At the small end of the Australian share market, there are a number of companies with the potential to grow materially in the future.

Three that investors might want to get better acquainted with are listed below. Here’s what you need to know about them:

BlueBet Holdings Ltd (ASX: BBT)

The first small cap share to watch is BlueBet. It is a mobile-first online wagering provider. It allows users to bet on all Australian and international racing and sports through its website and app. BlueBet has been growing very strongly thanks to the increasing popularity of mobile sports betting. This led to the company doubling its customer numbers over the last 12 months, underpinning strong wagering turnover growth. Positively, management is confident that this trend can continue and believes it is well positioned to substantially grow its current ~1.2% share of the market in Australia. It is also in the process of expanding into the massive US market.

Booktopia Group Ltd (ASX: BKG)

A second small cap ASX share to watch is Booktopia. This online book retailer has been growing at an explosive rate. For example, the company sold one item approximately every 4.7 seconds and shipped approximately 6.5 million items in the 12 months to 30 June 2020. Impressively, this has increased materially since then, with very strong growth reported in FY 2021. This has been driven by the shift to online shopping and its new distribution centre. The latter is allowing the company to capture the heightened demand and ship more books than ever.

Whispir Ltd (ASX: WSP)

A final small cap share to watch is Whispir. It is a software-as-a-service communications workflow platform provider. Whispir’s platform allows businesses and governments to deliver actionable two-way interactions at scale using automated multi-channel communication workflows. While it has been growing its recurring revenue at a strong rate over the last few years, it is still only scratching at the surface of its overall market opportunity. For example, management estimates that it has a total addressable market (TAM) of US$4.7 billion in the just United States.

The post 3 exciting small cap ASX shares to watch appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Leading brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• Why Fortescue, Over The Wire, Pro Medicus, & Whispir shares are dropping
• Here’s why the Whispir (ASX:WSP) share price is falling 12%
• Why the BlueBet (ASX:BBT) share price is storming 6% higher today
• 5 small-cap ASX shares on their way up

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Whispir Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended Booktopia Group Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Whispir Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3CtZGAY

iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV) might be a smart investment to consider for the long-term.

The S&P 500 is an index that is created by Standard and Poors. The index includes 500 leading companies and covers approximately 80% of available market capitalisation in the US.

There are quite a reasons to think about this exchange-traded fund (ETF) which is offered by Blackrock.

Here are three of those reasons to think it’s a smart potential investment:

Very low costs

Costs, or a lack of costs, can have a big impact on the long-term returns for investors. Some investment managers charge well north of 1% per annum. With plenty charging performance fees on top of that.

Compare that to iShares S&P 500 ETF, which has an annual management fee of 0.04%.

That is very, very low and allows almost all of the gross returns to be turned into net returns for investors.

High-quality holdings

The businesses in the iShares S&P 500 ETF have had to be the cream of the crop to get to the size they are. Plenty of them are still growing, not just in the US but around the world.

Companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple and so on make huge amounts of profit around the globe – not just in the US. They have extremely strong competitive positions.

But there are plenty of businesses beyond the world’s biggest tech names in the S&P 500 portfolio like Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, Nvidia, JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, Visa, UnitedHealth, Home Depot, Proctor & Gamble, PayPal, Mastercard, Walt Disney, Adobe, Bank of America, Pfizer, Salesforce, Netflix, Nike and so on.

As a group, the S&P 500 has performed strongly over the last decade. However, past performance does not guarantee future results. The iShares S&P 500 ETF has returned an average of 19.9% per annum over the past decade.

Diversification

iShares S&P 500 ETF offers plenty of diversification. Geographically, the earnings come from across the world.

But the businesses also spread across various sectors as well. But tech gets the biggest weightings, which typically comes with higher margins and more profit growth.

iShares S&P 500 ETF, at 5 August 2021, had the following allocations of more than 5%: IT (27.85%), health care (13.4%), consumer discretionary (12.06%), communication (11.22%), financials (11%), industrials (8.31%) and consumer staples (5.76%).

But some of the businesses are classified in other sectors that could also count as tech like Facebook and Alphabet classified as communication, and Amazon and Tesla classified as consumer discretionary.

The post Why iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX:IVV) could be a really smart investment appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX investors could diversify their portfolios with these quality ETFs
• Best ASX ETF? This fund would be Warren Buffett’s top pick
• 2 top ETFs that might be buys in August 2021
• 3 high quality ETFs for ASX investors
• 3 reasons why the iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX:IVV) could be a great investment

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended iShares Trust – iShares Core S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3jC0iMe

If you’re looking to add some growth shares to your portfolio in August, then you may want to look at the shares listed below.

All three of these ASX growth shares have been tipped as buys recently. Here’s what you need to know about them:

Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)

The first ASX growth share to look at is this leading appliance manufacturer. It has been growing solidly for years and has been tipped to continue this positive trend in the future. This is thanks to the popularity of Breville’s products, favourable tailwinds such as working from home, and its ongoing international expansion. The company also invests heavily in research and development to ensure it has a pipeline of innovative products.

UBS is bullish on its prospects and expects its growth to continue. The broker currently has a buy rating and $35.70 price target on its shares.

Hipages Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: HPG)

Another ASX growth share to look at is Hipages. It is a leading Australian-based online platform and software as a service (SaaS) provider. The company’s increasingly popular platform connects consumers with trusted tradies to simplify home improvement. At the end of June, Hipages had 31,200 tradie subscriptions on its platform and provided them with 353,000 job leads during the fourth quarter of FY 2021.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are very bullish on the company’s prospects. They believe it has a huge growth runway ahead as its ecosystem builds. Goldman currently has a buy rating and $4.10 price target on its shares.

WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC)

A final ASX growth share to consider is this logistics solutions company. WiseTech is the company behind the popular CargoWise One solution, which allows users to execute complex logistics transactions and manage freight operations from a single, easy to use platform. Demand has been growing strongly over the last decade, underpinning stellar sales and profit growth. Pleasingly, WiseTech appears well-placed to continue its strong growth long into the future. This is thanks to its high quality platform, strong market position, and growing freight volumes globally.

The team at Morgan Stanley are very positive on the company. They currently have an overweight rating and $35.00 price target on its shares.

The post 3 compelling ASX growth shares that could be buys in August appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 3 top ASX growth shares rated as buys
• Top ASX shares to buy in August 2021
• How China’s war on tech companies can hit ASX shares where it hurts
• 2 excellent ASX tech shares named as buys
• 3 stellar ASX growth shares rated as buys

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Hipages Group Holdings Ltd. and WiseTech Global. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended WiseTech Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3Cp1MlH

Last week saw a number of broker notes hitting the wires once again. Three buy ratings that caught my eye are summarised below.

Here’s why brokers think investors ought to buy them next week:

Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)

According to a note out of Citi, its analysts have retained their buy rating and $18.80 price target on this artificial intelligence data services company’s shares. It notes that Facebook and Google have reported an acceleration in advertising revenue again. Citi suspects that this could lead to the companies increasing their investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning activities. The Appen share price was trading at $12.55 on Friday.

National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB)

A note out of Macquarie reveals that its analysts have retained their outperform rating and $28.00 price target on this banking giant’s shares. This follows news that NAB will undertake a $2.5 billion share buyback. Macquarie was pleased with the news and believes it demonstrates the strength of the business despite current lockdowns. Positively, Macquarie doesn’t expect the buybacks to stop there. It suspects there could be $5.5 billion of capital returns for investors over the next three years. The NAB share price ended the week at $26.69.

Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG)

Analysts at Credit Suisse have upgraded this energy company’s shares to an outperform rating with an improved price target of $4.80. This follows the release of guidance for its Energy Markets business for FY 2022 and FY 2023. While the former is lower than Credit Suisse expected, it was pleased the latter is ahead of its forecasts. Overall, the broker believes FY 2022 is the bottom for its earnings and sees value in its shares at the current level. The Origin share price was trading at $4.27 at Friday’s close.

The post Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy next week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Origin (ASX:ORG) share price falls as climate goals put to shareholder vote
• How owning too much Afterpay (ASX:APT) was our biggest regret
• Should you buy NAB (ASX:NAB) shares in August 2021 for the dividend yield?
• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• How do you value the NAB (ASX:NAB) share price?

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Appen Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Appen Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/2VDxr26