Land developer and homebuilder Henry Boot (BOOT) posted record land sales in 2025, beating its own target. The latest sale of a site in Swindon with permission for 366 residential units takes the firm’s total to a record 3,957 plots. Price: 223p +1.4%P/E: 12.4xMarket Cap: £295mYield: 3.7% NO SHORTAGE OF DEMAND Boot announced that its land promotion and planning business, Hallam Land, had sold the freehold site in Swindon, to national homebuilder Vistry (VTY). The firm said in addition to delivering new homes, including over 500 affordable units, the site would provide community benefits. These include retail, leisure and business…

Activist investor Saba Capital has questioned the decision by Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWI) to reduce its SpaceX stake in its latest open letter. Saba says shareholders need ‘full transparency’ regarding manager Baillie Gifford’s decision to sell down its stake two months ahead of the firm’s scheduled revaluation. It describes the decision to reduce SpaceX, the ‘crown jewel’ of the portfolio, as defying commercial logic and part of an agenda to merge with Baillie Gifford US Trust (USA). Price: 226p +1.2%NAV: 234.7pMarket Cap: £715mYield: n/a It’s hard to argue with Saba’s claim that SpaceX is the crown jewel and ‘defining…

In this article we explain what B shares are, how they are different to regular A shares, and why companies might issue them to investors. B shares are a class of company stock with different rights to normal A shares, such as fewer votes or less rights to dividends, and are sometimes used by companies to return capital. Shareholders in clothing and homewares retailer Next (NXT) are due to receive cash by way of a B share scheme this month. On 19 December, Next announced it would return just over £421 million of surplus cash by issuing B shares rather…

High street retailer Next (NXT) has pulled a rabbit out of the hat again with its Q4 trading update. In the nine weeks to 27 December, full price sales rose by 10.6% compared with guidance of a 7% increase. Together with positive trading so far this month, sales for the year to the end of January will be around £50 million above the most recent forecast. That translates into a £15 million uplift in pre-tax profit for the year to £1.15 billion, a 13.7% increase on last year, and a 16.1% increase in earnings per share. Price: £140 +2.9%P/E: 21.3xMarket…

Life and health insurer Prudential (PRU) has announced it will buy back $1.2 billion worth of shares over the course of 2026. The buyback comprises $500 million of recurring capital returns and $700 million from the successful IPO of ICICI Prudential Asset Management (IPAMC). Price: £12.00 +1.7%P/E: 12.5xMarket Cap: £30.3bnYield: 1.5% Our View Prudential, or ‘The Pru’ as it used to be known, is a very different beast these days with no UK operations but a huge presence in Greater China, the ASEAN trading area, Africa and India. The buyback is the second part of a total planned capital return…

Casino and bingo hall operator Rank Group (RNK) announced chief executive John O’Reilly will step down at the end of this month and will be replaced by chief finance officer Richard Harris. Harris has been a board member since joining in May 2022 and is well versed in the business so it should be a smooth transition. Price: 97.8pP/E: 10.1xMarket Cap: £444mYield: 2.7% Given Rank’s recent problems with an undiscovered fraud at its Spanish business it was inevitable someone’s head would roll in the New Year. The fact change has happened so quickly is reassuring, although we would point out…

Shares in travel firm Saga (SAGA) hit a new high after holding company Kelso (KLSO) revealed it had bought a stake. Kelso said it acquired the stake at the start of January 2026. Price: 398p +3.8%P/E: 13.4xMarket Cap: £570mYield: n/a Kelso’s stake is just 400,000 shares out of Saga’s issued capital of 144 million shares, so it’s not material. However, Kelso is clearly bullish on the prospects for the over-50s travel firm. Based on Kelso’s internal analysis, Saga trades on an EV/EBITDA multiple to January 2026 of around 7.5 times. The calculation is based on Saga’s last reported interim net…

The FTSE 100 index of large-cap stocks advanced towards a new record led by defence and mining stocks. The index has been flirting with the 10,000 level this month despite rising geopolitical tensions. While defence and mining stocks led the rally, ‘defensive’ sectors such as telecoms, tobacco and utilities were the main losers. That suggests investors are still keen to take on risk even with the market approaching a new record high. Counter-intuitively, oil prices fell despite potentially higher volatility in crude prices following the US kidnapping of Venezuela’s leader over the weekend. Brent crude traded 28c or roughly 0.5%…

International construction and infrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BBY) has cashed in a small chunk of its investment portfolio netting it a £7 million gain. Private equity firm Equitix has paid £87 million for a collection of offshore transmission assets, street lighting projects, a road concession and a biomass plant. Price: 715.5p +0.2%P/E: 20.4xMarket Cap: £3.5bnYield: 1.8% As well as its bread-and-butter infrastructure business, Balfour Beatty owns a speculative portfolio of investments which it can tap into now and then. The sale of a bunch of projects at a small profit won’t move the needle much given the size of the…

AIM-listed event ticketing and ecommerce software provider Accesso Technology (ACSO) has confirmed full-year 2025 profit expectations. The firm also revealed a major customer has decided to remain on board this year ‘on revised commercial terms’ rather than ending its contact. There will be a further update at the end of January including a more detailed outlook for 2026. Price: 289p -11%P/E: 15.4xMarket Cap: £108mYield: n/a Clearly retaining a big client is a positive for Accesso, but it sounds like the deal for this year is on less favourable terms. Indeed, the firm talks about a negative net revenue impact in…