Month in Review: August 2018

After an influx of broker and tipster research in July, both broker and tipster activity decreased over the holiday period. That being said, Stockomendation still tracked over 1,200 tips in August, contributed by 19 brokers and 36 professional tipsters. Tip activity in August represented an increase of 57% on the number of tips tracked during the same period last year.

Professional tipsters were more positive about the prospects of London-listed firms in August than at any point over the summer, while brokers were considerably less bullish when compared to recent months. Both brokers and tipsters, however, remain relatively optimistic compared to the historical average. The proportion of ‘buy’ ratings from brokers decreased to 66.5% from 71.8% in July, while ‘sell’ ratings increased from 4.3% to 6.7%. In contrast, the number of buy ratings from tipsters increased from 62.4% to 64.4% in July while “sell” ratings accounted for 23.16% of all tips – down from 25.4% in July and 29.2% in June.

For brokers, the best performance came in the Electrical & Electronic Equipment sector; average tip performance of +7.5% was mainly due to tips on TT Electronics (TTG), which has received consistently positive research notes since the beginning of the year. Tipsters also performed well in the sector this month, due in part to ShareProphets tipster Steve Moore’s tips to avoid both Sabien Technology Group (SNT) and Fireangel Safety Technology Group (FA.). Brokers also performed well in Fossil Fuels Production (+4.5%) and Pharma & Biotech (+4.2%), but performed poorly in Commercial Transport (-4.3%). Tipsters excelled in Fossil Fuels Production (+10.3%) and Real Estate (+5.1%), with the former influenced by a number of ‘Buy’ tips towards Wood Group (WG.), but underperformed in the Media sector (-7.6%).

Amongst the top performing tips of the month were broker Peel Hunt’s tip to buy Abzena, which was placed on 1st August and has so far recorded a performance of +106.1%. Tipster Alan Oscroft’s buy rating on Esure Group (ESUR), which was also placed on 1st August, has achieved +35.80% so far.

Finally, the most-frequently tipped companies differed between tipsters and brokers in August. Kaz Minerals (KAZ) and Domino’s Pizza Group (DOM) attracted the highest number of broker ratings (10 and 8, respectively), while Tipsters instead focussed the most attention on Tern (TERN) and Ariana Resources (AAU) (7 and 6 tips, respectively).

Support firms attracted the most Broker attention in August

...whereas Tipsters continued their focus on the Mining sector

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Disclaimer: The contents of this article should not be considered financial advice. Data accurate as at 31st August 2018..