Sage Group (SGE) has put in a robust performance over the last three months, with shares in the accounting software provider gaining 21% since late November to hit an all-time high last week.Much of the increase came on the 20 November when the company reported full-year results, which included a 7% increase in revenue to £2.3 billion for the 12 months to 30 September buoyed by progress made...

Stock jumps 19% close to all-time highUnveils £400 million share buyback planOperating margins jump 500 basis pointsThe accounting software space isn't very exciting and is savagely competitive so the promise of improving profitability from Sage Group (SGE) has understandably got investors fired up. Shares in the business jumped 19%, their biggest one-day rally in eons.The software supplier...

European equities traded higher on Wednesday morning, as stocks in London shrugged off a hotter-than-forecast UK inflation reading for now.Sage shone on the FTSE 100, while Severn Trent also impressed.The FTSE 100 index climbed 23.61 points, 0.3%, at 8,122.63. The FTSE 250 edged up 22.23 points, 0.1%, at 20,449.85, and the AIM All-Share was up 2.56 points, 0.4%, at 726.79.The Cboe UK 100 was...

The FTSE 100 started poorly on Thursday, despite Wednesday?s record closes across the pond, as Sage Group and easyJet offset a boost from BT.The FTSE 100 index opened down 31.09 points, 0.4%, at 8,414.71. The FTSE 250 was up 34.30 points, 0.2%, at 20,809.93, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.2 of a point at 791.81.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.3% at 840.90, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.3% at 18,152.47,...

By his own admission, Nick Train, manager of Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT), isn?t one for nostalgia, whether that is reflecting on past glories or the ?melancholy fact? as he puts it that the popular investment trust has underperformed the FTSE All-Share index for the last three years.Moving into 2024, the trust has again lagged the benchmark with a share price return of -1.9% in January...

It has been an up and down year for the UK stock market but some names have really shone over the course of the last 12 months. In this article we go through the market cap ranks to identify the best performing large-, mid- and small-cap stocks in 2023.£5 billion+ market capWhile Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ) has dominated headlines globally as excitement around AI (artificial intelligence) helped...

Software firm beats estimatesShare buyback an added positiveStock tops FTSE 100 gainersFinance and payroll software firm Sage (SGE) pleased investors not just with its better-than-expected annual results but with a surprise share buyback on top of the raised dividend.Sage shares topped the FTSE 100 leader board with an advance of 8% to a new lifetime high of £10.76. STRONG ORGANIC...

The events of the past three years have completely altered the investment backcloth against which fund managers are trying to earn above-average returns.Fund managers can have an investment framework to operate within, but what do they do when a 'black swan' lands? How do they adapt their strategies and reshuffle portfolios when a once-in-a-century event happens - like a global pandemic or an...

Two surprisingly positive readings on the strength of the US economy bolstered Wall Street overnight and were lifting European shares early Wednesday, with the dollar also on the rise.The FTSE 100 index opened up 24.35 points, or 0.3%, at 7,485.33. The FTSE 250 was up 86.64 points, or 0.5%, at 18,141.48. The AIM All-Share was down 0.27 of a point at 755.34, however.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.3%...

Having missed the January tech rally, accounting tools software supplier Sage (SGE) has been making up for lost time. The share price has stormed higher since reporting first-half results on 17 May, with analysts getting excited about the prospect of cloud adoption triggering a new era of growth.That's important for what is now the UK's biggest technology company by market value. Sage's cloud...

There is no hotter area to invest in today than artificial intelligence, or AI as it is commonly known. Ever since OpenAI's ChatGPT took the world by storm, investors have been racing to find winners from this explosive trend.Corporate leaders, meanwhile, have been scrambling to prove to investors that they are harnessing the technology to drive revenue growth, improve operational efficiency,...

Today's era of higher interest rates means shares face competition for investors' hard-earned savings money from the interest on cash and the coupons paid out by bonds. However, the purchasing power of cash is being eroded by inflation, while the coupons investors clip from bonds can only ever be fixed.'The beauty of equities and equity income is the growth,' says Troy Asset Management's Blake...

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...

- Net asset value (NAV) slides 5.8%- Second consecutive year of underperforming the benchmark- Train shows confidence by buying sharesNick Train-managed Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (FGT) suffered a disappointing 5.8% slide in its net asset value total return for the year ended 30 September 2022.This represented a second consecutive year of underperformance against the benchmark FTSE...

When Adobe (ADBE:NASDAQ) reported second quarter figures in June 2022 it unveiled earnings that beat forecasts, reporting $3.35 versus consensus estimates of $3.31. So far, so what? The market shrugged the results off - the share price dipped 1.2% to $360. Yet this was the latest in a long run of quarterly forecast beats that, barring a single period in 2018, stretch back to 2013.Since then,...

- Bus operator in the crosshairs of two potential buyers- Minded to recommend a deal if firm offer forthcoming- Last week FirstGroup rejected bidLondon's largest double-decker bus operator Go-Ahead (GOG) has attracted takeover interest from two potential buyers as investors bet on a revival in the UK transport industry.Go-Ahead said on Monday (13 June) that it has received two takeover...

- Credit Karma acquisition paying-off- Q3 forecasts beaten and full year growth guidance raised- Share price rallies nearly 3% in after-hours tradingBuying a credit scoring company just before the world plunged into economic difficulties looks like a sharp bit of business for Wall Street-listed small business accounting software firm Intuit (INTU:NASDAQ).Credit Karma, bought in November 2020...

- Cloud migration continues to drag on operating margins- Share price where it was in July 2016- Income yield of 2.7% and 5% organic growth unlikely to attract investorsEnterprise software firm Sage (SGE) continues to find itself trapped in investment no-man's land. Is it growth, is it income? no it's Sage, to borrow the quotation from the 1966 Superman musical? 'is it a bird, is it a plane?...

Despite a strong performance for the wider market and in-line guidance from enterprise software provider Sage (SGE) its shares dropped 3.1% to 738.6p on a first quarter update.The fall, which came after a steady start to trading early on Wednesday, reflected some disappointing underlying metrics.Overall, revenue for the three months to 31 December 2021 increased to £458 million, up from £435...

Leading UK shares have shrugged-off concerns currently upsetting Wall Street as expectations grow that the Federal Reserve will act more swiftly than previously predicted to try and tame rampant inflation. At the same time, tensions between Ukraine and Russia continue to grow, adding another volatile factor into the mix.At 9am, the benchmark FTSE 100 is close on 1.5% ahead at 7,479.13, not far...