Record revenue and earnings Record run of dividend hikes Positive outlook for this year It was dejà vu time for investors in safety and security group Halma (HLMA) as the firm reported yet another year of record revenue, earnings and dividends despite a challenging economic and geopolitical backdrop. The shares jumped as much as 322p or 10% in early trading to £33.42, a new all-time...

Markets around the world have reacted with palpable relief to two major decisions by the Trump administration. First, on 9 April, reciprocal tariffs (except on China) were delayed for 90 days ? which proved the catalyst for the third-largest daily gain for US stocks since the Second World War. Many observers pegged the U-turn on movements in government bond yields which revealed declining...

The benefits of a stocks and shares ISA are best measured over the long term. Investors should look to get rich slowly through the power of compounding.Compounding describes the process whereby investment returns themselves generate future gains. The value of an investment can increase exponentially because growth is earned on both the initial sum of money plus the accumulated wealth.Imagine...

Strong second half growthFavourable mix helps marginsLong-term growth driversSpecialist technology group Halma (HLMA) pleased investors by nudging up its guidance for the year to the end of March thanks to strong second-half demand.The shares, which have staged an impressive rally from their late-2023 lows but earlier this week hit a three-month low, resumed their upward progress,...

London's FTSE 100 outperformed its European peers on Thursday morning, as investors continue to move with caution amid US tariff concerns.US President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports triggered retaliatory action from the EU and Canada on Wednesday.China on Thursday called for 'dialogue' with Washington to resolve spiralling trade tensions that have seen the world's...

You often hear the word 'defensive' applied to certain stocks and sectors, but what does it mean and can buying 'defensive' stocks really help your performance as an investor?In a word, yes, because they dial down some of the risk which is inherent in markets because they tend not to be very volatile unlike most 'cyclical' or 'growth' stocks, but it's how you use them which matters.Defensive...

Berkeley Group director buys stockHalma CFO designate buys sharesJudges Scientific director tops upMichael Dobson, non-executive director of housebuilder Berkeley Group (BKG), bought 15,000 shares at £35 for a total value of £525,000 on 15 January.Dobson's move comes after the company reported a 7.7% fall in pre-tax profit for the six months ending 31 October to £275.1 million. ...

Arbuthnot chairman snaps up 116,000 sharesJohnson Matthey CEO buys 10,000 sharesHalma director sells 50,000 sharesHenry Angest, chairman and chief executive of banking group Arbuthnot (ARBB:AIM), bought 116,000 shares at 900p for a total value of £1.04 million on 25 November.Angest now holds 9,392,185 ordinary shares representing 58.03% of the company's voting rights.The banking group...

Equities in Europe ended higher on Thursday, overcoming some earlier uncertain trade, as comments from a US official calmed some geopolitical worries which kept a lid on investor enthusiasm.Nonetheless, Brent remained above the $73 mark, supporting oil majors.Moscow's ambassador in London said Thursday Britain was 'now directly involved' in Russia's war with Ukraine, following reports Kyiv had...

Record revenue and profitInterim dividend up 7%Full year guidance reiteratedTechnology-enabled health, safety, and environmental solutions group Halma (HLMA) topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard with a 9% rise after reporting record first half results which showed revenue breaching £1 billion for the first time.The gain extends 2024's advance to 20%, well ahead of the blue-chip index which is flat...

SDI (SDI:AIM) 58pMarket cap: £60.6 millionThe past couple of years have seen many a growth grenade tossed at SDI (SDI:AIM) yet the company has stuck to its largely successful knitting and we expect its fortunes to significantly improve through 2025. A casual glance at the share price chart might put a quick end to investors' research into this small cap business, but that's a mistake, in our...

Specialist engineering company Halma (HLMA) demonstrated its unerring dependability with its latest full-year results on 13 June.For the uninitiated, Halma is a global manufacturer of safety, health and environmental technology products. It employs around 6,000 people in roughly 50 individual small- to medium-sized enterprises, and operates across more than 20 countries.It has a pretty vast...

Stocks in Europe fell around Thursday midday, after the US Federal Reserve backpedalled from previous predictions.The FTSE 100 index was down 40.98 points, 0.5%, at 8,174.50. The FTSE 250 was down 146.28 points, 0.7%, at 20,351.12, and the AIM All-Share was down 1.59 points, 0.2%, at 785.77.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.7% at 814.10, the Cboe UK 250 was down 1.1% at 17,782.64, and the Cboe Small...

21st year of record earnings'Mini-Berkshire' beats targetsPositive start to new yearEnvironment, health and safety technology group Halma (HLMA) reported its 21st year of record revenue and profit and said it had made a 'positive start' to the current financial year.The shares climbed as much as 180p or 8% to £25.35 taking them to the top of the FTSE 100 performance table. QUALITY...

Stock prices in London were mixed on Thursday morning, with strong earnings from FTSE 100's Halma after the US Federal Reserve announced guidance of just one interest rate cut by the end of the year.The FTSE 100 index opened down 4.18 points, 0.1%, at 8,211.30. The FTSE 250 was down 52.37 points, 0.3%, at 20,445.03, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.90 of a point, 0.1%, at 788.26.The Cboe UK 100...

Whenever there is a discussion about ?quality? UK industrial stocks, the name Spectris (SXS) is often thrown into the ring although we suspect many investors, while being familiar with the company in a general sense, have little idea what it actually does.Looking on Stockopedia, the company has a 99th percentile quality ranking, which backs up its reputation, but it is classified as a...

In an environment marked by intense global competition and industry disruption, successful mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are increasingly important to the growth and profitability of many companies.Yet research shows most mergers disappoint. Over the decades, multiple studies have shown that mergers and acquisitions fail to generate the anticipated synergies, and many actually destroy value...

As we approach the end of the year it is an opportune moment to shine a light on some of this year's least-loved stocks.Rather than look at the stocks which have lost the most, we have collected together those trading at or near their lows for the year along with those with the fewest friends in the analyst community and those which the hedge fund community thinks are outright shorts.If we...

If we conducted a straw poll we've no doubt most readers would have heard of Amersham-based engineering firm Halma (HLMA), but we suspect a much smaller proportion could put their hand up and explain what it does.For a FTSE 100 company with a market cap of £8 billion, Halma seems to operate 'in the background' rather than taking centre stage so we thought it was high time we took an in-depth...

Discerning investors who are looking for well-managed, well-capitalised companies with a sustainable edge have been finding their way to the Stewart Investors Worldwide Sustainability Fund (B7W3061) steadily over the past decade.A £10,000 investment in the fund 10 years ago would be worth £22,372 today, although at the peak towards the end of 2021 it would have been worth just over £28,000...