The new venture capital trust (VCT) offer season is now in full swing where investors can apply for new shares and enjoy immediate tax benefits. Recent offers from Amati AIM VCT and Octopus AIM VCT have already closed, having hit their subscription target. Others are filling up quickly. Each year VCTs seem to attract money faster than the previous year, meaning interested investors need to ...

There are important reasons why 2021 could be a really good year for the Leeds-based transport infrastructure and analytics software company Tracsis (TRCS:AIM). For years Tracsis has scored highly for earnings quality, cash flow and operating efficiency, based on Refinitiv data. It has had a golden touch with acquisitions, always self-funded from internal cash flow and struck on ...

Alibaba China offers huge growth potential in 2021 and beyond and Alibaba (BABA:NYSE) is arguably the best way to play this theme. The country’s answer to Amazon, Alibaba owns the largest online marketplaces in China while Alibaba Cloud is the region’s leading cloud platform. The company went public six years ago, and its share price has since risen nearly 300%. Ambitious ...

UK stocks ended the Wednesday session on the up despite a relatively light day for corporate news, as a sixth round of talks began in Brussels over Britain’s post-Brexit trade relationship with the EU. Elsewhere, the number of new Covid cases in Germany hit the highest level since April leading the government to rule out any further loosening of lockdown restrictions. At the same time Spain ...

UK stocks traded sideways on Wednesday as a sixth round of talks began in Brussels over Britain’s post-Brexit trade relationship with the EU. Elsewhere, the number of new Covid cases in Germany hit the highest level since April leading the government to rule out any further loosening of lockdown restrictions. At the same time Spain and the Netherlands have seen the number of new virus cases ...

TRACSIS (TRCS:AIM) 603p Gain to date: 17.1% Original entry point: Buy at 515p, 22 February 2018 Quite a bit has happened since the start of the new year at Tracsis (TRCS:AIM) with the acquisitions of Compass Informatics and event traffic planning provider Cash & Traffic Management recently signed off. These will bolster the Traffic and Data Services (TDS) part of the transport ...

Transport infrastructure technology company Tracsis (TRCS:AIM) is categorically ruling out returning any of its £22.3m cash pile to shareholders. Instead, chief executive officer John McArthur has told Shares that he wants to put that money to better use by continuing its long-run policy of acquiring value-adding businesses with motivated management. Tracsis provides a range of technology ...

TRACSIS (TRCS:AIM) 723p Gain to date: 40.4% Original entry point:  Buy at 515p, 22 February 2018 The transport technology and analytics company has been enjoying a spell of strong demand so while analysts had been anticipating revenue of £36.15m and adjusted operating profit of £8.2m for the year to 31 July 2018, investors can now expect rough £40m and £8.5m equivalent ...

Investors that tend to overlook the junior Aim part of the stock market may not know Tracsis (TRCS:AIM) but it has a firm following among a subset of retail investors and small cap fund managers. This is a Leeds-based smart transport analytics and infrastructure technology supplier, and it has performed more strongly than analysts expected last year to 31 July 2018, particularly in the second ...

We’ve been quietly watching Tracsis (TRCS:AIM) over the past few weeks looking for the right entry point for investors. We believe we have now found one. Tracsis is a Leeds-based smart transport analytics and infrastructure technology company that Shares has followed closely since 2013. Back then the stock was changing hands for 164.5p yet even after rallying 200%-plus in five years we still ...

Improving profitability of FTSE 100 giants is a theme running through the UK stock market in early trade on Tuesday. Blue-chip heavyweights HSBC (HSBA) and BHP Billiton (BLT), the huge mining company, both post substantially improved profits. Full year results from banking group HSBC (read parts one and two) demonstrate further progress in its recovery drive, the group today reporting that it ...

Our portfolio of picks for 2017 has achieved 10.3% average gain versus 8.8% from the FTSE All-Share. Among the selection, one of our stocks was taken over; one defied the retail sector sell-off to deliver handsome gains; and another has bounced back after a difficult period in 2016, just like we said it would. Overall we’re pleased with the performance although the portfolio wasn’t ...

Leeds-based Tracsis (TRCS:AIM) has bounced back following a year to forget, in share price terms. Having spent most of 2017 in negative territory following its inclusion in our list of best ideas for the year, the stock is back showing a modest profit. The smart transport analytics and infrastructure company was left deeply frustrated by its failure to pull off a value-enhancing ...

Shares’ ‘Top Ten for 2017’ portfolio has made a positive start to 2017. Our average gain of 11.1% is comfortably ahead of the FTSE All-Share’s 6.2% haul. Our star turn is Ideagen (IDEA:AIM), the compliance-based information management software supplier which has surged 40.1% higher to 90p. The shares have continued to progress with a boost from strong interim results (24 ...

Digital data is everywhere these days and the scope to use analytics to boost productivity, streamline processes, drive quality and improve experiences is fast becoming ubiquitous across virtually every industry. ‘Analytic technologies allow companies to collect, organise and make sense of this growing pool of data, adding value to both their customers and their own operations,’ says Hugh ...

There’s plenty going on with technology stocks that feature in our list of Great Ideas. We now take a look at some recent bits of news to keep you up to date with events. Gaming engine designer Quixant (QXT:AIM) impressed with its full year results on 22 March. Revenue was 5% better than forecast while pre-tax profit was bang on the money at $13.8m. Analysts have lifted their 2017 estimates ...

Traffic and transport software and analytics business Tracsis (TRCS:AIM) spooked the market on Wednesday. The first half to 31 January 2017 is apparently light, based on full year expectations, leaving a lot to do in the six months to 31 July. ‘Due to the timing of software sales that are anticipated and the high seasonality inherent in some parts of the group, the second half of the ...

Our ‘Big Picks for 2016’ portfolio gained an average of 2.2% versus a return on the FTSE All-Share of 12.9%. It’s a disappointing performance compared to previous years, but at least we didn’t lose money. After a decent start to the year, in which our stocks led the market in very tough conditions, it’s tempting to blame Brexit for the reversal which started in June. But that would ...

Every December we publish a list of stocks carefully chosen by Shares’ team of journalists. We consider these to be our best ideas for stocks to buy and hold throughout the coming year. This year we’ve picked 10 companies that have the right qualities to shine in 2017. You will find a mixture of top quality businesses, recovery stories and companies with favourable market conditions. We ...

The pledge by Chancellor Philip Hammond in his Autumn Statement on 23 November to cut corporation tax from 20% to 17% by 2020 is positive for equities. The money that listed companies will save on tax could be used to hire more staff which could boost productivity. Firms could also pay higher dividends or accelerate debt repayments. ‘The corporation tax cut will be a positive initiative ...