The assessment of ordinary shares is at present the subject of intense activity. A full-scale professional analysis of a particular share can, however, be a most formidable document and one which does not produce the answer to the question ‘What long term return can I expect from my investment?’ On the other hand a simple statement of dividend cover and dividend yield at the current price is clearly insufficient to decide on the merits of a share.

This paper describes a method of assessing ordinary shares in terms of ‘expected yield’, i.e. the compound interest return which a long-term buyer would expect to obtain from his investment, and includes a note on a simple way of adjusting a company's published rates of dividend and earnings to produce a consistent growth record suitable for use in estimating the expected yield.