Russ Mould is AJ Bell's Investment Director. He has a Master's degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and more than 30 years' experience of the capital markets.
He started out at Scottish Equitable in 1991 as a fund manager, where he had responsibility for the Nordic and Swiss equity markets. In 1993, Russ joined SG Warburg, now part of UBS investment bank, and worked there as an equity analyst covering the technology sectors for 12 years. He has also worked on IPOs and M&A deals. Russ was voted best analyst in the semiconductor sector in 2001 by Institutional Investor and reached the level of Managing Director in 2003 when he became head of UBS' global semiconductor research effort.
A member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (MSCI), Russ is responsible for providing written and video content for customers and clients. He also helps to build the company’s profile in print and broadcast media as part of AJ Bell's wider PR and brand team, working alongside the Investment Committee.
Russ joined Shares Magazine as technology correspondent in 2005 and took on the post of Editor in 2008. He was appointed as AJ Bell's Investment Director in 2013 following the company's acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media. Russ regularly creates content across the AJ Bell website, including the Daily Market Update and Chart of the Week, and he hosts his own 'Breaking the Mould' weekly video series.
Outside of work, Russ is a qualified cricket coach, Italian speaker and avid fan of Doctor Who and NFL.
27 July 2020
Gold could shine brighter still as precious metal reaches new record highGold’s potential as an investment arouses strong emotions. Some investors love it as a potential hedge against inflation, some against deflation and some against unforeseeable disasters and market dislocations, while others detest it, viewing the precious metal as a barbarous relic or inert useless lump. But with gold reaching a new all-time high...
9 July 2020
Recruiters offer a little ray of hope for second halfTrading updates from recruitment specialists Robert Walters and PageGroup reveal just how tough the second quarter of 2020 has been for jobseekers. Robert Walters’ gross profit fell 33% year-on-year and Page’s net fee income by 47%, on a constant currency basis. Both firms also saw a fall in headcount at their own businesses. However, both...
8 July 2020
Stamp duty sugar rush for the housing marketToday’s statement was always likely to focus on ‘good’ news items designed to stir the UK economy from its economic slumber. We got that in the form of a big VAT cut for the hospitality sector, new job creation programmes and a headline-grabbing reduction in stamp duty.
However, the Chancellor was clear stabilising the public finances and paying...
6 July 2020
14 FTSE 100 firms have broken their ten-year dividend growth streaksThe pandemic and economic downturn have taken their toll on the FTSE 100’s elite list of serial dividend raisers. Just 14 firms can now point to a record of at least ten consecutive increases in their annual dividend, down from 25 at the start of the year, and that includes three newcomers - Pennon, Legal & General and Intermediate Capital.
The...
3 July 2020
Land Securities primed to restore dividend paymentsThe Restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II is seen by many historians as the end of the joyless times of the Commonwealth and a return to jollier ones under Old Rowley and his merry gang of courtiers, so equity investors will be hoping that Land Securities’ decision to restore its dividend in 2020 is a sign of better times to come for...
25 June 2020
Shareholders left wishing they could return Royal Mail to senderToday’s full-year results from Royal Mail, which live down to very low profit expectations, confirm the cancellation of the dividend and acknowledge the firm’s failure to move with the times, mean the debate over who got short-changed and by how much when Royal Mail was floated by the Cameron-Osborne administration in autumn 2013 is over. As it...
17 June 2020
Berkeley builds up land bank even as it returns more cash to shareholdersThe record of the management team at Berkeley Group, and chairman Tony Pidgley in particular, at calling the housing cycle is second to none so investors will be intrigued to see the group build up its land bank for the second year in a row, even as it continues to return plenty of cash to shareholders via dividends and buybacks.
Even if the cash...
16 June 2020
Ashtead keeps dividend streak alive as it focuses on cashReports of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan from the White House in the USA could make it a doubly good day for investors in Ashtead, as the equipment hire specialist is already pleasing them with an unchanged final dividend for its financial year to April. That means the full-year payment is up very slightly on last year, to both confound...
11 June 2020
UK banks sit bottom of the global pileBoosted by governments’ plans to ease their respective lockdowns, as well as fiscal and stimulus programmes designed to support the global economy, banking stocks had been on a roll worldwide, at least until the US Federal Reserve’s statement yesterday, but the UK was a notable exception to that trend, as performance from the Big Five FTSE 100...
11 June 2020
Johnson Matthey dividend cut another jolt for income seekersJohnson Matthey’s decision to cut its dividend – and in the process end a streak of increases that dates back to the late 1980s – means that 48 FTSE 100 firms have now announced some kind of reduction to or suspension of payments to shareholders, compared to 47 that have kept or increased them since the start of the year.
Five FTSE 100 firms –...
