MoneyWeek’s comprehensive guide to this week’s share tips

Three to buy

Fever-Tree Drinks

The Sunday Telegraph Demand for upmarket mixers from pubs, hotels and restaurants “has been decimated by lockdowns over the past two years”. But strong consumption at home drove a 23% increase in sales for FeverTree last year. This was helped by new launches and a shift in marketing spending towards consumers drinking at home. The company will now have to deal with inflation, which has already caused a decline in gross margins of 4.1%.

But it holds nearly 40% of the UK retail mixer market and is the dominant tonic and gingerbeer brand in the US, which provides it with “significant pricing power that should offset higher costs”. 1,843p.

Hilton Food Group

The Sunday Times

Britons eat 2.5 billion beef burgers and 6.1 billion rashers of bacon each year, and Hilton provides a “significant chunk” of that. Recent acquisitions have bolstered and diversified its business, including the UK’s biggest butcher to the hospitality industry, a smoked salmon firm that takes it into the US, and a Dutch veganproducts company. Those deals have pushed up debt, but there’s “plenty of headroom” and they will plump up profits. 1,132p.

M&G

Shares

An ageing population and the need to fund retirement should fuel growth in the savings market. Insurer and asset manager M&G is wellplaced to benefit. The group is ahead of its targets for capital generation and cost savings. This has allowed it to launch a £500m share buyback programme that, together with dividends, will mean M&G has returned £1.8bn of capital to shareholders since it was spun out of Prudential in 2019. 225p.