'Quality investing' is the style pursued by the world's greatest investor Warren Buffett, who recently announced his retirement as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B:NYSE) after more than sixty years presiding over the Omaha-based investment powerhouse. Buffett's focus on only buying quality companies has been the bedrock of Berkshire's success - since 1965, the shares have increased...

Baillie Gifford UK Growth Trust (BGUK) 180pMarket cap: £251 millionWhile 2024 has been a reasonable year for growth investors generally, for those looking just at the UK it has still required patience and a need to stay focused on the fundamentals.As Baillie Gifford director James Budden put it at the firm's latest private investor forum, inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitics have...

Kainos (KNOS) 967.5pLoss to date: 4.8%Talking down growth is never a good sign and Kainos (KNOS) shares show the scars of that mood change. When we flagged the company in May (16 May) it was on the premise that slowing digital workloads bolstered by AI (artificial intelligence) scope to take out costs and provide growth for corporate clients was a theme ready to turn, but that improvement has...

Investors in London showed confidence on Monday, with stocks closing up on hopes on interest rate cuts being around the corner.The FTSE 100 index closed up 3.94 points at 8,424.20. The FTSE 250 ended up 123.43 points, 0.6%, at 20,873.33, and the AIM All-Share closed up 15.92 points, 2.0%, at 809.94.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.1% at 840.87, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.6% at 18,250.48, and the...

Stock prices in London were higher at midday on Monday as gold hit a record high ahead of a UK inflation reading later in the week which will be essential for interest rate cut hopes.Amongst individual stocks, gold miner Fresnillo was the top performer of the morning on the FTSE 100 index, climbing with hopes of interest rate cuts. In the FTSE 250 index, Kainos jumped thanks to an increase in...

Kainos (KNOS) £10.16Market cap: £1.28 billionWe believe that market sentiment towards Kainos (KNOS) is on the cusp of a reversal, and that creates a buying opportunity for investors. Shares in the Belfast-based digital services expert are now trading at a 30% discount to 12-month highs and are barely half all-time peaks of more than £20.This is largely because of what analysts have called a...

For the second part of our annual survey, we asked fund managers if they had changed their view on any stocks this year, for better or for worse, and what lay behind their decisions.As with the winners and losers survey last week, the answers were often frank and once again we would like to thank everyone who took part.Thomas Moore - Aberdeen Equity Income Trust (AEI)THE STOCK THAT I CHANGED...

Belfast-based digital services business Kainos (KNOS) has high-quality metrics in spades, and Shares believes the stock offers long-term upside. In its most recent financial year (to March 2023), the company demonstrated return on capital employed, operating margins and return on equity of more than 40%, 14% and 35%, according to data from Stockopedia.Yet the shares are trading on a March 2024...

It has been difficult to ignore the renewed sense of optimism creeping into stock markets this year. Misery has been replaced by a watchful brightness, and nowhere has this sheen reflected better than among software growth stocks.After tumbling more than a third in 2022, the US-listed iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV:BATS), comprised of many of the major enterprise software...

There have been some notable dividend increases in recent weeks from well-known companies on the stock market including a 31% hike from advertising group WPP (WPP) while banking giant HSBC (HSBA) raised its ordinary dividend by 28% on top of comments that it might pay a special dividend once the sale of its Canadian business has completed.Even more impressively, mining services company Weir...

- Digital transformation specialist seeing best ever demand- Analysts up forecasts for full year and 2024- Stock trading on current year PE of 36Belfast-based technology company Kainos (KNOS) upgraded its earnings forecast for next year on the back of 'strong' results across the board, saying demand 'has never been higher.'The digital transformation specialist announced a 16% rise in its...

With engineering software company Aveva (AVV) poised to exit the stock market thanks to a takeover, it will mean losing the UK's largest 'tech' firm by market value, at £9.15 billion.Aveva has been majority owned by French industrial group Schneider Electric (SU:EPA) since 2017 and this shareholder now wants the whole business.That's a slightly different bid situation to most of the other...

Mid-cap companies have always attracted investors. Seen as large enough to compete on a global scale, but not so big that their capacity for growth is capped, like many FTSE 100 stocks, an increasing number of investors spend time researching stocks on the FTSE 250 index, or simply buy the index through the handful of inexpensive targeted ETF tracker funds that are available.While many...

- Stock has rallied more than 30% since 16 June- Upbeat news from enterprise software partner Workday- International expansion and market share gainsShares in digital transformation specialist Kainos (KNOS) have rallied more than 30% since closing at a 2022 low of 954.5p on 16 June. It's a stellar bounce for a stock that at its low point had lost half its market value this year.Driving this...

The UK's technology sector has been hammered in recent months as investors ditched high growth companies for safer havens amid stock market and geopolitical uncertainty. Hot running inflation risks eating into future profits, which means investors now prefer lower growth companies which are enjoying good profit today, not waiting for bigger earnings years down the line.This shift has had a...

FTSE 250 digital services provider Kainos (KNOS) has announced the acquisition of Netherlands-based consultancy Planalyse on undisclosed terms.Planalyse has been a Workday Adaptive Planning partner for over four years, supporting deployments, building and improving forecasting models for customers across Benelux, Spain, and Portugal.This morning's acquisition is Kainos's seventh and likely...

There are many interesting businesses on the AIM market which fly under the radar as they do not get the same attention as their counterparts on the Main Market. Research coverage by analysts is thin, AIM stocks aren't discussed much in the media, and only fund managers with a mandate to look at small companies might even be aware of their existence.This means there is a big opportunity for...

Is it time to buy the technology sell-off and load up on some of the market's top growth stocks? It is one of the biggest questions currently facing DIY investors and the answer may depend on your own personal circumstances.However, in our view there is a strong case for buying some of the higher quality tech names caught up in the recent correction. Particularly if they are already generating...

UK stocks opened higher on Tuesday as profit upgrades from the likes of FTSE 100 constituent Electrocomponents (ECM) and cyber security firm Darktrace (DARK) brightened investors' mood ahead of the release of key US inflation data on Wednesday.The consensus forecast is for inflation to have hit 7.1%, meaning all eyes will be on the Federal Reserve and how quickly it plans to take action to try...

UK stocks recovered from their intraday weakness to close marginally higher, despite a rise in sterling as expectations grow of a rise in official interest rates at next month's Bank of England meeting.At the close on Monday the FTSE 100 index was 4 points to the good at 7,352 points with financial stocks offsetting a sluggish mining sector following the COP26 climate conference.Brent crude...