My top 5 shares by weighting

6th May '23 by Mark Carter

14 comments 2148 reads

I thought it would be interesting to share my top 5 shares by portfolio weighting, not conviction, from biggest holding to smallest:

3i (LON:III)
BAE Systems (LON:BA.)
Diploma (LON:DPLM)
Cranswick (LON:CWK)
Bloomsbury Publishing (LON:BMY)

They're the biggest for a variety of reasons. 3i because I tried to trim the number of shares in my portfolio, so I invested a larger amount. Bought Oct 2022 1139p. Now 1772p. I got lucky in the timing of this. This is a point to bear in mind. Sometimes the shares just went up a lot, which puts them in amongst the highest holdings.

BA. systems I bought in Nov 2012 at 575p. It was a Stockopedia high rank that made me select them. Then Ukraine happened, and the price is now 990p. I had a look at BA.'s performance over 20 years. It returned about 10.7% annually, compared to the ASX (FT All-Share of 4.0%). If you throw in a dividend of around 3%, you would have been getting around a 14-15% return over 20 years. Amazing for such a high-profile business that is on everybody's radar, if you'll forgive the pun. The shares have come off the boil lately, presumably for some profit-taking. In April prelims they said that they has a record order intake. I think that countries will be reviewing their defence spending in light of the Ukraine conflict, so I think the shares have further to go. Stockopedia has its PE on 16.2, which I regard as by no means as overrated. I'm tempted to think that this is a good buy-and-hold share.

DPLM is a good quality share that I bought back in Dec 2015 at 717p. Perhaps its quality isn't as good as when purchased, but I continue to hold. Price today is 2698, so obviously this has been a good winner for me.

CWK I bought in Sep 2022 and Dec 2022. Shares are up 6%, so I've nothing to add here.

BMY I bought in Jan 2022 based on Stockopedia stock ranks. I've no particular conviction in it. Its ROCE is not high, so I'm not ultra keen on it. It's been increasing its divvies by 10% annually over the last 5 years, which is nice. The stock rank is declining, so I had half been thinking of selling it. There seems to be some buzz…

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doug2500

6th May '23

Fundsmith, Cash, Advanced Medical Solutions (LON:AMS) Diploma (LON:DPLM) Bioventix (LON:BVXP) since you asked so nicely.

If you discount the first two, add Somero Enterprises (LON:SOM) and Tracsis (LON:TRCS)

IG group (LON:IGG) is my no.9 (or 7)

My holding time is forever hopefully, which I can be guilty of taking too far and being too slow to sell sometimes when it's called for.

For example I've held DPLM since 2011 and TRCS since 2012.

Long term compounding is the name of my game, I used to snatch a profit but gave up a few good stocks that way e.g Croda International (LON:CRDA) I'm maybe overcompensating for those mistakes by holding too long now but I'm a work in progress.

And if I could only have one...maybe Halma (LON:HLMA) or Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX) but I own neither as they're always too expensive.

Mark Carter

Thanks for the response!

Ah yes, HLMA, it crossed my radar in the late 90's. I was reading Ben Graham's Intelligent Investor. I'm pretty sure I got access to access a set of their accounts and figured it was a good company. That, along with Greggs (LON:GRG. I never invested. GRG is up about 10-fold in last 20 years. HLMA is up 17 times (approx).

Around 5 years ago I became interested in electronics. I like RS Components as a supplier, and thought they were pretty good. It used to trade under ticker ECM, but now has ticker RS1. I should have bought the shares! Shares are up 38% over that period, handily beating the market. Dividends have increased nearly 8% annually over that period, and has high returns on capital. Another one of my "d'oh" moments.

Stockopedia cancelled its Fantasy Funds some time ago. I did quite well using a Greenblatt-esque screen. I rate it as a "resounding success". Stockopedia seems to be mooting the idea of reintroducing public funds, although I think that's been on the back burner for awhile now, so I won't be holding my breathe. If they do reintroduce it, though, I was thinking about making a quality portfolio.

Thanks. Your thoughts are appreciated. I'll look into them.

Brilliant Leader

7th May '23

Seeing as you asked…

Games Workshop (LON:GAW) held since 2017 with a brief in/out during Covid

ME International (LON:MEGP) held since early 2022

Moneysupermarket.Com (LON:MONY) held since autumn 2022

Impax Asset Management (LON:IPX) held since 2017

Warpaint London (LON:W7L) held since autumn 2022

If I could only own one share, I would go for a collective and Jpmorgan Global Growth & Income (LON:JGGI) would be my “forever” pick.

Cheers
Simon

I concur with JGGI (and it's a mainstay in my family's pf's which I tend to fill with IT's) as a one stop shop. It makes more sense than an individual stock although this is just for fun obviously.

Impax is my most recent addition having been one that got away for years.

Just a follow-up to thank everyone for their responses so far. There's some nice quality companies there. I'm glad that people aren't just selecting speculative moonshot companies.

I've had a quick look at the recs. Jpmorgan Global Growth & Income (LON:JGGI) really surprised me as to how good it has performed. It's returned nearly 10% annually over the last 20 years in capital performance. With a dividend yield of nearly 4%, that's like a 14% return. Who'd have thought?

doctor dave

Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW)

European Smaller Companies Trust (LON:ESCT)

Bank of Georgia (LON:BGEO)

Aviva (LON:AV.)

M&G (LON:MNG)

European Smaller Companies Trust (LON:ESCT) I’ve held since 1990 when it was called TR European Special Situations IT.

Albertos

8th May '23

Currently holding a shedload of cash and the rest of my portfolio is currently a lot more cautious than normal.

FWIW Top five:-

Qinetiq (LON:QQ.)

H & T (LON:HAT)

Macfarlane (LON:MACF)

Georgia Capital (LON:CGEO)

KevinS1

11th May '23

Roughly, as I am holding these across multiple SIPP's & ISA's, so could be a few errors;

Serica Energy (LON:SQZ) held since late-2020 but added to and sold some at various stages as the price has moved

ME International (LON:MEGP) held since July 2022

Legal & General (LON:LGEN) held since August 2021

Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) Held since July 2022

L&G Global 100 - held since Aug 2022 - but Blackrock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) often vies for 5th place dependent on day-to-day movements

I am slowly adding more to collective investments (UT, IT & ETF's) so I anticipate over the next few months that things may change.

rmillaree

Good thread

My current list in no particualr order

Norcros (LON:NXR) , Redde Northgate (LON:REDD) , Sanderson Design (LON:SDG) - and in us dropbox $DBX and Corsair Gaming $CRSR

Saxonboy57

1st Aug '23

Thanks for an interesting article. If I can hold one share it would be Investec

Rusty2

I used to hold Investec (LON:INVP) but sold after the large director sales this year, it also has exposure to South Africa.

I di hold several of these stocks, Bloomsbury Publishing (LON:BMY) would be my top choice out of tge ones listed. IG group (LON:IGG) I'm looking to sell, if they go up over 800p. 3i (LON:III) is a recent investment, think I was a bit late on that but we will see.

My top 5 shares by weighting

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Mark Carter

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