Top 5 UK Stocks For Q4

The UK stock markets is one of the most closely watched in the world and has attracted a high number of Initial Public Offerings this year. It includes some of the world's most exciting companies, ranging from the new gig economy to the traditional banking and oil sectors. Below we take a look at some of the stocks that caught our attention recently and are keeping in our watchlist throughout the fourth quarter of the year.

• Deliveroo (ROO.uk)
• TESCO (TSCO.uk)
• Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.uk)
• Barclays (BARC.uk)
• BP (BP.uk)

Deliveroo (ROO.uk)

• Deliveroo is an online food delivery platform that connects millions of customers, more than 130,000 restaurants and grocers and 100,000+ riders, operating in more than 10 countries.

• It was founded in 2013 and went public on March 31 2021, in one of the most anticipated IPOs of this year, which proved disappointing though, as the stock slumped on the first day.

• In August, the company reported Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of £3,385.8 million for the first half of the year (H1 2021), double its H1 2020 figure, while Revenues surged to £922.5 million. In Wednesday's trading update it upgraded its full year GTV Growth guidance to 60%-70% (from 50-60% previously). We will be looking forward to see if this will materialize, or if the return to normalcy an easing pandemic restriction will stall growth.

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• Another potential risk factor is the regulation of the gig economy, as there have been challenges to the self-employed status of drivers, which is preferred by delivery companies.

• In September, the firm announced a partnership with retail giant Amazon (AMZN.us) to offer free Deliveroo Plus membership for a year, to all new and existing UK and Ireland (UKI) Amazon Prime members, giving them unlimited free delivery on orders over £25. On Wednesday's update, the firm acknowledged excellent initial traction from the partnership, with Plus members in UKI more than doubling since the program's launch.

• After its initial three months slump, the stock recovered during the summer and ROO.uk reached record highs (396.00p) a few days after its H1 results, however September performance was negative. In October it tried to recover but rejected the 38.2% Fibonacci of the drop from the record highs to this month's lows and stays in the red.

TESCO (TSCO.uk)

• Tesco is a British multinational retailer, mostly known for its supermarket chains, with the first store having opened in 1929 in London.

• On October 6, the company reported Group Sales rose to £27.331 billion for the first half of 2021/2022, with its Chief Executive commenting that "sales and profit have grown ahead of expectations, and we've outperformed the market".

• It also announced a £500million share buyback program, as competitors such as Morrison are being bought out, or are under M&A speculation.

• In mid-October, Tesco opened its first checkout-free store "GetGO" in central London, in which customers can shop and pay without scanning a product or using a checkout.

• TSCO.us rose more than 10% in the third quarter of the year and in October it advanced to levels not seen since 2014.

Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.uk)

• Vodafone is a UK-based multinational telecommunications company, with 18+ million customers in the UK and 625+ million globally, operating in 24 countries.

• Vodaphone has put great emphasis in 5G and claims to be Europe's leading converged operator with the largest 5G mobile network. Furthermore, Vodafone owns one of the continent's largest and most geographically diversified tower company – Vantage Towers.

• As per the July financial results, it returned to Revenue growth in Q1 FY22, which came in at to €11.1 billion, with the German market being the main contributor. Now we will be looking forward to the financial results for the first half of FY 2022, which are due on November 16th.

• VOD.uk had reached 2021 highs back in May (142.84), but has since underperformed and trades firmly in negative territory for the year. During Q3 it slipped more that 6% and in October it has extended losses to new 2021 lows, while trying to retain a price above 110.00p.

Barclays (BARC.uk)

• Barclays is a British universal bank, headquartered in London and established in 1896 as a limited company. It provides not only retail banking but also corporate and investment banking services.

• On Thursday, the Group reported Income of £5.465 billion for the third quarter - a slight improvement compared to both the prior quarter and Q3 2020.

• During the third quarter, Barclays announced an investment of around £300 million (Rs. 3,000 crore) to reinforce its India operations, almost a decade after it quit its retail business in the country and around 7 years after it had shut down its equities division.

• The current low rates environment is generally viewed as headwind for the banking sector, but it looks like the Bank of England could begin hikes soon. At the time of writing, CME's BoE WatchTool implied lift-off within the year.

• BARC.uk has registered a nearly 15% rise in the third quarter and October is its 4th straight profitable month, during which it set 3+ year highs, helped partly by rising rate hike expectation by the Bank of England.

BP (BP.uk)

• BP is British multinational firm and one of the biggest oil and gas producers in the world, with a portfolio of brands such as Aral and Castrol.

• The oil giant delivered better than expected results in the second quarter, reporting Underlying Earnings of $2.798 billion, higher than Q1 2021.

• British Petroleum reports its Q3 results on November 2nd, during which it expects higher oil production & operations and higher product demand across its customer business. We will also be eagerly anticipating any commentary around its renewables progress and its recent transformation effort to become an integrated energy company.

• BP's stock had plunged during the pandemic and the collapse of oil prices and demand, but has been on a recovery path for over a year BP.uk had an ascending third quarter, despite July's dip, pushing to new 2021 high in October.