I first started publishing and updating a list of the top 40 UK dividend stocks in 2022 and, so far, I think it's done what I intended: to provide investors with a simple and free starting point for identifying potential investment candidates. However, the list has received fairly regular criticism that it puts too much weight on high dividend yields, and that's a criticism I readily accept. The list ranks stocks based on their market cap and dividend yield alone, but in practice, I certainly don't invest in stocks just because they have a high yield; they're usually the first stocks to cut or ..read more

Results season is over and for that I am thankful. This year has been particularly busy, with 22 of the portfolio’s 25 holdings announcing interim or annual results in the first quarter. And, while I do enjoy reviewing annual results, you can definitely have too much of a good thing. But enough of my whining; how did the 2024 results season go for the UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio and the wider UK stock market? Let’s start with the overall market. Overall, UK dividend stocks had a generally good results season According to SharePad, there are 183 dividend-paying companies in the FTSE All-Share ..read more

First, an apology. I haven't written anything for a few weeks, partly because I've been busy reviewing company results during results season, but also because Mrs K has been in and out of hospital. Having other things on my mind seems to have a very detrimental impact on my ability to get my usual long-form posts "out the door", so I'm going to try writing shorter updates more frequently, which should be easier for me to write and easier for you to read. And speaking of (relatively) shorter updates, I recently had something of a lightbulb moment in terms of how I diversify my portfolio of ..read more

After a 13-year experiment with near-zero interest rates, this key driver of UK house prices has, at long last, returned to historically normal levels. This is a seismic shift for the UK housing market and it could be the pin that finally pops the UK’s 20-year property bubble. "A 20-year bubble? Impossible!", I hear you cry. But it's true and, in fact, the seeds of this bubble were sown in the 1980s. The seeds of this housing bubble were sown in the 1980s Although the current UK housing bubble began in 2003, the chain of events that led to this bubble began with the peak of the previous bubble ..read more

The last few years haven't been kind to the UK stock market and the FTSE 250, much like the FTSE 100, has fallen out of favour with all but the hardiest and most dedicated (or stubborn) UK investors. Perhaps now is indeed the time to throw in the towel, sell everything UK-related and move the proceeds into everybody’s favourite index, the S&P 500. On the other hand, two of the best-known investing maxims are to be greedy when others are fearful and to buy when there’s blood in the streets. If those statements are correct, and I think they are, then the deeply negative sentiment that surrou ..read more

The FTSE 100 is the index that everyone loves to hate. It’s full of dinosaur companies from legacy industries like banking, utilities and commodities, and no self-respecting investor would touch it with a barge pole when they can funnel their cash into the much more glamorous and better-performing S&P 500 instead. At least, that’s the mainstream narrative. But there are a few hardy souls who still want to invest in UK stocks and FTSE 100 stocks in particular, and for those investors, monitoring the FTSE 100’s current valuation and forecasting its expected future price can be extremely ..read more

This is hardly breaking news, but as we head into 2024, the UK stock market remains one of the most attractive markets for dividend investors on the planet. For example, the 40 UK stocks with the best combination of forecast dividend yield and market cap (listed below) have an average forecast dividend yield of 6.1% and the average yield across the top ten stocks is 8.0%. Three of the top 40 stocks have dividend yields above 10% and if that seems a little too risky for your tastes, you’ll be glad to know that 26 of those 40 stocks have a more conservative but still very attractive yield of mor ..read more

With Christmas and New Year in the rear-view mirror, it’s time for investors up and down the land to review their portfolios. As for this particular year-end review, it will be my twelfth annual review of the UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio, so it’s starting to build up a meaningful track record. As the name suggests, this is a portfolio of UK dividend stocks, so it's benchmarked against the FTSE All-Share and it has the following goals: To have a higher dividend yield than the FTSE All-Share To generate higher total returns than the All-Share over ten years or more Note: In the 2023 mid-year p ..read more

Lloyds Banking Group has more UK current account customers than any other bank and it provides more UK mortgages than any other lender, so when it comes to UK-focused banks, Lloyds is the 800lb gorilla. It’s also one of the most popular shares with dividend investors, with more than two million shareholders. Lloyds is also very old, having been established in 1765 when a Quaker by the name of Sampson Lloyd co-founded a small lending business in Birmingham. Many dividend investors are looking to invest in large, long-established market leaders, and Lloyds certainly fits that bill. But there are ..read more

As one of the UK’s leading banks, HSBC needs little in the way of an introduction. All I’ll say in these opening remarks is that HSBC is the third largest company in FTSE 100 and it’s the largest bank in the FTSE 100 by a considerable margin. It’s also a favourite with income funds and dividend investors and, with its share price at £6.15, it has an attractive dividend yield of 4.2%. That combination of size and yield puts HSBC in 22nd place on my list of top UK dividend stocks, so I think it's worth looking at this bank in a bit more detail. Table of contents HSBC’s share price is low relati ..read more