How is your portfolio year-to-date? It has not been the easiest six months, but I've seen worse. Carnival plc (CCL) - my smallest personal portfolio holding at, fortunately, way below 1% - has also been my most disastrous. Perhaps, one day I will make it onto a cruise ship, but as a shareholding, I remain at a material loss. What did it say in the quarterlies, and what shall I do about my small position?
As noted HERE, I am a fan of Essentra (ESNT), the “hassle-free supplier of essential industrial components”. Is today's announcement - the company has “disposed of ESNT Packaging & Securing Solutions Limited, Essentra Packaging US Inc, and their respective subsidiary companies to Mayr-Melnhof Group, a leading producer of carton based in Austria, for a cash consideration of £312 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis and subject to customary adjustments” - good or bad news, then?
Seven months ago, I wondered if Halfords Group (HFD) - the “largest retailer of motoring and cycling products... in the United Kingdom” - was a potential bad-day buy. Since then, the stock has halved! Have we hit the bad-day buy level, or not?
About three months ago, I noted that, before I bought back into the shares, I needed to see a >10% fall in the then c. 265p Tesco (TSCO) share price. We are not there yet, given this morning's 248p price, but what did its Q1 update say about the tricky path ahead?
Apparently, “an Age of Darkness has descended upon the galaxy… Horus Lupercal, Warmaster of the Emperor's armies, has turned against his gene-father and sent the Imperium spiralling into bloody civil war”. I'm not sure what this means for global markets, but it has some relevance for Games Workshop (GAW), “a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England…[whose] best-known products are Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and Warhammer”. Quite a few of you are (secret) fans, I'm sure.
First, I would like to offer a huge congratulations to every “Rogue Blogger”; it was a fantastic effort. Back in the dull world of investments, I read today that “HSBC (HSBA) investor eyes £22 billion boost from bank break-up”.
In the world of investing, one must know when to quit. Whilst it is, I hope, many years before I no longer manage my money, one shouldn't expect to own their favourite stock today, forever. After all, it is not just that the world changes (because obviously, it does), but any share can become fundamentally fully-valued; that is when to move on.
How are your domestic holiday plans for this year? Given all the airport hassles, what could be nicer than a holiday in the (no doubt rainy) UK? I am sure Premier Inn owner Whitbread (WTB) would completely agree with such thoughts. So, does that make the stock cheap?
US markets have avoided an eighth straight week of losses. And, despite the UK's "windfall tax" on energy giants, even Shell (SHEL) made a gain this week. I've seen Cathie Wood's latest thoughts, and, given her fund's recent success, it's only a matter of time before the reverse of its year-to-date 53.2% fall…not!
Since September, I have written a couple of times about Kier Group (KIE), which is aiming “to sustainably deliver infrastructure [that is]... vital to the UK”. However, I haven’t bought the stock - a wise move, clearly, as the shares are down c. 30% over the last six months. So, what do I think now?
