Aviva shares

sinlimites

In 1999 I invested £3000 in what was then called PEP buying Norwich Union shares. These were turned into Aviva shares in 2006 I believe and the investment became managed by Barclays Stockbrokers Ltd as an ISA. The dividend is used to buy more shares. So I now have double the original shares, but the investment is still only worth £3000. In the meantime Barclays’ £4 per month fee has gained them £950. I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all. Has anyone a similar experience with these shares? Where can I find the history of Aviva shares over this 20 year period? Many thanks for any news

AlanP_2

5 year chart here https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/summary?s=AV.:LSE

lozzy1965

They've been pretty bad apparently (change the "1 year" to "max"):
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/AV./aviva-plc/company-page?lang=en
Around year 2000 was their high.  So doubling from reinvesting dividends would see you about where you were then.  I'm not sure if the effect of any share buy backs/consolidation/etc is reflected, but from your experience it would appear that it is.

MX5huggy

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=aviva+share+price&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

Google gives you a chart back to 1988, 2001 the share price was about £9.50 today £4.12 a little less than half. That your investment is worth about what you started with, ignoring inflation is good fortune. 

I would look to hold these in a cheaper platform. Or just sell but who knows where the share price will be in 20 years time. 

eskbanker

sinlimites said:

I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all.

In which case you need to spend time understanding the pros and (especially) cons of investing in individual company shares - many company shares are ultimately worth nothing at all, so it's a high risk activity....

lozzy1965

eskbanker said:

sinlimites said:

I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all.

In which case you need to spend time understanding the pros and (especially) cons of investing in individual company shares - many company shares are ultimately worth nothing at all, so it's a high risk activity....

Hmmm, but the vast majority are worth something!  Not that I would disagree that buying 1 or only a limited number of individual company shares isn't a risky activity.

Infrastructure

If you had cash instead of Aviva shares at the moment, would you use the cash to buy Aviva shares?
If not, sell the shares and buy something else - maybe a diversified fund.

eskbanker

lozzy1965 said:

eskbanker said:

sinlimites said:

I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all.

In which case you need to spend time understanding the pros and (especially) cons of investing in individual company shares - many company shares are ultimately worth nothing at all, so it's a high risk activity....

Hmmm, but the vast majority are worth something!  Not that I would disagree that buying 1 or only a limited number of individual company shares isn't a risky activity.

Depends how you measure - most companies (i.e. including all micro-level ones) are said to fail, but yes, this wouldn't extend to publicly-listed ones, where it's the exception rather than the rule.  However, even if companies survive, there are plenty whose all-time high share price is well in the past, so OP is very naive to expect an individual share to increase as a matter of course....

Eco_Miser

lozzy1965 said:

eskbanker said:

sinlimites said:

I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all.

In which case you need to spend time understanding the pros and (especially) cons of investing in individual company shares - many company shares are ultimately worth nothing at all, so it's a high risk activity....

Hmmm, but the vast majority are worth something!  Not that I would disagree that buying 1 or only a limited number of individual company shares isn't a risky activity.

The vast majority of existing company shares are worth something, but if you include all the failed companies whose shares are already worth nothing, but were worth something when hopeful investors piled their money in, eskbanker's statement becomes self-evident.

Thrugelmir

sinlimites said:

I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all. 

At the very least monitor your investment portfolio once a year. Probably more for individual company shares. If you had held Northern Rock your holding would now be worthless. Companies wax and wane over the years.  

lozzy1965

Eco_Miser said:

lozzy1965 said:

eskbanker said:

sinlimites said:

I find it hard to believe that over 20 years the value of the investment has not risen at all.

In which case you need to spend time understanding the pros and (especially) cons of investing in individual company shares - many company shares are ultimately worth nothing at all, so it's a high risk activity....

Hmmm, but the vast majority are worth something!  Not that I would disagree that buying 1 or only a limited number of individual company shares isn't a risky activity.

The vast majority of existing company shares are worth something, but if you include all the failed companies whose shares are already worth nothing, but were worth something when hopeful investors piled their money in, eskbanker's statement becomes self-evident.

Well, yes, but I was really referring to publicly listed companies and more specifically, as the comment was made in a thread  about Aviva I would draw a distinction between individual company shares in - say - AIM vs Larger cap.  I'm not sure how big the list of failed companies is in such cases, but my gut feeling is that it is vastly smaller.  I'm happy for someone to come back with the numbers if my gut is drastically wrong though!