The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is recovering from its recent sell-off along with its peers. But a warning of an oversupply of the commodity could keep shareholders on edge.

This wasn’t the news investors wanted to hear as the BHP share price bounced 0.7% to $39.22 on Friday.

BHP share price holding up a little better than peers

The Big Australian is leading the recovery as the Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price and Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price gained 0.3% and 0.6% respectively.

The three largest ASX iron ore miners finished the day off their intraday highs.

That could indicate a lack of confidence that the worst is over for the sector, with the BHP share price shedding 15% of its value over the past month. At least that’s a bit better than the 19% drop in the Fortescue share price and 17% decline in the Rio Tinto share price over the period.

Supply of iron ore will exceed demand in 2H 2022

What could also be dampening sentiment is a prediction by Morgan Stanley.

The broker looked at how the market behaved in the past two years, where a surplus of iron ore emerges in the second half of the year.

It believes history will repeat this year and said:

We see this dynamic playing out for the third year in a row, at a comparable if not larger scale as in 2021.

Similar to last year, we expect China’s already in excess steel production to decline, while iron ore supply appears once again on track for a much stronger 2H vs 1H.

Warning signs for iron ore market

There are early warning signs that the broker’s prediction will come through.

Inventory of the steel-making ingredient was building at China’s ports last week. This is the first time since mid-February that inventory is increasing.

It’s also worth noting that Chinese steel demand slows during the summer months, which makes the iron ore price particularly vulnerable.

Morgan Stanley noted that the risks to iron ore missing its second half base case target of US$130 a tonne is increasing.

Silver lining for the BHP share price

But it isn’t all bad news. While near-term risks remain, the broker believes that most of this bad news is already factored into the market. That’s the silver lining from the correction in the BHP share price and other ASX mining shares.

What’s more, we could see support for the iron ore price come as early as autumn. That’s when Morgan Stanley expects to see the profit margins of Chinese steel companies recover.

Ironically, the high inflationary pressure that’s driving up production costs may actually be good news for the BHP share price and that of the other big ASX miners.

This is because commodities often find a floor around the marginal cost of production. Higher costs hurt smaller miners more as the big boys have economies of scale.

Let’s hope these positives are enough to calm frayed nerves in this volatile market.

The post Own BHP shares? Top broker warns of looming oversupply of iron ore in 2H 2022 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• What’s the outlook for ASX 200 dividend shares in FY23?
• Here are the top 10 ASX shares today

Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau has positions in BHP Billiton Limited, Fortescue Metals Group Limited, and Rio Tinto Ltd. 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 Scott Phillips.

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Shares in FBR Ltd (ASX: FBR) went 14% higher on Friday following the robotic technology company’s announcement of a major investment from a fellow ASX-listed business.

In a statement to the ASX, FBR said it has received “a firm commitment from a wholly owned subsidiary of existing strategic investor Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW)” to buy $1.9 million in shares via a placement.

FBR said the placement would raise $1,929,628.40 via 107,201,578 shares at a price of 1.8 cents per share.

The FBR share price closed the session on Friday at 2.3 cents, up 9.52% for the day. In earlier trading, it reached an intraday high of 2.4 cents, representing a 14.3% bounce on its previous closing price.

Why is this micro-cap ASX share raising funds?

On 17 June, FBR announced to the ASX the completion of a $4 million capital raise via a placement of 222,222,222 shares.

FBR offered the placement at the same price to existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors.

FBR said the placement was oversubscribed. Those shares began trading on the ASX on 24 June.

At the time, the placement price represented a 10% discount to the last closing price of FBR shares.

Brickworks arguably got a better deal because by the time they bought, even though it was at the same price, they got a 14% discount on the last closing FBR share price.

The new shares in both placements will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinary shares of FBR on the ASX.

In its statement to the ASX, FBR said:

The [Brickworks] placement was managed by FBR … using FBR’s full remaining placement capacity as at 24 June 2022, without Shareholder approval.

The funds will be used for working capital and commissioning of the next-generation Hadrian X®, as outlined in the latest corporate presentation.

The new shares purchased by Brickworks will commence trading on the ASX on 13 July.

Why is Brickworks buying FBR shares?

The placement will give Brickworks a 4.93% stake in FBR — just under the ‘substantial shareholder’ level of 5%.  

With no statement out of Brickworks today, we can only guess as to the reasons for the purchase.

But the products that FBR makes give us a clue as to why Brickworks wants to be a stakeholder.

Brickworks is Australia’s largest brick producer. One of FBR’s products is a bricklaying robot. It’s called Hadrian X and is powered by FBR’s core Dynamic Stabilisation Technology (DST).

According to FBR, Hadrian X “builds structural walls faster, safer, more accurately and with less wastage than traditional manual methods”.

Brickworks isn’t just a brick company either. It’s got investment savvy and owns some other assets that contribute to its profits.

This includes a 21% stake in diversified investment group Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL) which is worth $2.576 billion as at 31 January 2022, according to Brickworks’s FY22 half-year report.

FBR has a market capitalisation of $56.1 million.

The post This tiny ASX share flew 14% on Friday following investment by Brickworks appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• 5 worst ASX energy shares of FY22
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• Is the Brickworks dividend yield of almost 5% too good to ignore?
• Building up income: 2 ASX dividend shares I believe are buys

Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Brickworks and Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Brickworks and Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SHL) share price had a turbulent time in FY22. After surging to 52-week highs of $46.71 on 30 December, the company’s shares then cratered to $32.22 by 8 March.

After a relief rally, Sonic was trading sideways until June, but has since walked back towards its yearly lows, as seen below.

The forward-looking climate demands more from companies in terms of cash (liquidity and working capital) management.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at Sonic’s balance sheet to gain some insight into how it might weather any potential economic storm.

Sonic balance sheet breakdown

The most recent snapshot of Sonic’s financial health was supplied within its set of half-yearly accounts back in February.

At that time, the company had cash and marketable securities of $735.3 million, down 18% from the previous year.

Shareholder equity totalled $7.26 billion, made up of $12.5 billion in total assets and $5.24 billion in total liabilities.

Let’s take a deeper dive into how Sonic is managing cash and working capital.

Sonic should meet its short-term obligations when they fall due. Short-term liabilities are covered 1.1x by short-term assets (current ratio). That’s one check for the Sonic Healthcare share price.

Meanwhile, the ratio of debt to assets is 26%, meaning debt holders have financed Sonic’s asset base by that amount.

The long-term debt to total capital ratio is 28% suggesting the company has low leverage. It also has around $1 billion in long-term lease obligations.

Further insights to consider for the Sonic share price

Linking the balance sheet with some figures on the income statement gives further insights.

Sonic turned over its inventory 6.3 times in H1 FY22 and generated 75 cents for every dollar invested into its asset base.

It also generated a 12% return on assets and return on invested capital of 16% for the half as well. This is well above the company’s cost of capital of 7%.

From this data, we can make a few inferences. First, Sonic can cover its short-term obligations when they come due.

It also is lowly-leveraged, with debt making up less than 30% of its capital structure. That’s important in a world of rising interest rates.

It is also generating a decent return on its assets and invested capital that is above what it costs to acquire that capital.

These could be defensible characteristics in the event of an economic downturn. Remember, the balance sheet illustrates the financial health of the company, and these ratios give further insights.

In the last 12 months, the Sonic share price has slipped 12% into the red.

Sonic’s asset and liability growth since 2018 is plotted on the chart below.

The post Own Sonic Healthcare shares? Here’s a look at the state of its balance sheet appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Zach Bristow 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 Sonic Healthcare Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) ended the week on a strong note, boosted higher by energy shares. The index was 0.45% higher at 6,678 points when the market closed on Friday.

The S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) gained more than 2% today after oil prices rose overnight.

The price of Brent crude oil lifted 3.9% to US$104.65 a barrel in Thursday’s session overseas. Meanwhile, the US Nymex crude price increased 4.3% to US$102.73 a barrel.

ASX 200 materials shares also outperformed on Friday, with many lithium shares among the market’s best performers after a rough couple of weeks.

The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) ended the day more than 1% higher amid reports by Bloomberg claiming China’s government is considering a US$220 billion infrastructure stimulus program.

At the end of Friday’s trade, eight of the ASX 200’s 11 sectors were in the green. But which ASX shares outperformed all others? Keep reading to find out.

Top 10 ASX shares countdown

And the best performer among the ASX’s biggest shares by market capitalisation is… Latitude Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: LFS).

The payment provider’s shares topped the lot, gaining almost 13% after a late spike. Find out more about Latitude Group here.

ASX 200 lithium explorer and developer Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR) came in second best, gaining 7.11%. Read up on what Liontown’s been up to here.

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

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Latitude Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: LFS)	$1.50	12.78%
Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR)	$1.02	7.37%
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)	$2.35	6.82%
Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC)	$5.03	6.34%
Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE)	$10.46	5.23%
Alumina Limited (ASX: AWC)	$1.525	5.17%
Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME)	$47.52	5.16%
Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN)	$0.62	5.08%
Champion Iron Ltd (ASX: CIA)	$5.04	4.78%
New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC)	$3.60	4.65%

Data as at 4.30pm AEST.

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.

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Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper 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 Scott Phillips.

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