Thursday newspaper share tips: Investing in Legal and General a good insurance policy

Betting on Legal and General may be a good long-term strategy, according to The Times’s Tempus.

The insurer posted a 14% rise in net cash generation for the first nine months of the year on Wednesday as it said it is ahead of its target to deliver £80m of operating cost savings this year.

Tempus said the business is having a bit of a tidy up as it moves its operating model away from having large amounts of capital to a model whether others take on the asset risk. On top of that, it is selling non-core businesses around the world, leaving markets where it doesn’t have a large base, and cutting £80m in costs this year.

However, Tempus noted its performance really comes down to cash generation, which beat market forecasts again. This frees up money to cover an assured 13.5p dividend which offers a 5% yield. For those reasons, it has suggested the shares are worth a long-term buy.

Over in The Telegraph, Questor is keeping an eye on a few smaller stocks, particularly traffic and transport analysis group Tracsis.

After the AIM-listed firm reporting a solid set of annual results on Wednesday, the share price dropped 2%. But based on some healthy cash generation, its long term growth prospects look good.

Questor highlighted that software contracts are long-term in their nature, which makes the company very cash generative. This led cash levels to rise from £8.9m to £13.3m at the end of July. With the shares highly valued and an expectation that pre-tax profits will increase more than 20% to £6.1m, Questor says it’s a share worth buying.