The Aim 100 2015: Part 2 intro

That’s not to say we neglect the smaller end of Aim entirely – it’s proved a mostly happy hunting ground for Simon Thompson, and our companies writers are always on the lookout for small, innovative companies within their sectors; in fact, we’ve tipped two companies outside of the Aim 100 this week.

However, the fundamental approach to stockpicking we prefer to take means we focus our efforts at the large end of the junior market where research coverage is more plentiful, and in particular the 174 Aim-traded shares whose equity is valued at more than £100m. According to the March figures from the London Stock Exchange, those companies are worth a combined £51bn – a massive 70 per cent of Aim’s total market capitalisation concentrated in just 16 per cent of its constituents.

Finally, I’d like to present some statistics that appear to support the idea that it is Aim’s largest companies that are most likely to generate decent returns for investors. I analysed the 841 companies that make up Aim’s non-international constituents and found a marked contrast in performance between the 166 companies valued at more than £100m – 20 per cent of the total – and the rest. More than half of those companies saw a positive share price return last year, and on average they were up 20 per cent; conversely only 26 per cent of sub-£100m companies ended the year in positive territory, with the average return a shocking loss of 13 per cent. And 60 per cent of the larger companies pay a dividend, with an average yield of 1.7 per cent. Below £100m the proportion falls to just over a fifth offering a yield of just 0.7 per cent. It seems that when investing in Aim, size matters after all. Click on the links below to read part two of our review in full.

50-41: Staffline to Sirius Real Estate

40-31: Patisserie to Smart Metering Systems

30-21: CVS to Monitise

20-11: Safecharge International to Secure Trust Bank

10-1: EMIS to Asos

Aim 100 part 1

The Aim 100: 50 to 1

The Aim 100: 100 to 51