One doesn’t need to invest a fortune in order to make healthy returns from UK shares. A modest initial outlay can help to significantly boost my wealth. And right now I’m searching for the best penny stocks to buy in April.
I have £753 sitting in my account waiting to be used. If I used this to buy stocks I could — based on the average rate of return of 8% a year — potentially turn this into £7,577 after 30 years.
Here are three of the best penny stocks to buy to boost my long-term wealth.
A top renewable energy stock
Manufacturers of hydrogen fuel cells like AFC Energy (LSE: AFC) will play a huge part in the clean energy revolution. This particular company specialises in ‘green’ hydrogen, too, the sort that doesn’t need to be generated using fossil fuels. Because of its lower carbon footprint it’s seen as the future of the hydrogen market versus dirtier ‘grey’ and ‘blue’ versions of the gas.
Green hydrogen is yet to be adopted on the scale of other low-carbon energies. And so AFC could be considered far more speculative than other renewable energy stocks. But momentum here is showing signs of improvement (in November, for instance, construction equipment giant JCB agreed a deal with Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries to import billions of pounds worth of the green gas).
Another low-carbon penny stock
I also think Berkeley Energia (LSE: BKY) could be a great stock to buy as the planet reduces fossil fuel usage. It isn’t a renewable energy stock but a uranium miner which is focussed on developing the Salamanca project in Spain. The radioactive material will be essential in helping the nuclear sector pick up some of the slack from reduced oil and gas demand.
Berkeley hopes that Salamanca will produce 4.4m pounds of uranium a year when it is up and running. That’s equivalent to a tenth of Europe’s total current usage. This penny stock is packed with potential, though remember that any issues developing the mine and getting production up and running could decimate profit targets and cause problems with project funding.
Protect and serve
I believe Corero Network Security (LSE: CNS) could deliver mighty shareholder profits as the digital revolution rolls on. As the name suggests, this tech share specialises in protecting users from cyber attacks. And more specifically, Corero provides defence from distributed denial of service (or DDoS) attacks. These are the attacks that bombard a website with large data requests that exceed site capacity and cause a crash.
Cyber attacks have been around for decades but the number is growing particularly strongly today. That’s thanks in parts to the rapid rise of state-sponsored electronic warfare to take down companies and government installations. Smaller operators like Corero will have to paddle extremely hard to survive alongside major industry players like IBM and Microsoft. But the rate at which this industry is growing still suggests this could still be a top penny stock to own.