The EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML) share price has been put through the wringer this year. Fears of regulatory intervention from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) plagued the business for much of the calendar year.

Fortunately, shareholders have enjoyed a rebound in the payment solutions company’s share value in the last month. Yet, the EML share price remains a considerable 41% off its 52-week high of $5.89.

For this reason, some experts have high hopes for the future of EML Payments.

EML’s regulatory ball and chain

It is no secret that investors have been wary of the EML Payments share price since the CBI swept in with regulatory concerns for the company’s PFS Card Services (Ireland) Limited (PCSIL) business.

However, EML has since worked with CBI to reach a number of items. Namely, the payments company will be allowed to continue signing new customers and launch new programs within material growth restrictions.

For portfolio manager, Dominic Rose, this materially de-risks the investment case for EML Payments. Rose is portfolio manager of the Montgomery Small Companies Fund and sees potential upside in the EML Payments share price following the clarity around CBI’s imposed conditions.

What’s important to Rose is that the approximate costs of CBI’s requirements are now accounted for. In addition, the regulator has not implemented a broad-brush approach to setting limits on the company’s various programs.

Even better, the growth limitations agreed upon are set to be in place for only 12 months or less. Which, all things considered, is a good outcome compared to what was initially feared.

Based on this, the portfolio manager sees an opportunity for the EML Payments share price to undergo a re-rate.

Backing the EML Payments share price

While Rose doesn’t specify a definitive price target for EML, the team at UBS does.

Much like Rose, the broker considers the risks to be less than what is being reflected in the company’s current value. With the costs now a known factor, the broker is optimistic of further upside from here.

In a recent note, UBS assigned a price target of $4.40. This would suggest a potential gain of 27.5% in the EML Payments share price, based on its current price.

The post Could the best be yet to come for the EML Payments (ASX:EML) share price? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler owns EML Payments. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended EML Payments. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended EML Payments. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM) share price closed in the green today following the company release of a financial update.

After surging to an intraday high of $1.135 in early trade, shares dropped to $1.09 before bouncing back to $1.10 at the close of trade. This was a 0.46% gain on Friday’s closing price.

G8 Education is an early childhood education provider that has experienced 119 temporary centre closures since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What was in today’s update?

G8 Education reported earnings before interest and tax of $76 million and a net profit after tax of $43 million in the calendar year to date.

This result was above the consensus estimates on company earnings for the 2021 year.

The childcare provider also reported an increase in its occupancy rate of 76.5%. This was an improvement of 1.7% on the calendar year 2020 but 2.1% below the 2019 result.

Net debt for the company was $17 million after the provider forked out $38 million in wage remediation payments.

G8 Education informed investors its revenue was impacted by parent gap fee waivers when children cannot attend due to COVID-19 restrictions.

However, the government was able to offset this loss with fee waivers.

The company said it lost $3,300 per day on average as a result of COVID-19 closures.

What else is new?

Allan Gray portfolio manager Dr Suhas Nayak has tipped G8 Education as one of 4 ASX shares tipped for buybacks in 2022.

Nayak told Motley Fool Australia today that the company’s best course of action may well be to return cash to shareholders via a buy-back, while also improving underlying operations of existing centres.

He noted earnings that while not yet fully recovered, the company was now in a net cash position and the share price was below its peers.

G8 education share price snapshot

The G8 Education share price has slipped 6.78% in the year to date and is down 8.33% in the past 12 months.

The company has a market capitalisation of about $932 million, based on the current share price.

The post Why did the G8 Education (ASX:GEM) share price lift today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 4 ASX shares tipped for buybacks in 2022: expert

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 no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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What is the outlook for the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price in 2022?

Whilst 2021 isn’t finished, the big four ASX bank has had a decent year. Since the start of the year, it has gone up 19% whilst the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has risen by approximately 9%. An outperformance of 10% is material over one year.

Several weeks ago, ANZ released its FY21 result for the 12 months to September 2021 where it made statutory profit after tax of $6.16 billion (up 72%). However, cash profit from continuing operations, before credit impairments and tax, was $8.4 billion, which was flat compared to last year.

A significant part of the result related to its credit quality, where the total provision for FY21 was a net release of $567 million.

The credit provision release was due to a combination of factors, with changes to the portfolio volume, mix and risk profile occurring throughout the year, and the economic outlook improving.

But that’s the past. How are things shaping up for 2022?

ANZ’s progress and outlook

ANZ says it’s making good progress in its multi-year transformation, investing in group-wide automation, cloud migration and digitisation to enable low cost, sustainable customer growth.

It wants to be able to offer the public a compelling digital offering which will help drive long-term customer and revenue growth. Higher revenue could be a boost for the ANZ share price.

The ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot said:

We have our eye on the long-term opportunity and made significant progress and these investments, known internally as ANZx, will become more visible to customers into 2022.

New Zealand is expected to continue to deliver robust returns and maintain its strong market position.

Institutional is now a better-balanced, more predictable and higher returning business. We are in a strong position to take advantage of the structural tailwinds we believe will impact institutional banking, particularly in a rising interest rate environment and the build out of our banking platforms business. Changes from the implementation of APRA’s proposed capital reforms are also likely to be a further tailwind for institutional.

ANZ is also looking to sustainable financing as one of the mega-trends that will impact the global economy over the next few years.

The big four bank thinks that the real impacts of COVID-19 will not be fully understood until at least the end of 2022.

What do brokers think about the ANZ share price?

Morgans is quite optimistic on the bank, with a buy rating and a price target of $31. It thinks that ANZ will benefit from rising interest rates, though strong competition remains.

The broker thinks ANZ is going to pay a large dividend yield over the next couple of financial years. In FY22 it is expected to pay a grossed-up dividend yield of 7.7% and then 8.6% in FY23.

Based on the broker’s estimate, the ANZ share price is valued at 12x FY22’s estimated earnings.

Other brokers are less bullish. Credit Suisse is neutral on ANZ, with a price target of $28.50. Credit Suisse is expecting a little lower dividend and earnings in FY22 compared to Morgans.

The post What is the outlook for the ANZ (ASX:ANZ) share price in 2022? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Here are the top 10 ASX shares today
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• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts this Monday
• This ASX shares fund is closing. Manager reveals why
• Buying ASX shares? Why the ‘when’ is just as crucial as the ‘which’: expert

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 no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Today, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) delivered a positive start to the week. At the end of the session, the benchmark index finished 0.35% higher at 7,379.3 points.

While there were a couple of sectors that went an untoward direction, the majority of the market headed upwards on Monday. Investors of energy and real estate shares were the real winners, as the two sectors posted gains of more than 2%.

However, the question is: which shares delivered the biggest returns to investors on the ASX today? Here are the top ten stocks that came through for investors:

Top 10 ASX shares countdown today

Looking at the top 200 listed companies, Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL) was the biggest gainer today. Shares in the fintech platform provider jumped 7.21% despite there being no announcements from the company. Find out more about Netwealth Group here.

The next biggest gaining ASX share today was Charter Hall Group Ltd (ASX: CHC). The integrated property group rallied 5.98% after announcing an upgraded FY22 earnings guidance. Uncover the latest Charter Hall Group details here.

Today’s top 10 biggest gains were made in these ASX shares:

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)	$17.11	7.21%
Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC)	$20.92	5.98%
Mercury NZ Ltd (ASX: MCY)	$5.95	5.87%
Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX: ILU)	$9.96	5.73%
Champion Iron Ltd (ASX: CIA)	$4.88	5.63%
Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group (ASX: SCP)	$2.98	4.20%
Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE)	$9.17	3.85%
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)	$2.70	3.85%
Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX: DHG)	$5.625	3.59%
Technology One Ltd (ASX: TNE)	$12.83	3.55%

Our top 10 ASX shares today countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to ensure you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check-in at Fool.com.au after the market has closed during weekdays to see which stocks make the countdown.

The post Here are the top 10 ASX shares today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Experts tip 2 beaten up ASX shares for gains in 2022
• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts this Monday
• This ASX shares fund is closing. Manager reveals why
• Buying ASX shares? Why the ‘when’ is just as crucial as the ‘which’: expert
• Why AVZ, Brickworks, Charter Hall, and Senex shares are storming higher

Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended Netwealth. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended Netwealth and Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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