Every month, we ask our freelance writers to share their top ideas for shares to buy with investors — here’s what they said for November!
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Land Securities Group
What it does: Land Securities investment trust is the largest commercial property development company in the UK.
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By Jon Smith. Land Securities Group (LSE:LAND) has been remarkably resilient over the past year despite the problems in the broader property market. The share price is flat over the period, but offers an attractive 6.92% dividend yield.
The company is British through-and-through, owning sites such as the Piccadilly Lights in central London. The portfolio around the UK is fairly diversified, with the focus on commercial property helping to protect it from the issues in the residential market.
A risk remains high interest rates (increasing borrowing costs) going forward. Yet I believe that this British share offers an attractive income option for investors to consider buying. It also allows the opportunity to get exposure to the property sector during this trough. If we do get a recovery in coming years as the economy gets going, the share price could offer strong gains as well.
Jon Smith does not own shares in Land Securities Group.
Legal & General
What it does: Legal & General is a UK-based financial services provider offering life insurance, pensions, investment management and other services.
By Christopher Ruane. The name Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) needs little introduction to many people. Although the company has reshaped itself over the past decade to have a bigger focus on pensions, the brand has been well known for many decades already.
I think the economics of the business look solid. It operates in a market likely to see long-term demand. Last year, it made a £2.3bn post-tax profit on revenues of £13.7bn.
Despite its attractive financial performance, Legal & General trades on a price-to-earnings ratio of just five. It also offers a dividend yield of over 9%.
For a FTSE 100 company, that looks like great value to me.
Does that mean that the business is less attractive than I think? There are risks: rocky markets could hurt client demand, for example, reducing profits.
But with its strong brand awareness, large customer base and proven business model, Legal & General looks like a bargain stock to me.
Christopher Ruane owns shares in Legal & General.
Schroders
What it does: Schroders is an active investment manager that manages around £725bn of funds on behalf of private and institutional investors.
By Harvey Jones. September and October were volatile for markets but I’m an optimist and would rather pick stocks to take advantage of the next rally (whenever it arrives) rather than seek refuge in more defensive areas of the market.
As an investment manager, Schroders (LSE:SDR) acts as a geared play on the stock market. I would expect its shares to fall further when markets decline, and rise faster when they climb.
It has achieved the first of these two things. Over the last six months, the Schroders share price is down 24.39%, against a drop of just 6.07% on the FTSE 100. Over one year, Schroders is down 8.85% with the index up 3.97%.
Recent stock market falls have further eroded assets under management, which dropped £1.8bn in the last quarter to £724.3bn. There could be more to come, with markets under the cosh as inflation proves sticky and Israel fights Hamas.
Yet there is a growing sense that we have hit peak interest rates. The next question is when they start falling.
If I wait to buy Schroders until we know the answer, it will be too late. The early gains will already have been made.
I’d rather take a chance and buy at today’s low valuation of 11.9 times earnings, and pocket its juicy 5.86% yield. While I expect further market turbulence, I also hope to look back in a few years and think I picked a good time to buy Schroders while its shares were cheap and the yield high.
Harvey Jones does not own shares in Schroders.
