Five to buy
Ashtead
A quiet US hurricane and wildfire season dented performance last year at this FTSE 100 industrial-equipment rental specialist, but fickle City investors should take a long-term view. The US-focused group is a major winner from Joe Biden’s infrastructure splurge, with exposure to 499 projects collectively worth $620bn. Managers of “mega-projects” (think new solar and wind farms) prefer to work with established businesses like Ashtead, which bring “scale and financial muscle” to
