Best known as the investment vehicle of legendary value investor Warren Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway has also produced remarkable returns for outside investors since the pair took over running the firm more than 50 years ago.Berkshire says its total gain in market value from 1964 to 2018 is a staggering 2,472,627%, or an average compound annual growth rate (C

Corporate awareness of the need for fire protection is at an all-time high, says Alex Dacre, chief executive of Marlowe (MRL:AIM), a support services business enjoying rapid growth.Increasing health and safety awareness results in stricter legislation and puts more pressure on organisations to make sure the occupants of their buildings are safe.That's driving earnings growth at Marlowe which insta

UK investors may feel there are more questions than answers as we hurtle towards Brexit and detailed negotiations on a deal with Europe. That won't change in the short-term regardless of the outcome of today's General Election and the identity of the next government. That suggests, in our opinion, that buying market experience into your portfolio could be a sensible move, and few fund managers hav

Takeover activity among FTSE 250 stocks dominates the news agenda at the start of the new trading week.Housebuilder Bovis Homes (BVS) has rejected two takeover approaches from Redrow (RDW) and Galliford Try (GFD).The Redrow proposal is structured as a cash and shares deal and values Bovis at a discount to its closing share price last Friday. Galliford wants an all-share merger with its shareholder

Industrial services provider Cape (CIU) is up 17.5% to 178.6p as it guides for 2016 results to be materially ahead of expectations thanks to a strong contribution from all areas of the business in the last two months of the year.REPAIRING THE DAMAGEThe gains repair some of the damage wrought by last November's warning that litigation costs relating to its legacy asbestos operations could be worse

Takeovers are back on the agenda for the UK stock market. We aren't surprised, given favourable conditions for M&A (mergers and acquisitions) have been in place for some time.The cost of borrowing is low; sterling devaluation makes British companies a more attractive proposition to overseas buyers; and volatile conditions in certain sectors have left some decent businesses in a vulnerable position

Against a backdrop of plunging crude oil prices half-year results (26 Aug) from industrial services provider Cape (CIU) - which derives around half its revenue from the oil and gas industry - were surprisingly robust.Earnings per share was up 1% year-on-year to 13p on organic revenues up 6% and the order book topped a four-year high at £800 million. I ask chief executive Joe Oatley if he thinks t

Is the stock market right or wrong? That's the challenge for investors when they come to picking stocks. If the market is right, then a company's share price should theoretically be fairly valued. If the market is wrong, then the shares are either too high or too low - you have to decide which is correct and then use that decision to formulate your investment actions in the hope that the shares wi

London shares rise the fourth day straight on Friday as huge gains on Wall Street overnight provide a boost to confidence. The Dow Jones index chalked-up its biggest one-day gain in three years, ending 2.4%, or 421 points higher at 17,778.15. The UK's blue-chip FTSE 100 index echoes that upbeat sentiment on Friday, up 0.7%, or 45 points, to 6,511 in early deals and has now risen by over 5% since T

A lack of nasty surprises in interim results (27 Aug) from industrial services provider Cape (CIU) offers an indication the business has been stabilised and investors may now be able to look forward to renewed growth with greater confidence.In this light, a 2014 rating of 11.2 times consensus forecast earnings per share (EPS) of 26.9p looks interesting. Particularly when you consider the implied E

Market expectations that a genuine economic recovery is finally upon us explain the re-rating of the General Industrials sector over the last 12 months. Even so, the grouping still lags its closest cousin, Industrial Engineering, in valuation terms. A forward price/earnings ratio of 13.8 compares with the UK market's 15.6 times rating and the 17-times multiple afforded to the engineers.A modest di

Adhesive tape-maker Scapa (SCPA) is enjoying strong trading just as the fruits of a multi-pronged restructuring drive are beginning to reveal. This makes now an interesting time to consider a position in the group.While a resurgent sterling is holding back many of the group's peers, it revealed stronger-than-expected trading across the three key divisions of Industrial, Healthcare and Electronics

There are no guarantees equities will repeat 2013's storming performance and ultimately stock markets are get-rich slow schemes where the accumulation and reinvestment of dividends is key. Patient investors might therefore consider a collective which provides copious cashflow and progressive payouts. One option here is MedicX Fund (MXF), a leading investor in modern purpose-built primary healthcar

As we predicted, fashion brand business SuperGroup (SGP), a running Shares Play of the Week, skips 4.4% higher to £12.10 on a consensus-smashing first quarter update. Better-than-expected retail and wholesale performances drove group sales 25.7% higher to £75 million in the first quarter, during which the £930 million cap owner of the Superdry brand made positive strides with its global expansi

Plans by Whitbread (WTB) to launch compact hotels failed to excite the market, the shares down 5p to £31.55. It plans to open five 'hub by Premier Inn' sites over the next three years and have 40 compact hotels opened or 'in the pipeline' by 2018. The initiative has been widely expected by the leisure industry but the lack of financial details and arguably slow roll-out programme could explain th

Global stock markets have slumped on fears that the US central bank will start to scale back its economic stimulus programme this year. This is on the back of comments made yesterday by the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.The FTSE 100, Dac and Cac 40 all recorded falls in excess of 2%; the Dow Jones yesterday closed down 1.4% and has recorded further declines today.Gold fell more than 3.5% i

Half-year results from industrial services group Silverdell (SID:AIM) hit analyst forecasts, yet the shares have dropped 5.9% to 13.88p. At first glance, investors may have been spooked by a major contract deferral and lower-margin work in the remediation arm. Yet we believe the main problem lies with Silverdell's failure, once again, to properly communicate its working capital needs to support am

A 25% decline in Silverdell's (SID:AIM) share price from around 20p in March to 15.4p earlier this month implied there was a problem within the asbestos removal-to-demolition business. A trading update (12 Apr) helped to support the share price when it reassured investors with news of a 'strong order book'. Yet it did not address the one issue concerning several people in the market - working cap

On a quiet day for corporate news, the market is marginally down with a 0.5% drop in the FTSE 100 to 6,386. The blue chip index is now several weeks into a choppy trading pattern, struggling to revive the massive rally enjoyed between January and March.Aggreko's (AGK) trading statement gave few surprises, but this is what the market wanted as we discuss in detail here. Reassurance is a positive si

The declaration of maiden dividends can have a significant impact on a company's share price. It is one of the strongest signals the business is in great shape and financially healthy while management has confidence in future trading.After a thorough analysis of the market and the minefield of broker research, Shares believes a select band of firms are poised to impress this year with their first