Reviewing Tipsters’ Top Picks for 2019

The UK economy experienced a tumultuous 2018, and it proved to be a particularly rough year for holders long in UK-listed shares: the FTSE100 suffered its worst year in a decade, while the FTSE All Share slumped 13% over the course of the year. The turbulence we’re experiencing looks set to continue into 2019 as markets struggle with mounting uncertainty. As a result “tipping shares has never felt more hazardous”, but there are potential rewards; Joanne Hart (Daily Mail) notes that “UK shares are widely acknowledged to be undervalued, presenting clear opportunities across the market”.

That being said, it’s the time of year when financial tipsters from a range of publications issue their “top picks” for the year ahead. News sources such as The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian typically get in on the action, as do online platforms such as ShareProphets. We take a closer look at those companies tipped for strong performance in 2019 in this week’s round-up.

Top Tips for 2019 by Market Capitalisation

Simon English (Evening Standard) is particular pessimistic going into 2019, claiming that “the share tip I’d offer if the rules allow it: none whatever….what you’re looking for are business so huge their exposure to the UK is incidental, or at least manageable”, for example HSBC. In a similar vein, GlaxoSmithKline and Diageo appears on the Guardian’s list of top picks. There is clearly some disagreement with this point of view, with considerable variance in the size of companies tipped for 2019; 14% are over £10bn in size, while small companies occupying a market value of less than £100m make up 21% of tips. Amongst the smallest companies, tips mainly originate from the team at ShareProphets – such as Darren Atwater’s buy rating on Glenveagh Properties and Malcolm Stacey’s tip to buy Avacta Group – although Joanne Hart (Daily Mail) recommends Motif Bio, which currently occupies a market capitalisation under £100m.

Top Tips for 2019 by Market Listing

A majority of tipped companies are also listed on LSE’s Main Market, with 29% listed on AIM. This is no surprise in itself; a majority of publications typically favour FTSE 350 companies. ShareProphets prove the exception with most share tips on AIM-listed firms (although not all; for example Tom Winnifrith tips gold miner Petropavlovsk, which is listed on the Main Market). Tips to buy Burford Capital (Jasper Jolly, The Guardian) and Polar Capital (Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard) suggest some appetite amongst newspapers for AIM shares also.

Top Tips for 2019 by Sector

Interestingly, of the six publications issuing “top picks” for the coming year there were no instances of two or more tipsters recommending one company. Every publication issued unique tips, and even when tipped firms are aggregated according to their industry, there are no stand-out sectors that are being hotly-tipped; a lack of consensus perhaps typifying the general uncertainty in the markets currently.

Mining companies appeared most frequently on lists of “top picks for 2019”. Tommy Stubington (The Times) recommends Fresnillo, notes that “when markets are in turmoil, buy gold”, while Gary Newman (ShareProphets) identifies Hochschild as a top pick. Shares in the silver and gold miner are up over 9% already since the beginning of the year. The Pharma and Biotech sector has also proven popular this year, with Sabah Meddings (The Times) highlighting Hikma Pharmaceuticals as a company “on the rocky road to recovery…after a tumultuous couple of years”. You can track the performance of all buy, hold and sell tips made in the “top picks” lists, as well as all tips made throughout 2019 on the Stockomendation platform.

There are now over 45,000 tips on our platform, all performance-tracked and available to view. Sign up to Stockomendation now and take a look for yourself – it’s free!

Disclaimer: The contents of this article should not be considered financial advice. All information displayed as at 4th January 2019.