These are the three UK shares I’m most likely to buy when I next add a share to my portfolio. One is for income, the second a recovery share and the other is more for capital growth.
A UK share for income
Primary Health Properties (LSE: PHP) has a dividend yield of just under 4%, which is pretty good in my book. The £2bn FTSE 250-listed REIT should be a growing source of income, given that REITs have to pay so much of their income out to shareholders as dividends.
What I like about it is there’ll always be a need for healthcare in the UK, and sector professionals can’t just operate from any building.
What’s potentially concerning is that more and more primary care might move online, reducing the need for large GP surgeries. As with all REITs as well, Primary Health Properties has to pay out nearly all profits to shareholders, meaning it doesn’t have the same ability to build up reserves like an investment trust can.
But as a specialist in providing healthcare facilities, its management has solid experience, contacts and specialisation in the sector. It also has government clients that will pay rents whatever the economic conditions.
A reopening share
The recruiter Hays (LSE: HAS) is a value recovery play. The shares are still down 8% from the price at the start of 2020.
That’s despite the shares doing well since the end of last year, when the vaccine breakthroughs boosted value shares and those hit hardest by the pandemic. Hays was certainly in that category.
Despite the last six or seven months of the share price recovering, I think there’s still further to go. That’s why I’m tempted to add it to my portfolio.
City analysts think annual earnings here will rebound 133% in the financial year to June 2022. This shows the future certainly looks far brighter than the past.
The big risk for any recovery share – and Hays would not be an exception – is that any delay to the UK reopening and indeed the full reopening of economies in other territories where it operates would likely hit the share price hard.
Going for growth
Venture Life (LSE: VLG), is an international consumer self-care company and has brands such as UltraDEX, Rosa calma and Dentyl. It’s a transformation story and the turnaround means I think there could be share price growth for years to come.
Why is that? It’s because the transformation at Venture Life is going well. Final results from March – in a difficult year for companies – showed that revenues and gross profits increased by 49% and 61% respectively. The amount of cash the company holds nearly quadrupled.
Venture Life is launching new products, entering new markets and improving the brands it acquires. All this I think sets it up very well for the future.
What I’d want to keep an eye on is director selling. There has been some significant director selling in the last 12 months, which is a slight concern. It’s also acquisitive, buying up brands. This adds risk that acquired assets might underperform against expectations and also could in theory mean shareholders in future might be asked to cough up more money.
Overall though, I like Venture Life as a growth share, which could boost returns within my portfolio.
