Charles Stanley Group (CAY)

Charles Stanley (CAY) chief executive Paul Abberley says the wealth manager’s turnaround is gaining momentum as cost cuts and a rotation towards higher margin services start to feed through to the bottom line. Shares trade 15.5% higher at 309p. A new remuneration package for investment managers, which involves issuing shares in the company to staff, has also been approved by 90% of Charles ...

JD Sports scores again Retail star turn JD Sports Fashion (JD.) has hit the back of the net again, its AGM trading statement (17 Jun) flagging a sales boost from the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament. We flagged this as a possibility in our 'Invest in the summer of sport' feature (Cover, Shares, 2 Jun 2016). (JC) Stay cautious on Circassia Don’t be tempted to buy into the ...

Turnaround candidate Charles Stanley (CAY) offers attractive shareholder upside if an ambitious set of 2018 targets can be delivered. Chief executive Paul Abberley, appointed in October 2014, wants to focus on Charles Stanley’s key strengths in wealth management and divest non-core assets. His strategy, if successful, would build the business into one of the UK’s top wealth managers by 2020 ...

Dividends paid by UK plcs are forecast to rise this year by their fastest rate since 2012 at 6.4%, according to the latest Capita UK Dividend Monitor report. It reckons the total amount of money paid to shareholders this year will be £84.1 billion. This excludes any special dividends – one-off payments on top of normal dividends – and implies a healthy state of affairs for listed ...

The UK stock market bounced back after the Scottish 'no' vote on independence but we are not back to 'business as usual' as many people might assume. There's certainly positives which we will discuss later, but let's deal with the bad news first. We now have a central government that looks weak. Prime minister David Cameron will have his work cut out to fight off calls for him to step ...

Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) falls 4.85% to £27.68 on a mixed pre-close trading statement. Earnings per share (EPS) for the year to 13 September will be ahead of last year, with strong performances in groceries and at budget fashion chain Primark, where like-for-like sales grew 4.5% and margins improved, offsetting lower sugar profits and currency headwinds. However, news of 'much ...

UK stocks hit a two-month high in early trading Wednesday as investors react to upbeat services data from China and continued to speculate about stimulus measures in Europe. The FTSE 100 is up 64 points at 6,894, also boosted by an upbeat statement from equipment rental firm Ashtead (AHT) and rumours about a bid for Vodafone (VOD). The UK mobile network group is thought to be on the radar of ...

Supermarkets giant Sainsbury's (SBRY) cheapens 1.9p to 319.4p as investors give a thumbs down on plans to enter the UK food discount sector. Chief executive designate Mike Coupe says the FTSE 100 retailer will team up with Dansk Supermarked to bring the Netto brand back to the UK, initially with 15 stores by the end of 2015 under a joint venture. The news of increased competition in the discount ...

RESULTS / FRIDAY 20 JUNE / FINALS 420p All eyes will be on Charles Stanley’s (CAY) fee income line at full-year results on 20 June. This is a good measure of the firm’s success at diversifying income streams and growing its key discretionary wealth management business. In 2013, fee income represented 60.3% of overall revenues and you should expect a good rise in this proportion this ...

Regulatory changes, including the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), are expected to prompt an exodus of Self-invested Personal Pension (Sipp) providers this year. Back in January industry participant James Hay forecast an 80% drop in the number of platform operators as a measure of the seismic shift predicted to occur in the space. Despite these anticipated changes investors ...

A bit of cold hard pragmatism will usually serve you well when making financial decisions, but not when it comes to picking an advisory or discretionary fund manager. Choosing such bespoke services, where investors form relationships with their advisors that often last a lifetime, requires the heart as well as the head to play a key part. ‘It is about the relationship: whether it fits, and ...

A UK base rate of 0.5% is compelling wealthy individuals to move their savings out of cash and other low-yielding assets and into equities. For this reason investors will be particularly interested to see how the UK’s largest independent private client wealth manager (PCWM) Brewin Dolphin (BRW) is performing when it reports interims tomorrow (29 May).     Those looking for ...

Barring an equity market correction strong momentum at St James’s Place (STJ) is unlikely to abate any time soon. The firm is in pole position to grab a growing share of the fast-expanding high net worth wealth management space. A record low UK base rate of 0.5% is compelling wealthy individuals to move their savings out cash and other low-yielding assets and into equities.  This dynamic ...

The opening words of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ read: ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...’ as the poet goes on to extol a whole list of virtues which make a man. A version to describe what makes a momentum investor might start: ‘If your stock can keep going up when all about it are falling ...’ Companies that are able to buck the broader market trend ...