Some stocks can trade at such an expensive price that it can make it difficult for an average investor to purchase multiple shares in the company. Therefore, I like to filter stocks to potentially buy under a certain price. Further, when trying to find good income shares, keeping a close eye on the share price allows me to easily calculate the dividend yield. Here are two dividend shares in the UK that are on my radar right now.
Show me the money
The first idea is Moneysupermarket.com (LSE:MONY). The brand is instantly recognisable from the website link. It provides an array of services for customers to compare everything from travel insurance to mortgage rates.
Over the past year, the stock is down 6% and trades at £2.27 now (25 March). Although the stock growth hasn’t been spectacular over this time period, the recent full-year results should help to kickstart some momentum here.
It reported record revenue in 2023 of £432m and generated a profit before tax of £92m. It bumped up the dividend per share from 11.7p the year prior to 12.1p. This means that the current dividend yield is 5.32%.
I’m optimistic going forward because with the UK in a recession, saving money is a priority for the vast majority of households this year. As a result, I’d expect higher usage of the services that the firm provides this year.
However, one risk is the competition online. It’s very hard to differentiate between other money-saving websites, meaning that customer loyalty isn’t that high.
A sprawling investment firm
Another option is Man Group (LSE:EMG). With a share price of £2.59 and a dividend yield of 4.99%, it ticks the boxes. Over the past year the share price is up 8%.
The business had a mixed 2023. Net inflows of £2.36bn for the year were modest given the £100bn+ size of the fund. However, it was 4.9% ahead of the industry for inflows, so this is worth noting. Pre-tax profit fell by 56%, driven by lower performance fees.
It also has a diversified performance across different investing strategies. This includes discretionary (where the manager has full control of what to buy and sell) as well as multi-manager (where several managers all contribute). So if one underperforms and investors pull their money out, the negative overall impact is somewhat limited.
I don’t think the dividend is under any real threat going forward. It has grown dividend per share payments for each of the last five years and it has good cash flow metrics.
However, it should be noted that we’re entering a volatile period for financial markets. This includes key elections in the US and UK, alongside several large economies starting to pivot and cut interest rates. The rockiness ahead could mean tough seas to navigate.
I like both stocks for income and am seriously thinking about adding them to my portfolio.
