I think now’s a great time to go shopping for cheap FTSE 250 shares. The UK-focused index has fallen 5% since the turn of the year. Even high-quality stocks have sold off heavily as fears over weak growth and persistent inflation have battered investor confidence. To me, this represents a brilliant buying opportunity. Here are two beaten-down beauties on my radar right now. I think they could rebound strongly from current price levels. Safestore Holdings Property company Safestore Holdings (LSE:SAFE) has a bright future as demand for self-storage cubicles booms. Studies suggest this market w ..read more

I’m looking to add to the investments in my Stocks and Shares ISA in December. And there are a couple of UK stocks on my radar. Right now, the best opportunities I can find are in the real estate sector. Despite a recent upturn in share prices, I still think there are bargains on offer. Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. REITs Real estate investment trusts ..read more

Every month, we ask our freelance writers to share their top ideas for dividend stocks to buy with you — here’s what they said for December! [Just beginning your investing journey? Check out our guide on how to start investing in the UK.] Aviva What it does: Aviva is a FTSE 100-listed British multinational insurance and pensions provider By John Fieldsend. Aviva (LSE: AV.) continues to look like one of the FTSE 100’s best dividend stocks.  As I write, the dividend yield stands at 7.43% which is a tidy amount all on its own. That yield is higher than the historical total r ..read more

This has not been a sparkling year for the Barclays (LSE: BARC) share price, delivering another year of negative returns for long-suffering shareholders. The Blue Eagle bank has hit some bumps along the way, including a sharp slowdown in deals at its US investment bank. Meanwhile, UK lending growth has slowed and bad debts are rising. In short, this is not an ideal time to be a big British bank. The Barclays share price takes a beating At its 52-week high, the bank’s shares peaked at 198.86p on 8 March. However, this top didn’t last, with the shares crashing within days due to an American ban ..read more

There are many ways to try to build a passive income to help fund our retirement years. A lot of them seem a bit hit-and-miss to me, though. Or require a lot of hard work to set up in the first place. My top choice is to buy UK shares in a Stocks and Shares ISA, and leave them there for as long as I can. The UK stock market has, over the past century and more, beaten other forms of investment hands down. Longer = better Nothing is guaranted, mind, not like a Cash ISA. But the longer I invest, the lower the risk with shares, and the greater the returns I hope to get. And, it really doesn’t tak ..read more

I look at Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE: RR.) shares this year, and I wonder what the next few years might hold. The price has climbed strongly since the 2020 stock market crash. What next? But how much further might Rolls-Royce go? We all wonder ‘what if’, don’t we? It can, at least, help us quantify our thinking. And that can be valuable. So, I look at the factors I feel might boost my returns. And I think there are, essentially, three. All gains will come from a combination of share price rises and dividends, so maybe that’s only two? Well, I see two key drivers of share prices. One is the ac ..read more

Investor sentiment has taken a beating in the last few years. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. With that, I’m on the hunt for value shares. While many shares have seen their prices pulled back significantly, I see this as an opportunity. Valuations have sunk to levels that investors haven’t seen for some time. Here are two value stocks I’d buy today. Banking giant Let’s start with Barclays (LSE: BARC). It’s been a volatile 12 months for the stock. A year ago, a share would have cost me 158p. In early February, I would have had to fork out nearly 190p! However, today I can gra ..read more

Premium content from Motley Fool Hidden Winners UK In this service, we highlight what we believe to be the very best small-cap businesses listed on the UK market. Typically these will be companies valued at between £200m and £500m, and many of them could be listed on AIM, the so-called junior market run by the London Stock Exchange. “We think the company is trading at an attractive valuation for investors who are willing to stomach potentially volatile short-term performance.” Ian Pierce, Hidden Winners November’s recommendation: Redacted Want The Full Recommendation? Enter Your Email Ad ..read more

The death of Charlie Munger this week has seen the world lose a true investing icon. Having been vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway since the late 1970s, he worked tirelessly two men worked tirelessly with Warren Buffett to turn the investment firm into the $780bn colossus that it is today. Senior market analyst Lukman Otunuga of FXTM has described Munger as “a titan in the world of investing“. And he has laid out five core principles of Munger’s that could help investors of all levels build a winning investment strategy. They are: 1. Understand the company Otunuga says that Buffett’s right ..read more

For something associated with an air cushion, the Dr. Martens (LSE: DOCS) share price has had a very hard landing today (30 November). In early trading, the shares plummeted 25%. What caused this – and ought I to be scooping the shoe shares up for my portfolio? Disappointing first-half results The main reason the share price crashed today was the release of the company’s interim results. Revenue was 5% lower than the same period last year, while basic earnings per share more than halved. The interim dividend was held at the same level as last year. At face value, a 5% decline in revenue s ..read more