BP and barclays- thinking of selling

xyz123

hi

i have smallish holding in BP and barclays. would like to ask two question

1) other than share price change is there a good time or bad time to sell a share so as not to miss out on any dividend? if so how do i find out the dates for cut-off?

2) any thoughts on whether its worth keeping these? i am showing a smallish profit on both. i dont have any other holdings but am thinking of getting a vanguard life strategy as longish term investment.

ta

Rob_192

BP and Barc both pay a quarterly dividend. BP's last ex-div date was 7th May and the next will be somewhere around 7th Aug. Barc's last ex-div date was 14th May and the next will be early/mid Aug (last year it was 7th Aug). You presumably understand that you get the dividend if you hold the share on their ex-dividend date - the dividend is paid some time later.

On current share price, BP is yielding about 4.7% and Barc about 3.7%. Why would you want to sell these to buy a Vangaurd fund? You've already paid the brokers fee and stamp duty to purchase them and you would have to pay a further fee to sell them. Why not just keep them as a long term investment and take the dividends.

Don't worrt about the capital value, just look at the yield. It's not much differnt to investing in a fund, except you will have no ongoing fund manager's charges to pay. A fund is just a basket of shares, but with a shed load of fees to pay and little knowledge of what the fund manager is buying/selling or when, you just put your trust in them to get it right and hope for the best.

For research I use Digital Look, but there are plenty of sources for the info you require.

R

lozzy1965

Digital Look (and maybe even the London Stock Exchange site??) will show you when the last ex-div dates were, which is a good indicator of when the next ex-div dates are (dates can vary so not always accurate!).
For digital look. Type in the share name followed by "digital look" into a search engine. Click on the link. Page down and near the historic and predicted share information is the last two ex-div dates.
That's what I use.

kidmugsy

Rob_192 wrote: »

Why would you want to sell these to buy a Vangaurd fund? You've already paid the brokers fee and stamp duty to purchase them and you would have to pay a further fee to sell them. Why not just keep them as a long term investment and take the dividends.

Yep; remember the old market adage: "Don't trade".

But, of course, put your new money into something else. People seem to think very highly of vanguard life strategy.

jayship

The following site is quite comprehensive for forthcoming dividend dates


www.upcomingdividends.co.uk

xyz123

Thanks for reply .

These were first shares I bought and I stupidly made a mistake of buying these under stock and share ISA. So I pay a quarterly fee to Halifax for management ofthis. I tthought I was saving on tax on dividend and any profit from future sale. I now realise gains tax won't apply as there is a personal allowance per year. As for dividend I need to think of it'd better off paying some tax or fee to ISA providers.

planteria

i dont hold either, but i have held BP for 3 periods, and i wouldnt mind holding both of these now. in terms of when to sell: it's just a matter of whenever suits you best. perhaps based upon what else you will do with the money.