Dignity (DTY)

Funeral services provider Dignity (DTY) is marked down 6.3% to 633.25p after warning full year profits could materially undershoot expectations. This blow follows a disappointing first quarter caused by a ‘significantly lower than expected number of deaths’. Sutton Coldfield-headquartered Dignity doesn’t expect the recent proportional death rate decrease to continue throughout the rest of ...

Led by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), anti-trust regulators around the world are having a bigger say than ever in corporate affairs. While this is good news for consumers, for investors the regulators represent another level of risk and complexity. There are many current examples involving UK-quoted shares such as news last week that the CMA was opening a full investigation ...

Our annual portfolio of share picks has outperformed the market yet again, although we didn’t deliver a positive return. The average share price return from our portfolio of 10 stocks was a 6.4% loss versus a 10.2% decline from the FTSE All-Share. It was a very difficult year for all investors, including fund managers, and anyone who managed to deliver positive returns deserves ...

Plans to buyout UK shopping centres operator Intu Properties (INTU) have fallen through after a consortium led by the group’s chairman John Whittaker pulled the plug. This comes a huge disappointment to investors in the owner of Manchester's Trafford Centre, sparking a massive 38%-plus slump in the Intu share price, to 117.85p. That values the business at about £1.6bn. This is the second ...

Cigarettes giant British American Tobacco (BATS) heads the FTSE 100 lower board on Monday following newspaper reports that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants to ban menthol cigarettes. The story emerged from the Wall Street Journal over the weekend and it has got investors in BAT worried, with shares in the group slumping 9% in early trade to £31.07. BAT owns Newport, which is the ...

Nine months into 2018 and we’re still outperforming the market with our top picks of the year. Nonetheless, a 3.1% average gain versus 0.3% loss from the FTSE All-Share only calls for a celebratory orange juice and lemonade rather than high quality champagne. Earlier gains have been reduced thanks to notable weakness in Alliance Pharma (APH:AIM) in recent weeks plus Dixons Carphone’s ...

Many investors are fascinated by how certain investors got to be so famous, searching for the special formula that made the likes of Warren Buffett and Philip Fisher so rich. Well now’s your chance to mimic their approach and apply their proven methodology to today’s market. We show you two ways to deploy their process. The first uses stock screeners built using Stockopedia’s ...

Investors looking to profit from a bargain-hunting style of investing should snap up Aurora Investment Trust (ARR) as it provides exposure to high quality businesses with huge upside potential. Aurora trades at a near-3% premium to net asset value (NAV) of 213.63p, yet Shares believes this is more than merited by the manager’s superb track record, while the announcement (18 Jun) of a ...

After a delay to the opening of the London stock market, the FTSE 100 ticks higher early on thanks to another good day for the miners combined with strength among financial companies, before easing back 3.7 points to 7708.7. Mitie (MTO) is marked up 7.1p or 3.6% to 202.8p as the outsourcer says it expects ‘modest’ sales growth next year and reiterates medium term margin improvement guidance ...

Funerals provider Dignity (DTY)  is on the back foot after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it is launching a review into the £2bn funerals market to ensure people aren’t getting a bad deal. Shares in Dignity fell 14% to £10.43 as investors are worried about the potential risks from greater regulation. Earlier this year, the company cut funeral prices to compete with ...

The FTSE 100 enjoys strong gains on Friday morning despite the threat of a trade war between the US and several of its trading partners after a breakthrough overnight on the political deadlock in Italy. Early on the index is up 0.57% at 7,722.16. Funeral provider Dignity (DTY) slumps 14.2% to £10.43 as the Competition & Markets Authority launches a review into the £2bn funerals ...

Embattled funerals services group Dignity (DTY) now believes full year results will be ahead of previously downgraded expectations following a positive start to 2018, sending its share price soaring by nearly 18% to £10.96. The company says price cuts are helping it to fight back against fresh competition. The Sutton Coldfield-headquartered firm not only flags year-on-year sales ...

The FTSE 100 is up 30 points to 7,255.77 following a strong performance on Wall Street overnight. It appears that fears of geopolitical fallout over Syrian airstrikes have subsided and all eyes will be on the UK’s consumer price index data due out later today. Shopping centre investor Hammerson (HMSO) gains 2.3% to 505p after pulling out of a deal to purchase rival shopping centre operator ...

It is fair to say that 2018 is shaping up to be a difficult year for investors. Stocks are volatile, and the market is in very unforgiving mood with even the hint of bad news prompting big falls in company share prices. Already this year funerals provider Dignity (DTY) announced a complete change to its business model which sparked an immediate halving of its share price while technology firms ...

Our top picks for 2018 are lagging the broader market at the end of the first quarter. Our portfolio of 10 stocks has an average loss of 8.4% versus a 6% decline from the FTSE All-Share. While this is a disappointing start, our selections were designed to be held for at least a year, so we remain hopeful that some of the laggards will pick up as the year progresses. Before we look at the ...

Fallen funeral services provider Dignity (DTY) rallies 14.9% to 980p after flagging encouraging early signs from drastic initiatives needed to fend off rising competition. Accompanying full year results which are reassuringly in line with January’s damaging profit warning, recent trading under a new pricing strategy suggests the demise of Dignity has been exaggerated. Revenue and ...

London’s FTSE 100 rebounds 22.5 points to 7,161.2 on Wednesday, bouncing back from Tuesday’s heavy losses triggered by the shock departure of Rex Tillerson and Philip Hammond’s lacklustre Spring Statement. Fallen funeral services provider Dignity (DTY) rallies 14.4% to 976p after flagging encouraging early signs from initiatives launched in January to fend off rising ...

Investors are eagerly awaiting Dignity’s (DTY) full year results on 14 March as it provides the first opportunity for the company to comment on the implementation of its new pricing strategy which triggered a major profit warning in January. However, it may be too early to get any solid feedback, particularly as Dignity said in January that it expected to give a proper update on progress and ...

Does the end of momentum in the UK stock market since February’s sell-off suggest investors may become less willing to pay high ratings for growth and instead look more closely at value plays? It’s an interesting thought and one that’s likely to become a key talking point among the investment community over the coming weeks. The past few years have seen many investors eager to buy ...

Shopping centre investor Hammerson (HMSO) could be booted out of the FTSE 100 index at next week’s reshuffle and replaced by Royal Mail (RMG), according to analysis of latest market values. On the FTSE 250, relegation candidates include funeral services group Dignity (DTY), pharmaceuticals expert Vectura (VEC) and real estate group Hansteen (HSTN). Recent stock market flotations ...