Handy list of HYP share tickers

[MrFahrenheit]

Here is version 6 of this handy list, with a few updates.

The main changes from the previous version are that
- Ladbrokes (LAD) merged with Coral, and is now known as Ladbrokes Coral (LCL).
- Premier Farnell (PFL) was taken over and is now privately owned.

I've put some fairly comprehensive footnotes which will help keep track of companies as their names change.

If you keep this handy and refer to it when someone mentions a ticker you don't recognise, it will cover nearly all shares referred to here. If you're like me, after a while they'll stick in the memory, and you'll find yourself referring to the list less and less often.

This list includes a lot of companies which were HYPable a few years ago, but which wouldn't be a good buy now. I've included them because they sometimes crop up in "Hold Vs Sell" debates.

I've given up trying to maintain footnotes in both numerical and alphabetic order, as this was leading to far more work than the benefit achieved.

The abbreviations I've referred to as "ticker" are also known as EPIC or TIDM- see below for expansions.



NB for two-letter tickers, the ticker is three characters, including a dot.

NOTES

[1] Not to be confused with British Airways (was BAY, now part of IAG).
Not to be confused with Beale (ticker BAE), a retailer.
Not to be confused with B/E Aerospace Inc. (BEAV),
a much smaller American company.

[2] Not to be confused with CNA, which trades as Scottish Gas in Scotland
and British Gas in the rest of the UK. [18]

[3] Be very careful here- BT.A seems to be a BT share on the LSE,
and BT with no suffix seems to be an ADS-
BT Group PLC USA
a sort of LSE share equivalent traded on the NY Stock Exchange.

[4] Demerged from BG. in 1997.

[5] Royal Dutch Shell has two sorts of share, of similar value.
RDSB is traded on the London Stock Exchange and pays dividends in GBP.
RDSA is traded in Amsterdam and pays dividends in EUR,
with Dutch tax deducted.
If you're British, you probably want RDSB rather than RDSA.
If you need to know more, see the post by Gengulphus here:
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/201607 ... sort=whole

[6] Dixons has at various times been called Dixons Group plc,
DSG International, and Dixons Retail plc.
It has used the tickers DXNS and DSGI.
More recently it merged with Carphone Warehouse (CPW)
and the end result was Dixons Carphone (DC.)
Gengulphus has very kindly summarised the history in post number 54155.

[7] Amec acquired Foster Wheeler, and changed its name and ticker as of 14/11/14.

[8] British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changed its ticker from BSY to SKY
as of 14/11/14. The company name also changed to Sky.

[9] Imperial Tobacco renamed itself Imperial Brands.
and changed ticker from IMT to IMB as of 08/02/2016.

[10] Reed Elsevier (REL) changed its name to RELX and adopted the ticker RELX as of mid-2015.
It's bit more than a name change- some detail here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2 ... d-Elsevier

[11] Amlin was fully acquired by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group and de-listed in February 2016.

[12] RIO used to be known as Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ).

[13] IUKD is a mechanically-picked portfolio of high-yielding shares.
It is not usually bought as a HYP share, but some HYPers use it as a benchmark.

[14] SSE has now dropped the use of the name "Scottish & Southern Energy" and is known as "SSE".

[15] Part of BLT was spun off and became S32 in May 2015.

[16] Part of RB. was spun off and became INDV in December 2014.

[17] British shareholders in VOD were given VZW shares following the spin-off of Verizon in 2014.
VZW shares wewre dleisted from the LSE on 31/03/2016.

[18] BG Group (BG) was taken over by Shell (RDSB) and de-listed from the LSE in February 2016.

[19] On 02/11/16, Ladbrokes (LAD) merged with Gala Coral Group.
The merged company is now known as Ladbrokes Coral (LCL).

[20] Premier Farnell was taken over by Avnet on 17/10/16, and was de-listed.



WHY ARE THEY CALLED TICKERS?

In case anyone's wondering why tickers are called tickers? It's because share price information used to be delivered by machines which punched information onto paper tape, making a ticking sound as they did so. These died out in the 1970s as computer screens became common. People used to cut up the old tapes to make a form of confetti, hence the expression 'ticker tape parade'. The technology also underlies the expression Don't fight the tape.



GLOSSARY

Some other abbreviations which may be mistaken for share tickers, but are something else:

ADR "An American depositary receipt (ADR) is a stock that trades in the United States
but represents a specified number of shares in a foreign corporation."
http://www.investopedia.com/university/adr/adr1.asp
These can sometimes come up in listings on dealing websites.
For the most part, HYPers will want to avoid accidentally clicking on these,
and buy the actual shares concerned.

DL Digital Look, a website providing financial information:
http://www.digitallook.com/

DYOR Do Your Own Research-
good advice because free data sources like Digital Look are not infallible!

EMH Efficient Market Hypothesis: "that asset prices fully reflect all available information".

EPIC Exchange Price Information Computer- the abbreviations also known as TIDMs or Tickers.

EUR ISO 4217 abbreviation for the Euro.

FMCGs Fast-Moving Consumer Goods- products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost.
Most FMCGs are consumed or destroyed in normal use- eg food, soap, razor blades.
Though the profit margin made on FMCG products is relatively small, they are
generally sold in large quantities, leading to a steady stream of repeat business.

GBP ISO 4217 abbreviation for the Great British Pound.

GBX ISO 4217 abbreviation for Great British Pence.

ISA Individual Savings Account- a tax-efficent 'wrapper' within which investments can be held.

PDMR Person Discharging Managerial Resposibility.
To prevent isnider trading, Directors and PDMRs are limited, by law,
as to when they can buy or sell shares in their companies.
Some investors consider purchases or sales by directors and PDMRs when assesing a company's prospects.

PYAD Two distinct but related meanings here:
- Stephen Bland, who popularised HYP investing. He used to work for The Motley Fool,
and posted under the name TMFPYAD. He now posts occasionally under the name Pyad.
- P/E ratio, Yield, Assets, Debt- a mnemonic Stephen Bland used for his selection criteria.
http://news.fool.co.uk//valueinvesting/ ... 990820.htm

LSE London Stock Exchange.

LTBH Long-Term Buy and Hold: the practice of buying shares without an intention
to sell in the foreseeable future. Part of (but not limited to) HYP investing.

RNS Regulatory News Service: listed companies are required to publish certain
price-sensitive information promptly and accessibly.
They do this by making RNS announcements, usually abbreviated to RNS.
Available, for example, by searching here:
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exch ... -home.html

SIPP Self-Invested Personal Pension

TIDM Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonic- another term for an EPIC or Ticker.

TJH Short for TJH290633, a highly respected contributor to HYP Practical and other boards.

USD ISO 4217 abbreviation for the United States Dollars.

W8BEN Actually W-8BEN. A simple one-page form you have to fill in to reclaim tax,
if you're British and holding American shares in a SIPP. *NOT* valid for ISAs.


MORE INFORMATION

Finally, some more complete lists suggested by ItsAllAGuess:

FTSE 350 EPIC / Company Names / Sector Codes -
FTSE 350

Sector Codes against Industry / Supersector / Sector / Subsector Definitions -
Industry Classification Benchmark


HTH
TTFN
MrF


"Handy list of HYP share tickers" on TLF is proudly sponsored by the Forth Bridge Painting Company

[robbelg]

That definitely deserves a rec

[Gengulphus]

A couple of minor additions:

[6] Dixons has at various times been called Dixons Group plc,
DSG International, and Dixons Retail plc.
It has used the tickers DXNS and DSGI.
More recently it merged with Carphone Warehouse (CPW)
and the end result was Dixons Carphone (DC.)
Gengulphus has very kindly summarised the history in post number 54155.

That post is in the archived TMF thread https://web.archive.org/web/20170301145116/http://boards.fool.co.uk/amec-sky-name-and-ticker-changes-13117257.aspx?sort=whole.

PYAD Two distinct but related meanings here:
- Stephen Bland, who popularised HYP investing. He used to work for The Motley Fool,
and posted under the name TMFPYAD. He now posts occasionally under the name Pyad.
- P/E ratio, Yield, Assets, Debt- a mnemonic Stephen Bland used for his selection criteria.
http://news.fool.co.uk//valueinvesting/ ... 990820.htm

Worth clarifying that those are his Value (not HYP) selection criteria, I think.

Gengulphus

[Breelander]

Worth clarifying that those are his Value (not HYP) selection criteria, I think.

And that he says...

...the two strategies are related to a certain extent as regards their selection criteria ... we sometimes see newcomers who don't always appreciate the differences between the strategies...

...it's only the investor's intended use of the shares that distinguishes their investment purposes, one needs to have quite a clear mind on this and be able to stick to the distinction whatever happens, despite the potential temptation to permit crosstalk between the strategies.

https://news.fool.co.uk/news/investing/ ... r-hyp.aspx

(BTW, all links to news.fool.co.uk seem to give a site certificate error now)

[tjh290633]

At a quick glance I can see three shares which no longer exist:

BG. taken over by Shell (RDSA/B).

Premier Farnell taken over.

Rexam taken over.

TJH

[77ss]

Here is version 6 of this handy list, with a few updates.

A couple of changes:

IAP is now NEX
TLPR is now TCAP

[PinkDalek]

At a quick glance I can see three shares which no longer exist:

BG. taken over by Shell (RDSA/B).

Premier Farnell taken over.

Rexam taken over.

TJH

I think MrF has the first two covered:

[18] BG Group (BG) was taken over by Shell (RDSB) and de-listed from the LSE in February 2016.
[20] Premier Farnell was taken over by Avnet on 17/10/16, and was de-listed.

Moderator Message:
moving from strategies to practical. More appropriate board. Raptor.

[tjh290633]

I think MrF has the first two covered:

[18] BG Group (BG) was taken over by Shell (RDSB) and de-listed from the LSE in February 2016.
[20] Premier Farnell was taken over by Avnet on 17/10/16, and was de-listed.

I saw the comment about Premier Farnell in the introductory paragraph after I had posted, but missed the other notes.

Presumably they will vanish in the next edition.

TJH

[moorfield]

So I have to ask... Are you including preference shares in your handy list?



(These two certainly have spanked/are spanking the ordinary dividends.)

[DiamondEcho]

So I have to ask... Are you including preference shares in your handy list? (These two certainly have spanked/are spanking the ordinary dividends.)

Just an observation: IDR PYAD ever discussing preference shares in the context of a HYP strategy. Back in '99 they weren't really the kind of instrument most Fools would have had access to. In fact I'd imagine most still wouldn't today. And their hybrid bond/stock characteristics and related complexity is perhaps not in the sphere of the intended typical HYPster, perhaps more a 'High Yield Strategy' rather than here?

[Breelander]

Just an observation: IDR PYAD ever discussing preference shares in the context of a HYP strategy...

His opinion is on record...

HYPs are about equity investing for income. Preference shares are not equity but a form of fixed interest investment. End of story.

Which must not be interpreted to mean that I have anything in principle against fixed interest securities like prefs, gilts or corporate bonds. I most certainly do not and have found that they suit many income investors, either wholly or as part of a mixed HYP/FI portfolio.

But HYPs alone, as I intended them and as I continue to promote them, do not incorporate FI investments.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170112024 ... 58440.aspx

[csearle]

Here is version 6 of this handy list, with a few updates. ..

Thanks MrFahrenheit. We all (I think) love lists.

When the, dare I say, inevitable revision comes please note Berkeley's entry currently looks like this...


Regards,
Chris

[MDW1954]

Just an observation: IDR PYAD ever discussing preference shares in the context of a HYP strategy...

His opinion is on record...

HYPs are about equity investing for income. Preference shares are not equity but a form of fixed interest investment. End of story.

Which must not be interpreted to mean that I have anything in principle against fixed interest securities like prefs, gilts or corporate bonds. I most certainly do not and have found that they suit many income investors, either wholly or as part of a mixed HYP/FI portfolio.

But HYPs alone, as I intended them and as I continue to promote them, do not incorporate FI investments.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170112024 ... 58440.aspx

I don't think we should be constrained by this. This is *not* The Motley Fool, Pyad has another platform for his views, and it's up to us to collectively agree/ decide our stance re: preference shares. (Ditto overseas-based HYP shares, but that is perhaps a debate for another day.)

Personally, while I don't hold any preference shares at the moment, I regularly look at them. Like most fixed income investments, a lot depends on your stance re: inflation etc.

But this is today, and what Pyad wrote was the past. Let's at least debate it, rather than slavishly follow supposed tablets of stone.

MDW1954

(PS: as a not-quite-ex TMF writer, this should not be construed as an attack on Pyad. I'm playing the principle here, and not the man. I'm sure SB is a lovely chap, as accountants go. :=) )

Moderator Message:
This is off topic for this thread. Any debate should be on the Strategy board, as of today Preference Shares and Overseas shares are off topic for the HYP practical board. Raptor.

[Breelander]

I don't think we should be constrained by this... But this is today, and what Pyad wrote was the past...

2012, to be precise - a time shortly after the financial crisis when confidence in all things 'banking' was so low that their yields were tempting many HYPers. And no, we weren't feeling 'constrained' back then. There was some healthy debate on the HYP-P board - a pref even got nominated for GDHYP.

I made sure to quote pyad in full so as to include the "...they suit many income investors ... as part of a mixed HYP/FI portfolio" bit.

[MDW1954]

Moderator Message:
This is off topic for this thread. Any debate should be on the Strategy board, as of today Preference Shares and Overseas shares are off topic for the HYP practical board. Raptor.

Indeed, which is why it *is* being discussed on the Strategies board. Which is why I mentioned it. We *ought* to debate it.

MDW1954

[Raptor]

MDW1954,

But you are not discussing on Strategies board, this is the HYP Practical board or have I missed something?

Raptor.

[robbelg]

This thread started on the strategies board !

[MDW1954]

MDW1954,

But you are not discussing on Strategies board, this is the HYP Practical board or have I missed something?

Raptor.

The topic is being discussed on the Strategies board. I'm not discussing it here; I'm simply saying that in my view it should be discussed (and on the Strategies board), for the reasons I said, which I won't repeat again, because this is not the right place.

MDW1954

[MrFahrenheit]

A couple of minor additions:

PYAD Two distinct but related meanings here:
- Stephen Bland, who popularised HYP investing. He used to work for The Motley Fool,
and posted under the name TMFPYAD. He now posts occasionally under the name Pyad.
- P/E ratio, Yield, Assets, Debt- a mnemonic Stephen Bland used for his selection criteria.
http://news.fool.co.uk//valueinvesting/ ... 990820.htm

Worth clarifying that those are his Value (not HYP) selection criteria, I think.
Gengulphus

Hi Gengulphus, Breelander, MDW54,
Thanks- I had wondered why thee criteria P/e, Assets and Debt weren't so heavily discussed these days, and now I know!

I fear that what I've learned this weekend invalidates verse 5 of my HYP poem, https://web.archive.org/save/_embed/htt ... 38614.aspx , but I won't lose any sleep over it.

I'll re-word that section of the glossary to clarify.


Re various corrections...

Hi TJH, 77ss, PinkDalek, MORE!
I'll update the list to reflect the takeover of Rexam, IAP becoming NEX, TLPR becoming TCAP, and also to flag up the likely merger of SL. and ADN.

BG. and PFL are, as PinkDalek pointed out, covered by footnotes. I can see why TJH missed the footnote numbers, and I'll try to move them over to the left a bit next time.

TJH suggests that no-longer-existing companies might be removed from future lists. I think it's actually worth keeping them in. I'm looking at it from the perspective of someone who discovers HYP, say, tomorrow. There are loads of old posts that refer to those companies, and I'd like to ensure that the list gives those people a very quick way of finding what those tickers mean and what happened to them.


Hi csearle,

Thanks MrFahrenheit. We all (I think) love lists.

When the, dare I say, inevitable revision comes please note Berkeley's entry currently looks like this...

I don't think anyone who didn't like lists would stay round here for long...

Thanks- BKG is, of course, Berkeley Group, a housebuilder. I'll amend the next version of the list.

moving from strategies to practical. More appropriate board. Raptor.

Hi Raptor,
Thank you! I started in the Strategies board to avoid the sort of bickering and objections I got back at the old place. I'm glad it's clear that this list is OK here.


Hi robbelg,
Thanks for the rec!


Hi moorfield, DiamondEcho, Breelander, MDW1954, Raptor,

The movement of this thread from Strategies to Practical seems to have led to confusion.

But there are already two threads on the Strategies board covering these things, and since it seems clear that they are on-topic there, I'd suggest we shufty over to
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3564 for overseas or
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2400 for preference, and build on the existing discussions.

If there is enough discussion of these things, I'd be happy to volunteer to create and maintain a Handy List of Foreign Share Tickers and a Handy List of Preference Share Tickers, both naturally on the Strategy board. I don't think, so far, I've seen enough discussion of these topics to require those lists, but let's see how things evolve.


And finally, two housekeeping notes:

1 In future, I'll put the version of the list in the thread title. So when we get "Handy list of HYP share tickers Version 7" it will be a new thread, it won't have all this discussion tacked onto it, and corrections etc intended for version 8 can be added there.

2 I'll do version 7 in about a week from now- so if anyone spots any more corrections required, please respond here.

Cheers
MrFahreneheit

[Raptor]

MrF,

If there is enough interest I can get the thread locked and put at the top. Let me know when you get the list updated what you want.

Raptor.