ASHTEAD GROUP (AHT) – Business Services Price: £48.12 +0.1%P/E: 18.1xMarket Cap: £20.1bnYield: 1.8% Plant and equipment hire firm Ashtead posted pretty unspectacular results for the six months to 31 October showing flat sales and falling profits. Revenue was up just 1% at $2.96 billion while operating profit was down 12% at $704 million and headline EPS fell 10% to 100.4c/share. Nonetheless, the firm bought back close to $1 billion worth of shares and is planning a further $1.5 billion buyback starting in March 2026. Our view Gone are the days, it seems, when Ashtead could be relied upon to deliver…

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (BATS) – Consumer Price: £41.26 -4.4%P/E: 12.6xMarket Cap: £90.4bnYield: 5.7% Cigarette and vape-maker BATS posted an upbeat pre-close trading statement for the year to December forecasting 2% revenue growth and an increase in operating profit as well as unveiling a new £1.3 billion share buyback. US revenue and profit momentum remains strong, helped by a crackdown on the sale of illegal vapes which benefitted its branded products, as well as steady combustibles (cigarette and tobacco) demand. The forecast for 2026 is more of the same – low single-digit revenue growth against a backdrop of falling tobacco sales,…

APPLIED NUTRITION (APN) – Consumer Price: 214.5p +7.4%P/E: 20xMarket Cap: £537mYield: n/a Another positive update from sports health and wellness brand Applied Nutrition, raising guidance for the year to July 2026 for the second time. After flagging positive trading in its final results announcement in November, the company now expects to beat the consensus (£122 million of revenue and £34 million of EBITDA) by around 10% after a ‘particularly strong’ first half. Our View Sports nutrition and wellness isn’t an area of the market we know well, but the success of APN since its IPO in October 2024 suggests it’s…

MAGNUM ICE CREAM COMPANY (MICC) – Consumer Price: £11 n/cMarket Cap: £2bn Today see the debut of Unilever’s ice cream business, which includes Magnum, Walls, Cornetto and Ben & Jerry’s, among other brands, as a stand-alone entity. Ice cream is the smallest of Unilever’s businesses, posting revenue of €8.3 billion in 2024 against €12.3 billion for home care and more than €13 billion each for the food, personal care and beauty and wellness divisions. Our View Magnum shares debuted at just over £11 in London and €12.20 in Amsterdam, below the reference price, suggesting small investors were offloading their free…

OXFORD NANOPORE (ONT) – Healthcare Price: 129.2p +3.6%P/E: n/aMarket Cap: £1.2bnYield: n/a The nanopore-sensing technology firm has announced Francis van Parys will succeed Gordon Sanghera as chief executive from the start of March 2026. Van Parys is currently president and CEO of Radiometer, part of US conglomerate Danaher, and previously held senior roles at Cytiva and GE Healthcare. Our View This looks like a shrewd appointment as van Parys has several decades of experience in life science businesses and Danaher is very highly regarded by investors, so we aren’t surprised to see ONT shares move higher on this news. Read…

MEARS (MER) – Business Services Price: 372.5p +5%P/E: 7.1xMarket Cap: £325mYield:4.8% Housing services provider Mears has raised its adjusted pre-tax profit target for the current financial year after stronger-than-expected 2H trading. Earnings are now seen at the top end of the guidance it issued in August, which wasn’t specific but was based on certain revenue and margin assumptions. Our View Mears might just have pipped Games Workshop (GAW) to the award for the shortest trading update of 2025, although the lack of detail is frustrating as the firm hasn’t published a consensus forecast. June’s trading update talked of a ‘modest’…

AIM-listed digital marketing company Eagle Eye (EYE) has signed a three-year contract with a large regional US supermarket chain for its AI personalised solutions. The deal comprises a six-month fixed-fee ‘proof of concept’, which assuming it meets its targets will be rolled out across the wider customer base. The firm says the contract would make a ‘material contribution’ to its annual recurring revenue from the first half of FY2027. Share price: 304.5p (+4.6%)P/E: n/aMarket Cap: £91mYield: n/a Eagle Eye hasn’t mentioned the customer by name, but it shouldn’t take the market long to work it out. Encouragingly, this is the…

As a result of its quarterly review, FTSE Russell – part of LSE Group (LSEG) – has moved five stocks into the FTSE 250 mid-cap index as of this month: Joiners GB Group (GBG) Pan African Resources (PAF) Princes Group (PRN) Shawbrook Group (SHAW) WPP (WPP) For four out of five it means promotion, while for WPP it means demotion from the FTSE 100 where BRITISH LAND (BLND) is promoted in its place. Leavers European Opportunities Trust (EOT) Foresight Solar Fund (FSF) Paypoint (PAY) Pinewood Technology Group (PINE) Changes to the indices matter, as there are billions of pounds invested…

BALFOUR BEATTY (BBY) – Construction Price: 712p +0.4%P/E: 17.2xMarket Cap: £3.5bnYield: 1.9% International infrastructure group Balfour Beatty posted a positive trading update for the three months to 4 December and confirmed it would meet its 2025 targets of 5% revenue growth and underlying profit ahead of 2024. UK construction services continue to perform ‘strongly’ thanks to projects like HS2 Area North, Hinckley Point C and the Teesside Net Zero carbon capture zone. The US is also performing well, with revenue expected to rise as much as 25% this year and the order book growing by 10% to around $10 billion.…

FRASERS GROUP (FRAS) – Retail Price: 724p unchP/E: 7.8xMarket Cap: £3.1bnYield: n/a Retail group Frasers posted a solid first-half trading update for the period to 26 October and confirmed its full-year adjusted pre-tax target of £550 million to £600 million despite ‘tough market conditions’ which have continued into the second half. Sales for the first six months were up 5% to £2.58 billion driven by exceptional international growth of 43% and a recovery in Premium Lifestyle sales though its Flannels division. EPS rose sharply from 40.5p to 76.4p but the bulk of this came from fair value gains on derivatives…