| Daily Mail share tips: Ashtead
When I first considered equipment rental group Ashtead as a possible tip for this page, I rejected it out of hand. Capital intensive, highly indebted and hugely exposed to the American construction market - I could see why the stock had been savaged. From a peak of over 180p in February last year it has more than halved in value. Add to that a rather chequered past and Ashtead wouldn't strike the lay observer as the ideal investment in these troubled times. But dig beneath the surface and you discover what appears to be some disparity between City perception, which has seen the stock punished so heavily, and reality. Ashtead has been sold down on the back of a disintegrating American housing market and fears over the health of the economy on the other side of the Atlantic.
Property taxes create hardship, hurt home sales in Broward
Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, who moderated the forums in Broward and Palm Beach counties on Monday.
"It's really unfair," said Mays, 48, an accountant/bookkeeper. "You can find decently priced homes, but the taxes still put it out of the ballpark."
Jeff Levine, a real estate agent for Illustrated Properties in Palm Beach County, uses his house as an example of the dilemma facing homeowners.
On a property he bought 12 years ago for $180,000, he pays annual taxes of about $3,700. The Save Our Homes amendment to the state Constitution prevents taxes from rising more than 3 percent a year on homesteaded properties. Homeowners, however, lose that protection when they move.
So if Levine were to sell and buy a $500,000 home, his tax bill would climb to $10,000.
Activist investors should look before they leap
Sir Stuart Rose must feel as if he were living a nightmare. Marks & Spencer shares are trading at two-year lows, like-for-like sales are heading south and gossip has it that Sir Philip Green, his old sparring partner, is stalking the business again. The Bhs billionaire was quick to laugh off rumours that he had been buying shares in M&S - "I didn't buy any when I wanted the business, why would I now?" - but it's a sign of the times. Some of the high street's biggest names have taken such a tumble on the stock market that activist investors are said to be scrutinising potential bargains for the first time in months. Remember last May 11? Tony Blair had just abdicated, a Scottish businessman was offering £1million to help to find Madeleine McCann and Lewis Hamilton had yet to win a grand prix.
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