How to Buy Tesco Shares UK in 2022 – A Beginner’s Guide

Tesco is best known for its sprawling grocery and department stores. The company controls more than one-quarter of the grocery market in the UK and is a dominant player in food shopping in countries throughout Europe and Asia.

As one of the UK’s largest companies, Tesco is also a member of the FTSE 100.

If you want to buy Tesco shares but don’t know how to get started, this guide is for you. We’ll walk you through the basics of buying Tesco shares and compare some popular brokers.

Where to Buy Tesco Shares

But before you dive into buying shares, it’s important to note that online brokers differ in what you’re actually purchasing. Some brokers enable you to buy shares outright, which gives you exposure to the share price and makes you eligible for dividends.

Other brokers enable you to buy and sell contracts for difference (CFDs), which are derivatives that give you exposure to the share price without actually owning the shares themselves.

With that difference in mind, let’s dive into a comparison of some popular UK share brokers.

1. eToro

eToro is more than just a stockbroker. It’s also a full-fledged social network where you can follow other trader’s buying and selling activity, start discussions, and gauge market sentiment. Even better, beginner traders can take advantage of copy trading. This feature lets you use a portion of your portfolio to automatically copy the buying and selling activity of professional traders on eToro.

This investment platform gives you access to trade shares for more than 800 companies around the globe. You get to decide whether you want to buy shares outright or trade CFDs. eToro offers leverage of up to 1:5 for share trading. If you want to buy shares on the go, you can download the eToro mobile app.

Also, eToro is 100% commission free when you trade shares or any other assets on the platform. You will be charged a small spread, but eToro keeps the bid and ask prices very tight for most share trades. Beware the withdrawal and inactivity fees on this platform, though, which can add up if you’re not careful about managing your account.

You can try out eToro for free courtesy of the demo account or jump in with a $200 minimum deposit, which you can make via a range of methods, including PayPal. eToro is licensed by the FCA, in addition to several other authorities, so it’s a very secure and trustworthy investment platform.

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Plus500 offers CFD trading for hundreds of global shares. It’s ideal if you only have a small amount of money to invest since you have the option to leverage your trades at up to 1:20. The broker doesn’t charge any trading commissions and the spreads on share trades are well below market average.

One of the main things about Plus500 is the trading platform. You get access to dozens of useful technical indicators, drawing tools, and beginner-friendly charts. Plus, the platform includes price alerts that you can customise so you never miss the opportunity to buy Tesco shares on a pullback.

The only downside to Plus500 is that it doesn’t offer all the tools that some advanced investors need. You cannot create custom indicators with the charting software, and there is no way to backtest a strategy. However, you can try out a new strategy in real time using the free demo platform.

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Why Do People Invest in Tesco?

Tesco is the single largest grocer in the UK and one of the top 10 largest retailers in the world by revenue. While size is in some respects an indicator of success, it’s important to consider what the future may bring for Tesco before you decide whether or not to invest.

Dividend

Tesco shares come with a dividend. The company makes two dividend payments per year, and the amount of each payment has been increasing rapidly. The last dividend, in October 2019, was 2.65p per share. The next dividend, scheduled for July 2020, is expected to be 6.5p per share. That is the equivalent to a 4% return on Tesco shares each year.

About Tesco Shares

Company and Share History

Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a set of food stalls in the UK. The first storefront opened in Middlesex in 1931, and Cohen opened more than 100 Tesco stores across the UK by the start of World War II. The company prospered during the 1940s and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1947.

By the end of the 1960s, Tesco acquired or opened more than 800 stores. It outbid its closest competitor, Sainburys, for the Scotland-based chain William Low in 1994. Tesco also expanded internationally throughout the 1990s, although it pulled out of the US market in 2013.

Tesco also slowly diversified its range of products over the course of decades. The company has sold petrol since the 1960s and began selling retail goods online in the late 1990s. Tesco also introduced the Clubcard, which has enabled it to maintain customer loyalty and provided it with data that has been critical in giving it an advantage over competitors.

Tesco Share Price

Tesco began trading in 1947 on the London Stock Exchange at a price of 25p per share. Tesco shares rose quickly in value during the 1990s as the company expanded into new markets, both at home in the UK and abroad, and the share price reached an all-time high of 491p in 2007.

However, Tesco declined for several years after the financial crisis amid lacklustre revenue growth and failure in the US grocery market. Today, Tesco shares trade for around 226p.

How to Buy Tesco Shares 

To help you get started with buying Tesco shares through a UK stock brokers, we’ll show you how the process works.

Step 1: Search for Tesco Shares

Enter ‘Tesco’ in the search bar at the top of the page. Click on the company when it appears in the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Click on ‘Trade’

From the Tesco company page, click on ‘Trade’ to open a new order.

Step 3: Buy Tesco Shares

You should now see an order form that needs to be filled out with the following information:

• Amount: How many shares of Tesco do you want to buy? You can enter an amount to invest in US dollars, or click the ‘Units’ button and specify a number of Tesco  shares. Note that eToro supports buying fractional shares.
• Set Rate: If you select ‘Market’ then the platform will buy Tesco shares for you at the current market price. You can also choose to create a limit order by setting the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for Tesco shares. Your order will only be executed if the price of Tesco falls below your maximum price.
• Stop loss: We highly recommend setting a stop loss with every trade. This is a price below the price you pay for Tesco. If Tesco shares fall to your stop loss price, eToro will automatically sell your shares to prevent you from taking a bigger financial loss.
• Take Profit: If you want to sell your shares after a certain amount of profit, you can include a take profit level in your order. When Tesco shares reach this price, the platform will sell all your shares. Don’t enter a take profit price if you plan to hold Tesco for the long term.

You can also specify how much leverage you want to use when trading share CFDs. We recommend against using leverage if you are new to share trading since it significantly increases your financial risk if a trade goes poorly.

When you’re ready to buy Tesco shares, click ‘Trade’ to complete your order.

Conclusion

Tesco is the largest grocer in the UK and operates grocery chains in a number of global markets. It is considered a defensive stock that is relatively resistant to economic downturns.

Tesco stock also has a dividend yield of more than 4%. That said, the company has struggled since the share price peaked in 2007, so potential investors should look carefully at what the future has in store for Tesco.

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