Looking at our portfolio we are pleased that most of our shares are doing well in the current stormy times. Let's look at some of them.
ABF: ABF is a diversified group of businesses which enjoy a high degree of autonomy in the running of their operations. They are grouped into five business segments: Sugar; Agriculture; Retail; Grocery; and Ingredients.
We don't have a large investment in this company but our share price is up over 40% over the years we've held it. Their portfolio includes Primark, Twinings, Allied bakeries, Ryvita, Jordans and Ovaltine to name a few.
The share price is standing at 1920p and barclays have advised they think the share may reach 2400p. The year high is 2730: so this share has room to move.
Primark has at last joined in the on-line shopping league and continues to do well.
Croda: We cannot emphasize enough how great this share has performed for us. It is a British speciality chemicals company we have owned for years. It hit a low point back in March (we blame Covid!) since when it has recovered by 47.50%. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we should have bought more back then. Croda is mentioned in many of our blogs, so we hope many of you took advantage of the dip and bought into it.
Genus: A great little share which we bought into years ago at a price of 1755p our profit on this purchase is sitting at 124%. We purchased more at 3505p and the share price is currently sitting at 3946p. The price rise is mainly due to a surge in revenue as China orders "pigs" to replace their stocks which suffered in the Swine flu epidemic.
Hotel Chocolat: We sold a small amount of these shares a few months ago over fears the company was exposed to the amount of retail space they held in the UK. Perhaps we were over cautious (never a bad thing in the stock market) as the share has held up well. Their on-line business is flourishing. They have introduced an "Espresso Martini" and a "Salted Caramel with Vodka" - which both sound delicious! We considered buying more shares, anticipating a surge of sales over the Christmas buying period, but have held fire and will discuss next month.
Ocado: We gave ourselves a pat on the back for investing in this company at the beginning of the Covid outbreak. Our first purchase was at 1983p our second at 1998p: the share is now sitting at 2817p. Customers appear to be happy to switch from Waitrose to M & S and their revenue in the 13 weeks up to August 30th grew by 52%. Ocado are going to add 700 M & S home products to their listing.
Tristel: This AIM-listed group stated it intends to maintain its current dividend policy of paying out half of adjusted earnings per share to investors.
We are showing a small loss on this share, price is 430p today The year high was 534p and low was 280p, so it is quite volatile. We purchased at 469p.
It is a solid company, profits are increasing year on year and infection control is a good sector to be in. We are holding for now.
We decided to sit tight this month and did not purchase or sell any shares.
Our on-line zoom meetings are working well, with a few of the ladies meeting up for dinner and joining in as a group: within Covid guidelines of course. They looked like they were having fun which is what club membership is all about! Let's hope we can return to those days sometime soon.
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The China Dolls is a group of private individuals who meet regularly to discuss investment strategy and make investments based on the collective opinion of the the group.
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