Considering how variable UK retail sales and consumer confidence surveys have been since the start of this year, few people would have put money on store card and retail lender Secure Trust Bank (STB) being one of the best-performing stocks in the market. Shares in the Solihull-based firm have trounced the FTSE All Share with a 236% advance to a two-year high of £12 as of the time of writing....

Secure Trust Bank (STB) 718PGain to date: 8.5%We suggested buying specialist lender Secure Trust Bank (STB) last summer when the shares were 662p following the positive market response to its first-half trading update.Prior to that the shares were languishing at even lower levels than during the pandemic, as the market wrongly assumed it would struggle to grow its consumer loan business due to...

Having hammered the insurance industry for its practice of ?walking up? renewal prices for existing car and home policyholders, the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) has a new target in its sights ? the motor finance market.Firms which generate revenue from providing motor finance include Close Brothers (CBG), Inchcape (INCH), S&U (SUS) and Secure Trust Bank (STB).In 2021, the regulator banned...

Investors who are risk-averse and prefer to avoid small-cap stocks may want to stop reading here, but for those with a nose for value and an appetite for contrarianism we think there is a lot to like about specialist lender Secure Trust Bank (STB).To say the stock is unloved is an understatement, as one look at the share price performance over the last five years demonstrates.Secure Trust Bank...

UK stocks trod water at the opening following gains overnight in Asia and in Friday's trading in New York.After finishing up more than 100 points or 1.4% on Friday, the FTSE 100 index of leading stocks slipped 0.1% to 7,230.The week ahead sees the UK hold its third election in four years as well as interest rate decisions from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Federal Reserve...

Picking the best funds for your portfolio can be complicated given the vast amounts of data and opinion in the market. Private investors often find it difficult to discern which funds are most suitable for portfolio inclusion, or which stock pickers are the real deal.There are best buy lists out there, but their reputations have been slightly tainted by the Neil Woodford debacle, with...

We aren't fans of the mainstream high street banks or many of the so-called challenger banks - Metro Bank (MTRO) being a prime example - but one stock which catches our eye due to its high profitability and low valuation is Secure Trust Bank (STB).Founded in the West Midlands in 1952, it has 1.4m customers and as of the end of June it had deposits of £2bn and loans of £2.28bn.It lends to...

Zero dividend preference shares (ZDPs) are a niche yet overlooked form of investment that can offer fixed and relatively low risk returns.ZDPs are issued by split capital investment trusts, which are similar to other investment companies in that they own and manage a portfolio of investments. The difference is they have more than one type of share - in addition to ZDPs, they offer income...

Surging consumer lending has already caught the attention of the UK's central bank. Now a stock-market listed lender which stopped lending ahead of the 2008 financial crisis is also warning the borrowing boom is a worry.Net consumer lending, which excludes mortgage loans, increased 10.8% in November 2016, according to Bank of England data.Loans outstanding on products like credit cards and...

Consumer lender Provident Financial (PFG) dips 0.4% to £28.55 as slowing growth in its auto lending business weighs on investor sentiment.Moneybarn, Provident's motor finance business, grew lending 35% in the year to 31 December, down from 43.7% in the first half. Provident chief executive Peter Crook flagged weaker demand for loans in the second-hand car market in the final three months of...

In early dealings on Tuesday, the FTSE 100 drifts 25.36 points lower to 6,670 and the FTSE 250 is off 58.5 points at 16,809, London's indices tracking some mixed perfomances overnight from global markets as well as weaker oil prices.Leading mining stocks are among the notable fallers, with Rio Tinto (RIO) down 2.2% to £24.07 as second quarter production figures confirm a surge in iron ore...

Georgian lender TBC Bank's (TBCB) plans to upgrade its London's Main Market listing will provide another option for investors looking to gain exposure to a dividend-paying bank.Despite the lender's strengths, we believe there are just as appealing UK banks for investors to research, while buying market leader BGEO (BGEO), formerly Bank of Georgia, could provide a better route into the former...

Firmer metal prices help miners to early gains in London as the FTSE 100 treads water ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen this evening.A second reading of US first quarter GDP at 12.30 BST could provide some clues on Yellen's outlook for interest rates in an address which is scheduled after markets close in the US.Overnight, stocks gained in Tokyo and Hong Kong but fell...

London stocks open on a mildly softer footing in early trade on Thursday with another mining rally failing to lift the UK market as investors continue to assess the impact of the UK Budget yesterday. A dovish US Federal Reserve maintained interest rates overnight.The FTSE 100 index drifts around 4 points lower, staying roughly flat at 6,171, while micaps and smaller companies also struggle to...

Investment bankers and footballers have a lot in common. They receive too much of their employers' revenues in salary and bonuses, instead of the funds being redeployed in the company or football club to drive growth.Such continued re-investment is needed to create long-term value for shareholders, a strategy that is evident at Lloyds Banking (LLOY), Aldermore (ADL), OneSavings Bank (OSB),...

The start of 2016 has seen one the biggest sell-offs to confront investors since markets hit rock bottom in the wake of the global financial crisis in March 2009. Though the direction of travel has been north in the last seven years there have been some big lurches south through that period. We take a look at six major corrections to see if there is anything you can learn to prepare for the...

The £115 million proceeds from the sale of retail lender Secure Trust Bank's (STB:AIM) Everyday Loans business could be used to super-charge its growth potential in 2016.Secure Trust's pre-tax profit is already forecast to rise 52% to £56.8 million in 2016, according to Canaccord Genuity. The leap in profit is the result of an expected £600 million rise in business lending during the year...

Investors have welcomed Secure Trust Bank's (STB:AIM) new strategy that will improve the quality of the assets sitting on its balance sheet, but could see margins squeezed.Shares shot up 9.2% to £33.18 in early trading as management announced they were selling the bank's unsecured consumer-lending arm Everyday Loans. Secure Trust will receive £107 million cash for the business if the deal...

Investors flock to Berkeley (BKG) as it reveals plans to pay even greater dividends to shareholders than previously targeted, sending the share price up 7% to £35.88. The housebuilder says it will pay £16.34 per share by 2021, up from the £13.00 goal made in 2011. The company has already dished out £4.34 in dividends to investors under this cash returns scheme.In contrast to Berkeley's...

At The Stock Market Show in September we asked the audience how many people in the room held shares in Lloyds Banking (LLOY) before the global financial crisis in 2008, and how many still hold the stock today. More than half the room put their hands up, with people admitting they still held the stock in the hope that it would eventually go back to the glory days of paying 7%+ dividend...