It has been a very interesting month, which has seen the tragedy of the Japanese Earthquake, the conflict in Libya and continued unrest in other Middle Eastern nations.  These factors have been the main things driving the markets this month. 

But there has also been a lot of company news released this month, with a brace of interims and finals being released along with other news. 

To start though I will quickly go over why I have added four new entries to Grays Stocks to Watch:

 

  • Morrisons (LON:MRW) – Added thanks to the fact that the new CEO has proven via his strategy that he is interested in making money for shareholders, as he has announced a £1bn share buyback plan, as well as announcing plans to increase the dividend by at least £100m over the next two years, giving them a prospective dividend rate of 4.2%.  Taking this into account, with the strength of their balance sheet, their relatively low P/E ratio of 11, and a current dividend rate of 3.6%, making them the lowest rated of the grocers.  Considering the potential they have for online growth (their recent purchase Kiddicare shows that they will be conservative in their attempts, rather than gung ho like many feared when the Ocado purchase rumours began to surface), they deserve a place in the defensive section of Grays Stocks to Watch.
  • Stanley Gibbons (LON:SGI) – Added to the value section of Grays Stocks to Watch thanks to their strong balance sheet, and the fact that they are on such a low rating, with a P/E ratio of under 10 when added.  Which, considering the consistency of their profit growth over the last five years, the potential for growth from Asia and their consistent dividend payments (Current yield 3.6%) seems quite low.
  • Falkland Oil & Gas (LON:FOGL) and Borders & Southern (LON:BOR) – Added to the ultimate gamble section of Grays Stocks to Watch due to the fact that their share prices have suffered so much over the last few months, that the risk reward from the success of a well from just one of them makes them a worthy gamble (Goldman analysts put the success…

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