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1 week ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
A stock that’s raised its annual dividend for 49 years in a row has got to be a good passive income pick, right? Well, it can depend on the dividend yield. So what if I say there’s such a stock out there whose share price has dropped and pushed the forecast yield up to 5.5%? That’s the picture I’m seeing when I look at James Halstead (LSE: JHD), after a 38% share price fall in the past five years. But a fallen share price isn’t a good thing.
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1 week ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
The chart for Vodafone (LSE: VOD) shares over the past five years tells a scary story. The mobile phone giant’s share price has fallen 41.8%. And that’s enough to turn a £10,000 investment into just £5,820. Well, it wouldn’t be quite that bad. Shareholders would have had some dividend cash to help ease their pain. I’m seeing something of a parallel with BT Group a few years previously. BT paid dividends it couldn’t afford and that contributed to share price falls.
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1 week ago | 
msn.com | Alan Oscroft
Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
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1 week ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
I’m not one for trying to time investments, but 16 May 2024 was an auspicious day for BT Group (LSE: BT.A) shares. On that day the share price climbed 17%. And with a few wiggles along the way, it’s since kept on rising. It was the day BT released full-year results for the fiscal 2024 year. And £10,000 invested in the stock the day before would now be worth £16,370 give or take a few pounds.
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1 week ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
The Ashtead Group (LSE: AHT) share price was barely affected by full-year results released Tuesday (17 June), which looked a bit mixed. Ashtead is reporting its last set of FY results as a FTSE 100 company before it switches its main listing to New York and adopts its US Sunbelt Rentals business name.
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1 week ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
Which companies have Stocks and Shares ISA investors been buying in June? Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE: RR.) was the most popular among Interactive Investor customers in the week ending 13 June, knocking BAE Systems off the previous week’s top spot. Rolls-Royce also topped the buys and sells by value at AJ Bell, although BAE has fallen down that list. Investors are buying into two companies big in the aerospace and defence business.
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1 week ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
Penny shares are often popular when markets are rising and growth investors are bullish. But are penny shares, at under 100p with market caps below £100m, more likely to make us a fortune than those with higher valuations? The biggest risk is that a lot of them are down and out because they deserve to be. I’ve seen plenty valued at far less than a penny that I wouldn’t buy. Not even if someone gave me the penny and told me to keep the change.
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2 weeks ago | 
msn.com | Alan Oscroft
Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
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2 weeks ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
Shares in FTSE 100 media giant WPP (LSE: WPP) soared to over 1,900p in 2017, but have since slumped to around 500p. We saw a brief recovery after the 2020 stock market crash. But WPP is the worst Footsie performer so far in 2025, losing a third of its value year to date. Hmm, maybe I should dust off my contrarian buy button. On 9 June the company announced the pending departure of CEO Mark Read, who took over from Sir Martin Sorrell in 2018.
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2 weeks ago | 
fool.co.uk | Alan Oscroft
What’s the best way to go about building up the biggest passive income pot we can in an ISA? Today’s Stocks and Shares ISA millionaires have something in common. They mainly put the bulk of their investment money into reliable companies generating strong cash flow and paying dependable dividends. The masterstroke is to reinvest each year’s dividend cash in new shares, and then let it build up over the years. How much difference can the miracle of compound returns make?
