Just released: our 3 best dividend-focused stocks to buy before August [PREMIUM PICKS]

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• B&M’s share price was down roughly 17% year to date as of writing (16^th July) due to investor fears over slowing growth for the UK’s leading discounter. 
• While FY25 is likely going to be a year of negative like-for-like growth at B&M’s UK stores, the sky is not collapsing on the business. In Q1 overall group revenue was still up 2.4% year-on-year thanks to new store openings, great trading from B&M France, and Heron Foods continuing to do well.
• We were also told in the Q1 trading update that gross margins were strong and the company is exiting the summer months with a clean inventory position. That its buying teams accomplished this despite a poor summer so far weather-wise points to the impressive work in forecasting and purchasing B&M’s purchasing managers do. 
• Although free cash flow is going to continue reducing from the peak of the lockdown-impacted pandemic years, B&M is still recording significantly higher profits and cash flow than it was pre-pandemic. With rising scale and the French business growing quickly and now profitable, we’re hopeful that can continue. 
• At 13 times trailing earnings with a trailing ordinary payout of 3.1% supplemented by fairly regular special dividends, we think B&M is worth considering this month. 

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