The week’s best shares

CVS Group The Times

The vet group has 480 surgeries, laboratories, crematoria and an online pharmacy. Rising sales, thanks to increasing pet ownership, have pushed down debt and leverage, giving scope for acquisitions. Buy. £14.35.

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund The Daily Telegraph

This fund invests in hi-tech batteries – helping the grid balance supply and demand by storing excess electricity. A pipeline of planned expansion will triple capacity as the need for “buffering” increases. Yields 6.6%. Buy. 106p.

Pennon Group The Times

This well-run FTSE 100 water firm is sitting on a £2.7bn cash pile after the £4bn sale of waste-recycling business Viridor. If it doesn’t buy another water monopoly, there could be a “giant cash handover”. Buy. 964.5p.

Sage Investors Chronicle

Profits have wobbled at Britain’s biggest listed software firm due to a Covid-related £17m bad debt provision. But Sage is a “high-quality stock”, committed to investing in its cloud operations. Revenues have grown 8.5% Buy. 590p.

Severfield Investors Chronicle

The structural steelmaker, known for The Shard and Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium, has fared well in the pandemic. Nuclear and infrastructure projects have fuelled a growing order book. Buy. 67p.

Vodafone Group The Times

Under new leadership, the giant telecoms group has won a £2bn tax dispute in India and hived off its European masts arm. Returning to growth, and debt is coming down. Cheap, and yields 6.28%. Buy. 125.25p.