Having moved into the second half of June, I’m looking for UK shares I think could soar in value next month. Here are what I think could be some of the best stocks to buy in the run-up to fresh trading updates scheduled for the coming weeks. I’d buy them today and aim to hold them for years.
A UK share to watch for
I think buying AO World (LSE: AO) shares could be a good idea before full-year results on Thursday, 1 July.
The electrical retailer’s share price has been steadily eroding in recent months and it was recently trading at its cheapest since last October. I’m expecting another sunny set of financials that could help the UK retail share break out of this downturn. The company’s low valuation certainly leaves space for fresh share price gains, in my opinion. AO World trades on a forward price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio of just below 1. This sort of reading suggests a stock could be undervalued by market-makers.
Online-only operator AO World saw sales rocket 62% last year as it benefited from Covid-19 lockdowns. I’m expecting revenues to keep rising over the long term as the e-commerce market gets bigger and bigger, too. But I’m aware that a hard economic recovery could damage demand for its big-ticket goods in the short-to-medium term.
Another mega-cheap stock for July
Begbies Traynor Group (LSE: BEG) shares have also been losing value in recent sessions. I’d use the UK share’s drop from 12-year highs as a fresh dip-buying opportunity as, like AO World, I think it looks too cheap to miss on paper. This particular company — an expert in the field of corporate insolvencies — trades on a forward PEG ratio of just 0.4.
I think it’s a particularly good buy with fresh financials just around the corner. Last time it updated the market back in May, it advised that trading for the 12 months to April would be “comfortably ahead of market expectations”, with revenues and profits rising. Last year’s strong results came in spite of a 34% decline in company insolvencies in the year to March 2021.
I look forward to seeing what Begbies Traynor’s full-year financials will say on Tuesday, 20 July. Trading has been boosted by its knack of making shrewd acquisitions, which continues to progress at an encouraging rate. And I expect trading across its business to pick up significantly later in 2021 when government furlough support schemes end and UK businesses move back into the danger zone.
Of course any acquisition-hungry company like Begbies Traynor runs the risk that what it buys could disappoint. Worse-than-expected trading or unexpected costs can take a big bite out of profits projections and cause share prices to fall. Still, this UK share’s cheap price puts it on my radar of top stocks to buy for July.
