4+ hour, 32+ min ago (717+ words) Although aware of its limitations, our writer's used AI software to come up with a suggestion for his ISA and he already owns two of its suggestions. I recently asked ChatGPT: "Which bargain stock should I put in my ISA?" After congratulating me on asking a good question, it came up with a list of six very different UK companies. I already own two of them " BP and JD Sports Fashion. Of the other four, M&G (LSE:MNG) is the most familiar to me. Although it can trace its origins back to 1848, it only became a listed company in October 2019, having been de-merged from Prudential. Since then, it's increased its dividend every year since. And it's a pretty generous payout too. Based on amounts paid over the past 12 months, the stock's currently yielding 7.4%. This puts it in the top…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (671+ words) Harvey Jones is a huge fan of the Stocks and Shares ISA, saying it's a brilliant way to generate a passive income entirely free of tax. Now let's do some sums. The Stocks and Shares ISA is brilliant way to build a reliable income stream for later life. I'm using the tax-free wrapper ISA to buy a spread of FTSE 100 dividend-paying shares with the hope of turning their regular dividends into a meaningful second income when I finally stop working. The older I get, the more important my ISA feels. A weekly income of "250 works out at roughly "13,000 a year. To see how large an ISA might need to be, I start with dividend yield. That's the amount of income paid out each year as a percentage of the share price. It varies wildly from stock to stock, and nothing…...

1+ day, 4+ hour ago (730+ words) Tesco shares have been on fire over the past couple of years. But after the rise, does this FTSE 100 stock still offer a decent dividend yield? Tesco (LSE:TSCO) hit a milestone earlier this year when its shares surpassed the price they were at prior to the 2014 accounting scandal. And while the road back has been long and winding, the FTSE 100 stock has taken a steep climb upwards in the past three years. In fact, add in dividends, and the three-year return easily exceeds 100%. After this impressive jump, the question now is: what about the dividend prospects over the next couple of years? Looking at the latest forecasts, things appear quite promising for shareholders. For the current fiscal year (FY26), the dividend is expected to rise almost 4% to 14.2p per share. This includes the interim dividend that was paid last week. But…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (774+ words) Paul Summers wonders if the AI bot can guide him on creating a great passive income portfolio. The outcome definitely raised a few concerns. We already seem to rely on AI for a whole host of things. But can it select a perfect portfolio of FTSE 100 stocks that dish out passive income? For a bit of fun (and no more), I decided to test this out with ChatGPT. Having entered my query, the AI bot trotted out an answer featuring seven of the UK's biggest stocks paying income. I'll say a little more about that number in a bit. The first six recommendations read like a who's who of trusted UK-listed dividend heavyweights: The final stock completing the set arguably sticks out from the rest. Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) is one of the world's biggest diversified miners. It's also boasted…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago (797+ words) Our writer isn't messing about with this growth stock, and recently harvested some gains to double down on it inside both his ISA and SIPP. Back in April, President Trump dropped his tariffs bombshell in the White House Rose Garden, sending both my Stocks and Shares ISA and Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) into a tailspin. However, as he presented his chart of numbers to the world, I remember hearing Warren Buffett's immortal words inside my head: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." " Fair to say, Trump spread fear throughout the market, with many high-quality shares plunging 25% or more in the days following the speech. So I put Warren's words into action and bought some stocks that I thought looked ridiculously oversold " chiefly Nvidia, Shopify, and BlackRock World Mining Trust. Zoom ahead seven months, and…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago (638+ words) The FTSE 100 is packed with top dividend shares to choose from. Here are five Royston Wild thinks could beat a selection chosen by ChatGPT. More and more investors are using artificial intelligence (AI) models for investing guidance and stock tips. I remain sceptical about these new technologies for such purposes, given their proclivity for strange reasoning and providing inaccurate information. But I thought I'd join in and ask ChatGPT to find me five FTSE 100 dividend stocks to buy. As you can see, the machine's portfolio is pretty nicely balanced across cyclical and non-cyclical industries. It's a strategy that can effectively balance risk and deliver reliable passive income over time. Accordingly, it's a tactic that I've adopted for my own theoretical portfolio. There's also a couple of FTSE 100 companies in ChatGPT's portfolio I really like myself. Despite high operational costs, I'm…...

4+ week, 4+ hour ago (630+ words) Since November 2024, the Lloyds Banking Group share price has risen 65%. James Beard considers the arguments for where it might go next. Over the past five years, the Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) share price has outperformed the FTSE 100. While the Footsie's risen 74% since November 2020, the UK's second-most valuable bank has seen its stock market valuation soar by 215%. And after such an impressive rally, shareholders will probably be wondering whether this will continue. Let's take a look at the arguments. Analysts are expecting big things from Lloyds over the next three years. In 2024, the bank reported earnings per share (EPS) of 6.3p. By 2027, the consensus is for this to rise by 79% to 11.3p. In turn, this is expected to drive a 51% increase in the dividend to 4.8p a share. Another key measure for the sector is the return on tangible equity (RoTE). And a…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (716+ words) In a battle of man vesus machine, can our writer Royston Wild come out on top against ChatGPT with his selection of growth shares? More than half of Britons now use ChatGPT to help them with financial and investing guidance. I've decided to follow the herd and ask the artificial intelligence (AI) system for five FTSE 250 growth shares for me to buy in my portfolio. I have no plans to put any actual money on the line. But my exercise will provide a valuable insight into just how well AI can identify credible growth opportunities. As someone who's still sceptical about the accuracy and rationale of such systems, I'm curious to see whether ChatGPT's logic holds up in the real world. My plan is to track the performance of this FTSE 250 mini portfolio. And to make things interesting, I'll compare…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (680+ words) Christmas is fast approaching. Could the uncertainty in the markets lead to a stock market crash before presents get opened? Thoughts of a stock market crash are relatively rare at this time of year. The "Santa rally" usually pushes stocks up over the festive period, rather than down. The type of news that might cause a mad panic in the markets is rarer during the last months of the year. "Tis not the season, you might say. Alas, we live in interesting times. The speculation over a bubble in US tech grows and grows. We also have one of the latest Autumn Budgets in living memory, with rumours of painful tax rises doing the rounds in the newspapers. With less than 40 sleeps left to the big day, we might even see a rare stock market crash before Christmas. One reason…...

4+ hour, 22+ min ago (745+ words) Our writer reckons those looking to generate a four-figure second income should consider putting high-yielding dividend stocks in their ISAs. My favourite way of earning a second income is to buy dividend shares. And there's lots of them to choose from. For example, at the moment (28 November), the five highest-yielding stocks on the FTSE 100 offer an average return of 7.5%. This means a "20,000 investment divided equally among them could generate a return of "1,500 over the next 12 months. But let's assume that instead of banking this cash, it's reinvested buying more of these shares. In this case, if the yield remained unchanged, income of "1,613 would be received in year two. Repeat this for another year and the return would rise to "1,733. You get the picture. The act of reinvesting dividends is known as compounding and has some high-profile supporters. For example, Warren…...