Image source: Getty Images BAE Systems‘ (LSE: BA) share price is topping the FTSE 100 leaderboard as I write this in 13 June, as I guessed it would be. I reckoned the defence engineer was only going one way after news broke that Israel had attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. While nearly all my portfolio is in the red this morning, BAE Systems is a rare exception, along with oil giant BP. Writing that doesn’t give me any pleasure. I’d much rather the BAE share price was falling, because the world had found more peaceful ways to sort out its differences.…
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Image source: Getty Images WH Smith (LSE: SMWH) is a dividend stock that hasn’t done much growing in recent years. In fact, it’s 58% lower than before the pandemic struck in early 2020! However, that hasn’t stopped activist investor Palliser Capital from building a near-5% stake in the FTSE 250 retailer. And according to a Sky News report, Palliser reckons there’s scope for the shares to nearly double over the next three years! What we know Established in 1792, WH Smith is synonymous with the British high street. However, that business was sold to Modella Capital for £76m in March, leaving…
The US Dollar is outperforming on Friday as investors rush for safety.Fears of a full-blown Israel-Iran war have boosted demand for safe-haven assets and the US Dollar.The broader trend, however, remains bearish with long-term lows, at 0.8045, still at a short distance.The US Dollar is trimming losses after a sharp decline on Thursday. The risk-averse reaction to Israel’s attack on Iran has brought some life to the US Dollar, pushing the pair back above 0.8100, but still on track to a 1.3% weekly decline.onNews reports talk about explosions in nuclear and military sites in Iran that would have killed some…
Image source: Getty Images Millions of us use the Stocks and Shares ISA. It’s an indispensable vehicle for most of us who are investing with small-to-medium-sized pockets of cash. Essentially, the ISA wrapper allows us to add up to £20,000 annually to our investment accounts. And from that point onwards, any returns that money makes is free from taxation. This is clearly really advantageous for many reasons. The first among these is compounding. If I was paying capital gains tax on every stock victory of mine, my portfolio would be growing a lot slower. The second is dividends. Many of…
A month ago, I did something both reckless and oddly responsible: I handed over control of my personal finances to ChatGPT. Yes! The chatbot almost everyone is hooked on for coding help and LinkedIn posts. But can it actually manage money? I decided to find out.The backstory: From budget burnout to bot buddyLike many urban Indian millennials, my money habits were all over the place. I had a salary, an SIP or two, random Swiggy orders, an unused credit card, and zero idea where my money was actually going.I’d tried budgeting apps before—some were too complicated, some too Western, and…
Image source: Getty Images After plummeting to around 205p in April, Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) share price has rebounded. Currently, it’s trading at around 287p – about 40% higher than its 2025 lows. Can the commodity stock continue to climb from here? One broker believes so. It has a price target that’s far higher than the current share price. A lofty price target The broker I’m talking about is Jefferies. It believes that today, Glencore shares are still undervalued. Its price target’s 380p – about 32% above the current price. However, taking a ‘sum-of-the-parts’ valuation approach, it gets to a price…
Image source: Getty Images Next week, I’ll be reminded once more why I hold Persimmon (LSE:PSN) shares. That’s because, on 19 June, the stock will go ex-dividend. Those with a position before this date will be entitled to receive the housebuilder’s final 2024 payout on 11 July. Added to the interim amount of 20p, it means the total dividend for the year will be 60p, giving a current (13 June) yield of 4.3%. Although above the FTSE 100 average of 3.5%, it’s low by historical standards. Like all those exposed to the property market, the housebuilder’s had a tough few…
Image source: Getty Images The City of London Investment Trust (LSE:CTY) is a dividend share with a difference. Incredibly, since 1966, it’s managed to increase its payout to shareholders each year. This means it holds the record for the longest unbroken run of dividend growth of any UK stock. And yet it doesn’t do anything clever. It simply invests in other equities listed primarily on the London Stock Exchange. At 30 April 2025, it held 79 individual positions with a market value of £2.38bn. Its three biggest holdings — accounting for 13.5% of the fund — were HSBC (£111.4m), Shell…
Image source: Getty Images I love big, fat, juicy high-yielding FTSE 100 second income stocks. My love grows every time they send me a big, fat, juicy dividend – which I automatically reinvest to buy more shares. I added the three biggest FTSE 100 yielders to my portfolio at various points in 2023. The income and growth they offer is already starting to compound nicely. In one respect, this was a risky manoeuvre, because all three are in the same sector, one that was out of favour at the time: financial services. FTSE 100 high yield stars The stocks are wealth…
Image source: Getty Images Investors who were brave enough to invest in Barclays (LSE:BARC) shares, or any stock, following Liberation Day, will have done well. Shares in the British bank are up 25% since the then. So a £10,000 investment then would now be worth £12,500. That’s a very strong return in such a short period. What’s more, an investor would have locked in a much higher dividend yield than the one we see today. But what about now? Is Barclays stock still good value? The valuation Barclays’ forward valuation metrics for 2025 through 2027 are positive, highlighting expected steady…