Hargreaves Lansdown Share Discussion Threads

[giltedge1] 03/3/2024 09:11

HL pays me 3.65% on cash not invested OK, while waiting to reinvest. Banks pay pathetic interest on Billions but do not receive any criticism I presume different regulator. PRA instead on FCA more worried about stability of financial system, so doesn't,t care for consumers, OK with free money. HL unfairly criticised.

[lomax99] 02/3/2024 20:02

IC: Hargreaves Lansdown HL. 765p ASSET MANAGERS & CUSTODIANSThe pronounced jump in Hargreaves Lansdown's (HL.) half-year revenues largely related to net interest earned from cash kept in customer savings accounts. It's an issue that has attracted criticism from investors and regulators alike.Dan Olley, the trading platform's chief executive, revealed that it "closed the period with cash [held in investment accounts] at 8.5 per cent of assets under administration", representing a reduction of £1.0bn through the period as clients redirected money. Olly said management expects this trend to continue as clients "put their cash to work" with platform capital "on a glide path to c£11.5bn," from £12.1bn on 31 December. The group increased the options open to clients by launching a cash individual savings account (Isa) last year and its first multi-bank cash Isa in January 2024.Leaving aside the interest dynamics, assets under management have increased by 6 per cent since midway through 2023 to £142bn, although net new business fell back compared with the prior year. Investor sentiment has waxed and waned depending on geopolitical impacts and the cost of living squeeze, hence the parallel increases in both gross inflows and outflows.The interim figures garnered a negative response from the market amid concerns over the net interest issue. The client retention rate fell by 110 basis points to 91.6 per cent and there were also mixed messages on the cost base through the remainder of the year. But the long-term structural opportunities open to the platform is reflected in the addition of 20,000 new clients, taking the total base to 1.82mn. On balance, we think that the forward rating of 12 times consensus earnings represents a viable entry point given an implied full-year dividend yield pushing 6 per cent. Buy.

[dickbush] 01/3/2024 19:57

Bloomberg

Jeremy Hunt Turns to Retail Investors to Save the UK Market

One proposal to revive the fortune's of an ailing stock market is a British ISA that incentivises investing in domestic stocks.

That would help:

Additional ISA contributions

Additional trading in the UK market

Additional demand for HL as a UK share.

[stoopid] 01/3/2024 17:58

Nice rally into close.... more to come, hopefully

[mngf] 01/3/2024 08:18

Ripe for a short squeeze here. No obvious event for a short seller to liquidate

[action] 29/2/2024 23:27

May be bp will join the list with bt & Vodafone as well. Long live Great Britain.

[dickbush] 29/2/2024 17:12

Bloomberg

UK Plc Attracts Wave of Takeover Offers From Foreign Suitors

Overseas buyers attracted by cheaper valuations, weak pound.
Direct Line Insurance, Currys, Wincanton among UK deal targets.

[stoopid] 29/2/2024 14:19

No problems whatsoever. In fact when everyone moans about having problems logging in to HL I find that there are no problems.The platform is stable and easy to use. Ex Divi today and its been wrecked. From 840 to 720 in just over a week? 16% fall? Just ludicrous. The doom and gloom surrounding HL is just nuts.

[lippy4] 29/2/2024 09:18

been using this company for a lot of years and i am now finding the way is operates is becoming sloppy as AI is being introduced and trying to talk to a human is getting harder.

i dont hold the shares just invest my money through them..i complained recently about some thing and they sent me a long letter appologising and £25 as a sweetner..

[jubberjim] 29/2/2024 06:29

The fight/bite back starts here

But is not helped by being unable to access/sign in to the Hargreaves Landsdown site this a m.
Anyone else having problems?

[porsche1945] 28/2/2024 10:05

SJP collapsing, from 12 quid to 4 quid in under 12 months, their business model is wrecked and HL won’t be far behind, I closed a short out I had on SJP this morning, tempted to buy in the money PUTS on HL, the fees they charge, terrible performance of their dogshxt funds and competition from cash and treasuries, I can’t see how they don’t get cut in half from here. The other problem is, since brexit, there are massive fund outflows every year since 2016, over 100 billion and it’s accelerating as U.K. shares continue to be the bug zapper capital loss trade and companies relist elsewhere as the shares get an immediate 30pc uplift and more liquidity. U.K. is now in real trouble, tories have been utter poison for the country, property will be next to roll over, thinking the other top short has to be builders. I wouldn’t touch anything on the ftse 350 apart from shorting and short term trading, chasing dividends a mugs game, Vod Phnx and direct line anyone?

[jason29] 28/2/2024 08:47

Robinhood launching in the UK and offering 5% on uninvested Funds is not going to help these. Wish I had sold at 1100+ when I had the chance (I'm sure with hindsight we all do lol) but looks like I'm staying in at these levels for the Dividend and Dividend alone, I just can't see where the growth is going to come from............

[bend1pa] 27/2/2024 22:23

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with HL. They're not in danger of going bust, (when was the last time in the UK a major stockbroker was hammered?), and the generous div looks reasonably safe for the time being.

The only concern I have is the big drop in new clients, which suggests that HG may be acquiring a tarnished reputation, but I fail to see really why. Certainly if you have a fair chunk of cash lying in an ISA or non-ISA account. you earn about 3.73%, which is a lot more than the likes of III (they pay < 3%), or many big brokers who pay nothing on cash balances, eg Charles Stanley.

Who would have thought a few years ago that HG would become an income stock? Thank you shorters.

[eigthwonder] 27/2/2024 12:51

Whilst i can picture the company being taken out, in the meantime the management churn and struggle to find strategic direction are serving the shorters well.

[lomax99] 27/2/2024 11:09

Surpressing the price could aid a bid at a lower level.

[stoopid] 27/2/2024 10:57

I'm still holding but 12% short, is a big bet by the shorters. Still, they will have to close eventually and buying that much back will not go unnoticed.

[netcurtains] 27/2/2024 08:53

I have been shaken out...
I was only here for divi... And share price too wild for me.
Doubled up on DGE instead....
Sorry...

[smidge21] 27/2/2024 08:10

Today's Times:

Hargreaves Lansdown is at a crossroads. Shares in Britain’s largest wealth manager plunged from £23.63 in May 2019, eight months before Covid, to £7 last October, two months after installing Dan Olley as its new chief executive. Much rests on his shoulders to reverse the slide.

A clue to where Hargreaves Lansdown is heading lies in Olley’s background: digital technology. After spells at Relx, the technical publisher, IBM, the American technology group, and WPP, the advertising conglomerate, in January last year he became chief executive of Dunnhumby, a data analytics firm. His willingness to change jobs so quickly raises a yellow flag.

To make his mark, Olley has written off £17.3 million on ditching two computer systems and bringing in a new digital technology team, the third since last March. Although he has no previous experience in managing money, he says he intends to use Hargreaves Lansdown’s digital capabilities to help to understand which products best suit each client, rather than to replace the human element of the advice process. And he emphasises the importance of “delighting221; clients and “enhancing the client experience”. We shall see which triumphs, data or the personal touch.

In the last six months of 2023, there was £1 billion of net new business, £600 million less than a year ago, while total assets under administration rose to £142.2 billion, up from £127.1 billion. Revenues rose by £18.2 million to £368.2 million, but that was not enough to prevent pre-tax profits falling by £15.1 million to £182.5 million. The firm recruited 20,000 net new clients, making a total of 1.82 million. This was down on the 31,000 attracted in the corresponding period of 2022, possibly because the higher cost of living has left less cash to invest. All of which gives Olley a formidable to-do list.

Deutsche Numis has trimmed its year-end earnings-per-share forecast from 68.5p to 66.9p, and by 4 per cent next year to 70.3p. However, the shares are on only 11.2 times 2023-24 earnings and yield a reliable 6.8 per cent.

Advice Buy
Why A bet on Olley and economic recovery

[netcurtains] 27/2/2024 08:04

Does it still go ex-dividend on Thursday?

Thanks

[giltedge1] 26/2/2024 12:13

Results were fine, Cash flow great retained AUM better than most. Obviously a big ask to increase AUM greatly every year. HL master of its own destiny can control costs, mainly Payroll & IT. Can easily cut staff if necessary. Costs such as energy, Rents, Cap Ex minimal. Operates from one building in Bristol. Should be a big beneficiary of AI. Minimal other costs & can gain from trend of Aging population & saving for retirement. Seems a good entry point £7.50.

[dickbush] 23/2/2024 09:28

All new CEO’s spend their early days finding out what’s wrong and taking write-offs that should reduce or eliminate problems in the future. I am very happy that the area he has concentrated on is the IT area. It didn’t take the fiasco at the Post Office for any of us to know that IT departments consistently fail to produce on time and within budget, or, often, that the final product is so far from meeting its design targets that it requires even more people in the IT Department for it to limp along. Hopefully, taking an axe to the number of vendors was pour encourager les autres.

Thankfully, the current CEO has a digital background:

October 04, 2021 – dunnhumby announces the appointment of Dan Olley as their new Chief Executive Officer. Dan will join the business at the end of January 2022, from RELX, the global information analytics company, where he is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Elsevier. He brings with him nearly three decades of experience leading global digital teams and a proven track record of building transformative digital products and platforms.

[dickbush] 22/2/2024 17:57

Company said that - I think I heard this right - that new asset flow in was up 17% y/y but that was all but totally offset by outflow. The CEO put this down, primarily, to not having a cash ISA, something I didn't know was absent from their product line-up. That hole has been covered now with 3 alternative Cash ISAs.

Momentum from the 2nd qtr is poor and 3rd qtr eps likely to be down y/y taking into account the forecast lower NIM.

FYI, a similar type company in the US, Charles Schwab, which saw eps decline by 28% in 2023 against a strong equity market background and whose 4th qtr NIM was almost 54%, is on a historic p/e of 25 and a dividend yield of 1.5%.

[ochs] 22/2/2024 11:56

@PUGUGLY - can you or anyone else copy & paste the FT article from behind the paywall by any chance? Thanks!