) junior platform, still languishes miles below the 1,267 summit it reached in ...

The launch of Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhones yesterday gives UK chip champ ARM (ARM) a 5% lift to 987p, within a whisker of the £10 level Shares flagged in July. The talk is that ARM's new 64-bit A7 processor design in the new iPhone 5S could raise royalties from $0.89 to $1 per handset.   Mike Ashley's Sports Direct (SPD) jogs 6.5p higher to 722p early on, as the UK's marketing leading ...