I’m still on the lookout for top stocks to buy in 2021. Here’s a UK share and a US stock I’m thinking of adding to my Stocks and Shares ISA today.
Road warrior
I reckon that Hill and Smith’s (LSE: HILS) a UK share that could deliver big returns over the next 10 years. This business is most famous for building the crash barriers that can be found alongside roads. But it offers an array of other roadside furniture like signs, lighting apparatus and bridges too.
Its operations can be found all over the globe, from Australia and Sweden to the UK and the US. In my opinion, it can expect demand for its products to rise as huge infrastructure-building projects come on stream in the years ahead.
Yet a risk to Hill & Smith’s profits outlook in the UK has just emerged. The government plans to launch a £27bn road-building programme, a move that should provide a meaty revenues boost for the UK share. But a legal challenge on environmental grounds threatens to scupper the construction project. I still think the firm is an attractive buy though, even with that UK issue.
Profits projections can fall short if trading conditions change. But City analysts think Hill & Smith’s earnings will rise 31% in 2021. This leaves it trading on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 20 times.
A green US share
I believe that buying Blink Charging (NASDAQ: BLNK) is another good investment idea for the 2020s.
This US share builds and operates charging stations from which drivers can juice up their vehicles at home, at work or on the street. This puts it in pole position to ride the EV revolution in my opinion.
Despite the broader slowdown in the new car market last year, sales of these cars rose 4% in Blink Charging’s home territory of the US in 2020. Demand for low-carbon vehicles is likely to keep growing too, as legislators are increasingly laying down ambitious targets for EV adoption, and car manufacturers accelerate development in this particular field.
That said, I think there is a serious threat to Blink Charging’s long-term earnings outlook. Plug-in EV sales are soaring today, sure, but hydrogen vehicles may eventually prove to be the winner. They’re quicker to fill up and their fuel cells offer better range than the majority of electric batteries. New hydrogen fuelling stations are also being built all over the world. And the world’s largest carmakers are also investing huge sums into this form of green mobility too. Hyundai, for example, has just announced plans to build a vast hydrogen cell manufacturing plant in China.
Despite this risk, I still feel that Blink Charging could deliver big returns for UK share investors over the next decade. This is even though City analysts expect the company to remain loss-making this year. And especially as the company aggressively builds out its charging station network through a mix of organic investment and acquisition activity.
