In an environment where share prices have been volatile, focusing on dividends and those companies which can grow their dividend over time has real merit. The fact these businesses feel confident enough to increase their generosity to shareholders and, in the first place, have the financial strength and discipline needed to sustain a regular payout, are real ticks in the box from an investment...

According to the latest Dividend Monitor report from Computershare, which looks after the share registers of 900 companies, total UK corporate dividend payments fell 4.6% or £700 million in the first quarter of this year to £14 billion. The decline was mainly due to lower one-off special dividends and a handful of large cuts from firms such as Burberry (BRBY) and Vodafone (VOD), which halved...

This article looks at investment trusts and gearing, specifically the ability of trust managers to borrow money to invest. With the help of industry body the Association of Investment Companies, we have crunched some data on gearing levels in the investment trust universe. Overall the average levels of gearing for trusts which invest in equities has remained pretty stable with gearing levels...