Glencore Case Study

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Glencore shares

Glencore was once dubbed the “the biggest company you’ve never heard of”. The noted clandestine commodities trading firm may have a global network that reaches to all four corners of the world, but it still hasn’t emerged as a headline performer. The reason being that Glencore and Glencore shares have faced their fair share of controversy, largely because they have struggled to shake loose the reputation of the company’s late founder Marc Rich. Not only that, the anger surrounding supposed kickbacks for Iraqi oil, contribution to pollution in Zambia, and the company’s decision to operate in apartheid ridden South Africa have hurt public image considerably in the past. Moving on from past controversies has proved to be quite …show more content…

They are looking to trade in a quality stock, something that Glencore shares represents after changing the face of their operations in 2015. Cuts usually spell disaster for most company’s, but its actually resulted in the opposite for Glencore. By slashing the production levels of zinc, the price of Glencore shares has skyrocketed by 12%. The change in business operation has allowed the company to retune in order to reduce the company’s debt by a third due to a $10.2 billion influx. Facing its vulnerabilities head on, it seems that the decision to cut back on 400,000 tons worth of copper production, offload struggling assets, and holding off on dividend pay-outs have removed the anchor from Glencore …show more content…

This is because the market is often divided between the banks that carry risk yet high potential rewards and those that grow at a snails pace. Speaking on the banking sector in 2015, it seems that it is an up-start bank that has got most traders talking. Virgin Money UK has less than 100 high-street branches and a basic product selection, but customers are still flocking to the bank in their droves. As it continues to wrestle away a portion of the market share from the sector’s major names, the interest in Virgin Money UK shares has grown.

Solid Foundations

Virgin Money UK has not let its small size hold it back as far as performance is concerned, in fact it can be argued that it has aided it. During the first half of 2015 the bank’s underlying pre-tax profit grew 37%, taking year-on-year performance to £81.8 million. From an investment perspective Virgin Money UK shares trade at a premium P/E of 16.5, which has worked to put investors off. The dividend yield of 1.0% has also not drummed up a huge amount of excitement either. While unglamorous in many ways, Virgin Money UK shares do in fact offer profit potential off of the back of sturdy financial foundations.

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