Dividend income accounts for around two-thirds of total returns, the actual rate of return taking into account both capital and income appreciation. Given that share prices are often volatile and unpredictable, the potential for plump dividends can give shareholders much-needed peace of mind for decent returns.

I am currently looking at the dividend prospects of Tesco (LSE: TSCO) (NASDAQOTH: TSCDY.US) and assessing whether the company is an appetising pick for income investors.

How does Tesco's dividend history stack up?

Source: Tesco Company Accounts

Historically speaking, Tesco has an enviable track record of delivering annual dividend increases, with 2012's full-year payment representing the 28^th consecutive year of payout expansion.

This record was put on hold last year amid wavering fortunes for the giant retailer, however. Difficulties across the British retail environment, falling domestic market share in the grocery space, property writedowns in the UK and Europe, and a costly exit from its toiling Fresh & Easy US operation prompted the company to put the dividend on hold as earnings collapsed. The company saw pre-tax profit slump 51.5% in the year ending March 2013, to £2bn, the first time profits had dipped for some two decades.

What are Tesco's dividends expected to do?

Source: Digital Look

Tesco said in last year's release that it attempt to deliver dividend growth 'broadly in line with underlying earnings, with a target cover of more than 2 times.' And City analysts expect the dividend to tread tentatively higher in the medium term as a more UK-centric approach, from which the supermarket generates some two-thirds of profits, kicks into gear.

The supermarket's toiling performance has prompted a call to arms by the board -- domestic sales rose just 1.8% last year but fell 1% on a like-for-like basis -- and its 'Build a Better Tesco' scheme started last year encompasses extensive store refurbishments, better pricing, product improvements, as well as an end to its multi-year strategy of rapidly expanding its selling space at home.

How does Tesco's dividend prospects rate against the competition?

Source: Digital Look

Tesco currently deals on a P/E rating of 11.4 for 2014, making it an attractive dividend pick compared with the wider FTSE 100.

A scattering of companies skews the price rating of the food & drug retailers sector, however, so a comparison with listed rivals J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison provides a more accurate picture of how Tesco rates. The former boasts a prospective yield of 4.3% and deals on a forward earnings multiple of 12.3, with the latter expected to yield 4.4% and presently trading at 11.2.

In this respect there is not a mammoth gap between the readings of the three companies, although strictly on the basis of shareholder payments both of Tesco's rivals offer larger yields.

Personally I believe that Tesco is a stock worthy of strong consideration, as I believe it has both the financial clout as well as the know-how to overcome the troubles of the past year. The company is starting to seriously address the challenge laid down by its rivals in the UK retail space, and although its US operations failed to ignite, it is planning to ramp up activity in Asia where trade has remained promising. I think Tesco is an exciting turnaround story and expect rebounding profits to drag dividends higher in coming years.

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There are things to love and loathe about most companies. Today, I'm going to tell you about three things to loathe about US tech titan Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL.US).

I'll also be asking whether these negative factors make Apple a poor investment today.

DNA

"Innovation is in the company's DNA". Apple is the company to which this cliché is most frequently applied. It's a comforting idea for fans of Apple to believe that innovation is hard-wired into the business and that it will always continue to innovate as if that's its biological destiny.

The idea is rubbish of course: nurture not nature is responsible for innovation. And the environment within a business that nurtures innovation can easily change for the worse.

In its heyday, ICI was a top-three global company and one of the greatest innovators around, creating polythene, perspex, and Paludrine (the first really effective synthetic treatment against malaria), among a host of game-changing products. Innovation was in ICI's DNA -- except one day it wasn't and the business went into decline.

Loss of Jobs

How important was Steve Jobs to Apple's success? It's only 18 months or so since the death of the company's charismatic leader and we don't yet know.

It takes a good few years for a new Apple product to get from conception to market, so the mystery new product category the company is currently talking about, in which it expects to launch later this year, will still have come from Jobs's vision.

We won't discover until a next generation of Apple products whether the company, post-Jobs, has the same degree of innovation and instinct for what will ring up big dollars in the marketplace.

Analysts still love Apple

Despite the decline of Apple's shares over the past nine months -- from over $700 to around $430 -- the vast majority of analysts are standing by the company, recommending it as a buy or strong buy. In the most negative roundup of recommendations I've seen, just two out of the dozens of City experts that cover Apple have it marked down as a sell.

I prefer to see the market and the analysts bearish on a company before rating the stock a possible 'darkest-hour' contrarian opportunity.

A poor investment?

The City experts are by no means always wrong, and on the face of it Apple's stock does look 'cheap'. At a share price of around $430, the company is on a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.8 for the year ending September 2013, falling to 9.7 the following year -- and that ignores the $153 a share in cash on the balance sheet.

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When I heard the news, I had to double-check my sums. And sure enough, £20 divided by 91 pence did indeed equal 22.

My calculation confirmed - as if we didn't know already - that we're in the midst of a bull run.

The magnificent Severn

To put you in the picture, the £20 is the price a consortium could be willing to pay for each share of Severn Trent (LSE: SVT).

Meanwhile, the 91 pence is the adjusted earnings per share figure reported by the water supplier for the twelve months to September 2012. And, of course, the 22 is the resulting P/E ratio.

Now I don't know about you, but paying 22 times profits for any blue chip - let alone a regulated utility - looks very ambitious to me.

Let me stress that the £20 is a rumoured price... but even so, Severn Trent shares traded at £18 before the bid approach.

Which suggests some investors have been happy to pay at least 20 times trailing profits for what is fundamentally a low-growth business.

As I say, we're in the midst of a bull run.

The hunt for a certain income

Question is... why would anyone want to pay 20-plus times profits for Severn Trent, especially when the wider market trades on a multiple of 13?

Well, a clue comes from the potential bidders. You see, the consortium circling the water firm includes two pension funds. And as you'd expect, pension funds like to invest with long-term certainty to ensure their members never go short in retirement.

In years gone by, government bonds (or gilts) used to be the obvious choice for such dependable returns. But these days, with the UK's triple-A rating long gone and monetary policy keeping medium-term gilt yields below 1%, the hunt for reliable long-term income has turned to shares.

And when it comes to shares, you can't get more reliable than utilities.

Somebody somewhere must be working overtime on a spreadsheet

Severn Trent's dividend record underlines the predictability. After privatisation in 1989, the blue-chip's annual payout has gushed from 17.6p to 70.1p per share - equivalent to a compound growth rate of almost 7%.

What's more, the group plans to keep its dividends flowing, with payout lifts of RPI plus 3% every year until 2015.

Throw in two chunky special dividends paid in recent years - and assuming all of us will still need to use water! - and you can start to see why some pension funds would like to own Severn Trent all for themselves.

But at 20-plus times earnings!? I am sure those pension funds must be working overtime on a spreadsheet to justify that valuation.

For what it's worth, the bosses at Severn Trent today said the approach "completely fails to recognise the existing and potential value" of the water supplier. Those bosses must be working hard on a spreadsheet, too.

Have I said we're in the midst of a bull run?

Whether this approach comes to something or nothing is difficult to say right now. But I bet Severn Trent investors are sitting pretty with smug grins right now, having seen their reliable plodder double in value - as well as produce handsome dividends - since the financial crash.

My view? It's hard to see 'smart money' buying a regulated utility after the price has rallied 100% to a P/E of 20.

Indeed, as so often happens in bull runs - powerful investors get carried away with a rising market... and giving us sensible Fools the option to cash out with a healthy gain and smug grin. The task now of course is to find 'the next Severn Trent'...

And that's something I've charged the expert team at Motley Fool Share Advisor to do straight away.

23 'buys' for today's bull run

Because in a bull run, you never know how much a keen bidder could be prepared to pay for your favourite shares.

In fact, the Share Advisor team may have already unearthed another 'reliable plodder' that can one day capture the imagination of the market (or ambitious pension funds).

Certainly looking through the team's 23-share 'buy' list, I see many names with what I believe are decent prospects and confident dividends... yet languish on ratings well below Severn Trent's P/E of 20.

You can see these 23 'buys' for yourself by joining Motley Fool Share Advisor today.

It's just my opinion, but I can't see all those 23 'buys' remaining cheap for long if this bull run continues.

Until next time, I wish you happy and profitable investing!

The shares of Severn Trent (LSE: SVT) dropped 50p to £20.27 during early London trade this morning after the FTSE 100 member said it had rejected a bid proposal.

Severn Trent, which supplies water to 4.2 million premises in the Midlands and Wales, claimed the takeover approach "completely failed to recognise the existing and potential value" of the group.

The approach, made by a consortium consisting of Borealis Infrastructure Management, the Kuwait Investment Office and Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, was revealed yesterday by Severn Trent and caused the water supplier's shares to jump as much as 18%.

Severn Trent today disclosed the approach had valued the shares at "only a modest premium" to the £18.25 price seen before yesterday's announcement.

On Monday, the investment publication Financial News claimed the consortium could be willing to offer up to £23 a share for Severn Trent, which would value the blue chip at close to £5.5bn.

But even an offer pitched at the current £20.27 price would still equate to a racy 22 times Severn Trent's earnings for the year to September 2012.

Under stock exchange rules, the consortium has until June 11 to table a formal bid or walk away.

Of course, whether the current share-price rating and the possibility the approach will come to nothing now combine to make Severn Trent a 'sell' is something only you can decide.

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After a difficult 12 months, BG Group (LSE: BG) (NASDAQOTH: BRGYY.US) unveils its new long-term strategy today. The company is getting back to its roots as a small and nimble explorer, while also focusing on the high growth rates predicted for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

A full presentation will be given at noon on Tuesday, but BG Group issued a short statement this morning outlining its intentions.

Exploration and concentration

Exploration spend will be boosted to $1.8bn a year over the next three years, and BG Group plans to manage its portfolio of assets more actively, seeking partners and disposals where deemed appropriate.

The eventual aim is to create a portfolio of "10-15 high quality, material assets", with capital recycled into early stages projects or returned to shareholders.

Under the new plan, capital expenditure is expected to fall to $8-10bn a year from 2015, down from the current level of $12bn, with positive free cash flow predicted from that point.

LNG demand is expected to grow at 9% a year, and BG Group already has a huge project in Australia that is on track to start production next year. This, along with its exploration of offshore Brazil, will continue to be the key two growth drivers of production across the whole group.

Near-term targets

BG Group still reckons it will produce around 630-660,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for 2013, and it is targeting a range of 775-825,000 barrels a day for 2015.

Dividends are expected to rise broadly in line with earnings growth, although the current yield is less than 2%.

The share price response was fairly muted this morning, with BG Group climbing by 1% to 1,195p. However, investors are probably waiting for the presentation to add some meat to the overall plan.

So far, I'd say this feels more like a change of course than a reinvention of the business, but that seems pretty sensible given the long-term success BG Group has enjoyed. The departure of the previous CEO, Sir Frank Chapman, was also likely to lead to some change in direction. That said, whether a company valued at £40bn can still be small and nimble enough to exploit the best opportunities in this space remains to be seen.

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I'm window shopping for shares again, and there are plenty of goodies for sale. Should I pop Intu Properties (LSE: INTU) into my basket?

Intu action

What's in a name? Ask Intu Properties, which dropped its shopworn moniker Capital Shopping Centres in February in favour of a fashion makeover in February. Now it hopes to emulate rival Westfield, by including the shiny new Intu brand in the name of its retail centres. It is also lining up a new retail commerce site, Intu.co.uk. Should I buy it?

This should be an exciting time to invest in Intu, as it pours £25m into its rebranding exercise, which also involves introducing free Wi-Fi into its centres to encourage shoppers to stay longer. All 15 directly managed shopping centres -- including Lakeside at Thurrock, Metrocentre in Gateshead and the Trafford Centre in Manchester -- now sport the Intu prefix. The property developer hopes to make its "transactional, fashion-focused, mobile-enabled website" Intu.co.uk a top online retail destination, but it's behind schedule. The site was originally said to be ready in April, but a holding sign states it is still under construction.

Retail therapy

Intu is a big retail player, with 10 of the top 25 UK centres, and more than 320 million customer visits a year. The industry has changed massively in recent years. The old ethos of "build a shopping centre and they will come" has developed into "build an all-round dining, drinking, shopping and socialising centre and they will stay and spend a lot more money". Fibre Wi-Fi forms part of that. It seems a wise strategy.

You might enjoy a trip to one of its shopping centres, but investors will have regretted buying its shares. The stock is still 60% down on five years ago, and posted a 4% loss over the past three years, against a 25% rise for the FTSE 100. Intu's footfall is down 1% on 2012 so far this year, and management admits the environment is tough, with retailers cautious about entering into store commitments. Occupancy levels remained fairly robust at 95% (although rival Hammerson boasts 97.7%). It doesn't help that most of Intu's shopping centres are outside cash-rich London, although the 33 new long-term leases signed during the first quarter should produce another £1m of new rent. So that's something.

Drop the shop

Building, refurbishing and running shopping centres isn't cheap. Intu, which is investing £1bn into its pipeline developments, carries £3.5bn of net external debt, equivalent to around 48% of its £7bn assets. It recently refinanced one-third of that debt, to "significantly" extend its long-term maturity. As a real-estate investment trust (Reit), Intu must distribute at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders every year, which gives a healthy yield of 4.4%. Yet growth prospects look weak, with a forecast of 3% drop in earnings per share (EPS) this year and just 2% growth in 2014, and that could hit future payments. Last week, Credit Suisse cut its target price for Intu by 25p to £3.25 (current price: £3.50), and downgraded the company from neutral to underperform. This is one shopping trip I won't be making.

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Tesco (LSE: TSCO) (NASDAQOTH: TSCDY.US) and Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY) (NASDAQOTH: JSAIY.US) are the two most innovative of the UK's supermarkets. They've slugged it out over hypermarkets, convenience stores, non-grocery merchandise and online sales.

The latest battle ground is banking. Sainsbury is buying out partner Lloyds Banking from their joint-venture Sainsbury's Bank. Tesco Bank is adding mortgages and current accounts, after slowing development while it migrated to a new computer system.

Why are they doing it?

• It's profitable. Sainsbury's Bank's profits grew at a compound rate of 40% p.a. over the past three years and it sees big scope for future growth. Tesco took £100m of dividends from its bank last year;
• There's a captive customer base. Banking services expand the range of products that can be sold to existing in-store and online customers. The supermarkets have better distribution networks than high-street banks;
• Banking adds to customer stickiness. Sainsbury asserts that after taking out a banking product, shoppers become more loyal and spend more in-store. That's cemented by Sainsbury's Nectar card and Tesco's Clubcard.

Central to these benefits is the value of customer data and cross-selling opportunities. Retail banking can be more profitable for supermarkets than for high street banks.

How do they compare?

Both banks offer savings, personal loans, credit cards and insurance products (on a commission basis). Tesco started offering mortgages last August, and plans to provide current accounts next year when an industry-wide switching service is in place.

The number of banking customers is broadly in line with share of grocery sales, suggesting they've achieved similar levels of customer penetration. Sainsbury's Bank is more highly leveraged, but Tesco Bank only just funds all its assets from retail deposits.

What could go wrong?

The travails of the Co-operative Bank are testimony to the potential risks. After a swingeing six-notch downgrade by Moody's, the parent retail group might be forced to sell assets to bail it out. But the Co-op overreached itself when it bought Britannia Building Society in 2009 and there's no indication either supermarket will engage in such a foray.

Tesco's mortgage business is a long-term commitment. 30-year mortgage assets will permanently tie it into garnering customer deposits, or else risk the vagaries of the wholesale funding market. Investors won't want to see the mortgage book get too big. And Tesco has discovered things can go wrong. It set aside £115m for PPI and other mis-selling last year.

But you don't make money without taking risks, and generally supermarkets are some of the safest businesses on the stock market. That's why one has been chosen by the Motley Fool as one of "five shares to retire on". You can find out which, and the identity of the other four companies, in this report. You can download it by clicking here -- it's free.

I spent last week studying the latest results from Lloyds Banking (LSE: LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS).

I must admit, it was not easy going. Certainly, the 144-page statement from RBS must rank as the longest first-quarter update from any quoted company!

Your £1,048 'investment' in banks

As I'm sure you know, both Lloyds and RBS were bailed out by us, the hard-pressed taxpayers, to the tune of £66bn during the banking crash of 2008 and 2009.

And with 63 million people living in Britain right now, you, me and everybody else effectively has about £1,048 'invested' in the sector - whether we like it or not.

So just how are our Lloyds and RBS 'investments' faring?

Well, let me put it this way - I'm glad I didn't take the government's bailout as a 'buy' signal.

A £23bn paper loss

Here's a round-up of the stats:

For Lloyds, us taxpayers pumped in around £20bn during 2009 to acquire 27.6bn shares at an average price of 73.6p.

Right now, our stake represents 39% of Lloyds' share count and has a £16bn market value with the shares now at 57p. Our current loss on Lloyds is therefore 23%, or close to £5bn.

With RBS, we taxpayers injected around £45bn during 2008 and 2009 to acquire 9bn shares at an average price of 502p.

Our RBS stake represents 81% of the bank's share count and has a £26bn market value with the shares currently at 294p. Our loss on RBS therefore stands at 41%, or around £19bn.

Tot the figures together and all 63 million of us are carrying a total paper loss of £23bn from that £66bn bailout.

In other words, our £1,048 'investment' in the banking sector is now worth less than £700 per person. I must say, I've enjoyed better returns from shares.

The contrarian buys for 2013... and beyond?

Still, we must always think long term about these things. I mean, we'll always need banks to keep the economy moving.

And surely after the financial crisis and the industry backlash, we might expect the sector to be run prudently for some time to come. What's more, at least our state-backed banks are still making money.

In fact, Lloyds claimed underlying profits at its core operations improved 19% to £1.9bn during the first three months of the year. Meanwhile, RBS continues to rake in more than £1bn a quarter on the same 'core' and 'underlying' measures.

So perhaps Lloyds and RBS are the contrarian buys for 2013...and beyond.

Price to book

Certainly, the valuations of the two banks are not exactly full of optimism. Lloyds, for instance, is valued at a fraction above its latest 55p per share net tangible asset value. Meanwhile, RBS trades at 38% less than its latest 459p per share net tangible asset value.

For profitable companies, surely these shares deserve ratings well above their book value? Well, perhaps.

But before you become too excited about those book-value ratings, plough through that 144-page RBS statement.

You'll then see adjusted profits exclude a whole string of items, including costs relating to the government's asset protection scheme, payment protection insurance mis-selling, regulatory fines, sovereign debt write-offs, general restructuring, bonus taxes and the bank levy.

So the exact 'profitability' of the banks is somewhat subjective.

In addition, the balance sheets of both Lloyds and RBS shrank last year, with that of Lloyds falling 6% and that of RBS sliding 10% as both groups slimmed their operations. Further disposals may affect future balance-sheet valuations, too.

And it's not as if other banks are valued well above book, either. For example, the last time I looked, both Barclays and Santander traded below their net asset values.

An easier alternative to banks

As I mentioned at the start, studying the results of Lloyds and RBS was not easy going. True, it seems the sector is showing signs of recovery and promise, but trying to work out what exactly is going on was far too much for me.

Indeed, I'll take straightforward blue chips such as Unilever or Diageo any day of the week - such stocks have proved you don't need to invest in complicated situations to earn extremely handsome gains.

That philosophy is also favoured by Motley Fool Share Advisor, where our crack team of Fool analysts have shunned both Lloyds and RBS on grounds of complexity and uncertainty.

In fact, the team tell me they rate 23 other shares as having far more appealing valuations and prospects than Lloyds and RBS.

You can learn more about these 23 'buys' by joining Motley Fool Share Advisor today.

It's just my opinion, but I'm convinced a spread of these 23 opportunities should do a lot better than my £1,048 'investment' in the banks!

Until next time, happy investing!

Marks & Spencer (LSE: MKS) is due to announce its annual results on Tuesday this coming week (21 May).

At the time of writing, M&S's shares are trading at 424p -- up 18% from a year ago, in line with the rise of the FTSE 100.

How will M&S's business have performed in 2012/13 compared with the previous year? And will the results justify the performance of the shares? Here's your cut-out-and-check results table!

Sales and profits

Analysts are forecasting a modest rise in revenue, and the number should be pretty accurate because M&S has released sales growth figures for all four quarters of the year.

However, despite the rise in revenue, the City experts predict a 7-8% drop in underlying profit and EPS, due in part to difficult trading conditions and increased operating costs.

Dividend

At the half-year stage, the company held the interim dividend flat at 6.2p for the third year running. The consensus for the full year is for a minimal 0.5% increase, but within the consensus many analysts are expecting the final dividend to also be held for a third consecutive year. That seems almost certain to me, so look out for a final dividend of 10.8p, giving a total of 17p for the year.

General merchandise

M&S has been doing well on the food, online and international segments of its business, but these positives continue to be undermined by weak performance from general merchandise (clothing and homeware).

As the table below shows, general merchandise has been struggling for quite some time now.

Last autumn, M&S shifted John Dixon, chief of the food business, to head up general merchandise, aided by a new 'style director', Belinda Earl, the ex-boss of Debenhams and Jaeger.

Any tangible improvement to general merchandise under the new team won't be seen until the launch of their first new collections this summer. As such, don't expect to hear anything much about general merchandise in next week's results beyond the repeated refrain that the team is working hard and making progress.

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Which of the UK supermarket giants should you invest in? Few industries spark the same level of debate and disagreement among investors as the grocery business -- and everyone seems to have a favourite brand.

Today I'm looking at my two favourite UK grocers, Tesco (LSE: TSCO) (NASDAQOTH: TSCDY.US) and Morrisons (LSE: MRW), and explaining why I think you could own shares of both.

But is it sensible to own shares of more than one supermarket in the same portfolio? Are the businesses too similar? And why own shares in a supermarket, anyway?

Supermarket sweep

The economic characteristics of the supermarket industry are unusually attractive. Cash generation is both generous and consistent. Capital expenditures for maintenance are relatively low once stores are opened and infrastructure is in place.

Retained cash flows can usually be deployed predictably with lucrative returns-on-capital, by expanding or opening new stores.

Crucially, supermarkets fill an important and persistent need for consumers. These attractive characteristics mean I'm happy to own more than one supermarket, at the right price, if they offer sufficiently diverse future prospects and services.

But are Tesco and Morrisons really that different? I think they're both great businesses in their own right.

Tesco vs Morrisons

Tesco is easily the market leader in UK groceries with over 30% market share and around 3,000 UK stores. But that's less than half of the story. Tesco is rapidly expanding abroad, with almost 4,000 stores now located in 'growth regions' such as Turkey, Thailand, Poland and South Korea.

Morrisons meanwhile has been cautious rather than cavalier. Facing Tesco's UK dominance, Morrisons has flourished by picking its fights intelligently. For example, Morrisons has seemingly waited until the last possible moment to move into express stores, opportunistically poaching shops from bankrupt high-street chains Jessops, Blockbuster and HMV.

Where Tesco has led the way in market innovations such as online groceries, Morrisons will attempt learn from its rival's mistakes and gain a 'last-mover advantage'.

With less than 600 shops, Morrisons has only a fraction of Tesco's store base, and no international prospects. While shoppers will associate Morrisons and Tesco as direct competitors in the UK, the companies are notably different, and seem likely to grow though separate channels.

Valuation

One thing both Tesco and Morrisons do have in common, though, is an undemanding valuation. Both companies are valued at roughly 11 times their earning power, and offer prospective dividend yields of over 4%.

By comparison, the shares of many high-quality, consumer-brand companies currently trade at anywhere between 17 and 25 times their normalised earnings.

Neither Morrisons nor Tesco are priced for above-inflation growth. But for two very different reasons, I believe both companies have opportunities to grow, which the market is underestimating.

For Morrisons, it is the 'low-hanging fruit' of expansion into express stores, online retailing and more shops in the south of England.

For Tesco, it is the continued expansion into new high-growth international markets, and retail banking. I believe both companies will also enjoy greater per-store profitability in the UK as cyclical consumer spending recovers.

Successful growth is far from guaranteed in either case of course, but the inexpensive valuations provide some margin for failure. Meanwhile, success relies on relatively modest, visible assumptions of expansion, founded on impressive track records.

The bottom line

There's a risk that buying both Morrisons and Tesco could over-expose your portfolio to the UK groceries market. In my view, the modest valuations and defensive industry characteristics mitigate this to an extent. Neither company is likely to disappear overnight.

I think Morrisons and Tesco are sufficiently different in service, size and geographical mix to co-exist in the same portfolio. While their future growth may come from different sources, I believe investing in both Morrisons and Tesco will provide satisfactory long-term business results.

For these reasons, I'm strongly considering an investment in both companies this summer.

Don't take my word for it

Fortunately, I'm not the only one who sees Tesco as an ideal investment for the long term. In fact, I'm in very good company -- with the richest investor in the world!

Legendary investor Warren Buffett is known for buying wonderful businesses with durable competitive advantages, when the price is right.

Over the last decade, the world's most famous investor has added over 400 million Tesco shares to Berkshire Hathaway's investment portfolio, and now owns 5% of the UK's largest supermarket. The billionaire is known for his uncanny ability to spot a bargain and act decisively, and has bought another $1 billion of Tesco shares in the last year alone!

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