I’m on the hunt for the best cheap UK shares to buy for my Stocks and Shares ISA. Here are two top British stocks — including one from the FTSE 100 — that I have my eye on today.
A cheap UK share on my radar
I bought drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC for my ISA last year. And I’m considering buying Britvic (LSE: BVIC) for my investment portfolio too. Like my FTSE 100 stock, UK beverages share Britvic also makes huge profits on the back of the monster brands it supplies (in this case products such as Pepsi Max, J2O and Robinsons juices). Popular labels like these help deliver strong and sustained long-term earnings growth. And I think they make these stocks top buys despite the rise of significant threats in the immediate future.
Rising Covid-19 cases that raise the prospect of new lockdowns pose a threat to the beverages industry. The likes of Britvic also face soaring can production costs as aluminium prices go through the roof. Prices of the metal just hit 10-year peaks as unrest in Guinea exacerbated existing trader concerns over metal supplies.
That being said, I think these risks are baked into this cheap UK share’s valuation. City brokers think Britvic’s annual earnings will soar 24% in the upcoming financial year (to September 2022). Thus the company trades on a forward price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio of 0.7. A reading below 1 suggests a stock could be undervalued by the market.
A FTSE 100 bargain
I’m also thinking of popping ad agency WPP (LSE: WPP) into my ISA alongside FTSE 100 counterpart Coca-Cola HBC. Marketing spend across the globe is recovering nicely as the economic recovery continues. And expenditure is particularly strong in the digital advertising arena, an area in which cheap UK share WPP is becoming increasingly focused.
According to Statista, total worldwide spending on digital advertising will rise above $455bn in 2021, up from around $378bn last year. And they think it will rise between 10% and 15% each year over the following three years to top $646bn in 2024.
Of course WPP could take a hit if rising Covid-19 infections impact the economic rebound. But at the moment things are looking very upbeat for the FTSE 100 share and earlier this month it upgraded its profits forecasts on recent strong trading.
City analysts think WPP will flip from losses of 243.2p per share in 2020 to record earnings of 73.5p this year. This leaves the agency trading on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 13 times. It’s a reading I don’t think reflects the possibility of more near-term upgrades. And it’s also one I don’t think fully appreciates the progress WPP is making in expanding its significant global presence and exposure to digital marketing and e-commerce. Last month the firm snapped up AI technology business Satalia to boost its capabilities even further.
