The East of England Agricultural show at Peterborough is coming up and we have been busy preparing and generally getting ourselves ready. You probably have rustic visions of us shampooing our prize cows, putting bows on our sows and arranging baskets of luscious fruit. In fact, we have been rehearsing a demonstration of off-road driving – which is a far more profitable use of agricultural land these days.
You could say that it is also a far more profitable use of our time at the moment than buying shares. We have deliberately stayed out of the market for the last couple of months simply because it has been so volatile that you could make a reasonable buy but still be wiped out by a sudden down swing.
But one share we have done well with is Prime People, a recruitment and training services operation which we bought at 88 pence.
Earlier this year the company transformed itself into a property recruitment company following the reverse takeover of the larger Macdonald & Co. Unusually for a takeover, it seems to have worked. Fee income in the two month period to the end of May was 20 per cent up year-on-year and the company declared a dividend of 2.5 pence.
When you factor in a 14.5 pence increase in the share price, all-in Prime People has performed very nicely indeed. We just hope our display of quad bikes and off-road driving goes as smoothly.
(Readers should be aware that the value of stocks can fall as well as rise and should undertake their own research or obtain professional investment advice.)
