Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
It's good to read what each of us does & hopes for, each to their own & all that.
As for me whilst inflation is very important I'm just happy to hold good companies such as this forever, collect the dividends to supplement pensions (I haven't had to touch any dividends yet) & bequeath the shares to my loved ones hopefully some years down the line. If I were a younger man I expect that my philosophy would be very different.
I look at it like this, my 8 grand buy of LGEN some time ago brings me in about £725 per year in dividends. If I were to put this into a savings account paying 4.5% I would get £360 in interest. The maths seem very straightforward to me & before anyone questions this I'm talking here about ISA's so no tax to pay.
My plan was to put my £200K ISA in a few different income stocks paying an average 7% interest, bringing in about £14K per year & so far I'm doing better than this. I sleep very well knowing that I am well diversified & invested in quality stocks. Good luck all.
Come on dan, investing in the stock market & not understanding what the bottom line is. Fleecy was obviously talking about it & the pathway to growing / increasing it in respect of VOD & BT. Just so you now understand here it is - The bottom line refers to a company's earnings, profit, net income, & earnings per share (EPS). The reference to the bottom line describes the relative location of the net income figure on a company's income statement. So, if the BL grows so does that company.
I'd go careful putting too much into BT Dave, as I'm sure you know they have a significant pension deficit which they pay serious dosh into, currently just over £1.4 bn annually. Add to that the lease pile, which cost £246 mn to service annually and the drags on cash are hefty, it doesn't leave too much for dividends etc. They have done well getting the pension deficit down from £7.98 bn in 2020 to just under £4 bn now but there's still quite some way to go. Good luck though & my own view is that VOD has more chance of a recovery in the short term than BT.
LGEN is without doubt one of the best businesses out there, the dividend is well covered, profits are increasing & once the impending review is completed / published any lingering doubts will be cast aside by the market. I'm not saying that the SP will rise to any great heights because of any this but it is as close to a complete divi share as you can get.
If you buy today at the current price you get 8.6% annually as a dividend, try getting that in the bank. The dividend in my opinion will not be cut, it may stay as it is for a little while but it will increase in time. Buy, forget about it, re-invest the dividends & in 7 to 8 years they will have cost you nothing. Take a leaf out of Mr Buffett's book, he buys good companies & holds, does this all the time & he's done okay.
Only joshing LTI, good luck mate, no offence intended.
Rob - I never really intended to sell any here as I'm invested in single company shares solely for dividends should I ever need them. I'm happy to collect my £515 in June & share price fluctuations don't really bother me. My average here is below £1.90 so I have some breathing space. Good luck all those invested here & elsewhere.
The "Sage' was holding $168 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2023. By that it means that the cash was mostly stuck in US treasury bonds which are one & the same. Does that mean that he is struggling to find stocks which he thinks will pay a meaningful return? $2 billion of that is from selling a 1% stake in Apple.
I bet it still keeps him up at night.
Rob, LTI has got it wrong … again !! XD dates are not always on a Thursday (for UK shares). Mostly they are, but not always. There are occasionally circumstances where the ex-dividend day is different i.e. when there is some other corporate action, such as a consolidation.
Littleaston - I would be interested to know why you would sell 12,000 shares a couple of days before the company goes X divi. Isn't it expected that the price will rise before the cut off which is 4.30 pm tomorrow?
Up 1.32% today as I type.
As I get bored easily I thought I’d try a little experiment in the run up to XD day. I’ve brought 3521 shares last week & will get a dividend payment of £515.12 for my troubles. If & I realise it’s a big if my shares realise a profit over that before XD day I will sell & see what the drop in the SP is on the day. Currently at a profit of £139.87, watch this space.
Be very wary of buying or topping up. Over the last two years 95 companies out of 738 listed on the AIM have gone out of business. For those that can’t get their heads around that it means you lose all your £££’s, just saying.
I see that Porchey Boy has reared his ugly head again spouting the same old clap trap "50p by autumn" this week.
It was only in March 2023 when he spouted "... this sxxt is on its way to 40p with a zero dividend with new ceo.
He's obviously a beacon of intelligence & intellect & someone that everyone must pay strict attention to, ha!
Eckie, Oh dear, not!
Yes LGEN is a frustrating & a perplexing share & I respectfully suggest that the company is now so big that us mere mortals find it hard to understand the intricacies of the company. However, for those that class it as a "dog share of the FTSE" activity in the US, Canada & Europe is increasing fast & I mean fast. The earnings from outside of the UK will support it well in the decades to come & it will be a FTSE share in all but name (unless LGEN decides to up sticks to the NYSE or Frankfurt).
The high interest rates that we have now have been causing issues for the investment management division but these rates are benefiting the larger pension businesses, so that's a draw.
As we know pension risk transfers see LGEN take on responsibility for paying the pensions from a company's final salary pension scheme in return for a hefty lump sum & ongoing service charges (Boots etc). This is underpinned by assets developed elsewhere in the company in thriving areas, record volumes are being produced across all businesses.
As for the dividend which is north of 8.3% as I type, this is very well supported, let me explain.
The Solvency II ratio stress test, this sets out requirements to insurance companies to ensure the adequate protection of policyholders and beneficiaries, a core measure. LGEN's is healthily above 200% at 224% & as such offers up reassuring resilience. Another plus on the dividend side is that capital income far exceeds dividend payouts.
I understand that a lot of people invest for growth in the SP & I respectfully suggest there are better shares out there if this is your game (unless a bidder comes in for the lot), however if you want 8%+ dividends just buy & forget. Was it 1999 that Nat West tried to buy LGEN for £11 bn?
Not long now until the 'strategic review' announcements, now that might move the SP one way or the other.
Good luck all, you might have gathered that I'm keeping my shares & may add which is unusual for me.