Looking for 2 quality ASX shares to add to your investment portfolio?

I think Bapcor Ltd (ASX: BAP) and Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL) are worth taking a good look at.

Both have established market positions and strong long-term growth prospects.

Bapcor

Bapcor is the largest and leading second-hand car parts distributor in Australia and New Zealand. It has a range of brands under its umbrella including Burson, Autobarn and Autopro.

The company has grown its presence in both countries in recent years. It has achieved this through acquisitions and the expansion of its existing business chains. It has now grown to the point where it has a strong scale advantage against its major competitors.

Bapcor is also expanding into Thailand. This could provide it with a launching pad for further expansion across Asia.

Following a recent capital raising of $180 million, the company’s balance sheet is now much more robust. These funds will see it through prolonged downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Bapcor was impacted harshly during the early phase of the pandemic. However, business activity now looks set to pick-up as lockdown restrictions are easing in both Australia and New Zealand.

The growth of the electric vehicles market could potentially be a long-term risk to Bapcor. Electric vehicles have far fewer parts and require significantly less maintenance than internal combustion engine cars. However, I don’t see this trend having any significant impact on Bapcor’s operating margins in the short-to-medium term.

Bapcor currently offers a fully franked forward annual dividend yield of 2.95%.

Soul Patts

Another quality ASX share to consider adding to your share portfolio is Soul Patts. It has investments in a wide range of industries. These span from pharmacies to telecommunications, mining and building products. This provides Soul Patts with a high level of diversification and helps make it a strong defensive share. It also helps provide Soul Patts with a buffer to any market volatility.

Soul Patts has a strong long-term track record of outperforming the ASX index. In addition, it has been listed on the ASX for over a century and has paid a dividend every year in that time.

The company also keeps significant levels of cash on its balance sheet. This places it in a strong position to snap up any future investment opportunities that may arise.

Soul Patts currently offers an attractive fully franked forward annual dividend yield of 2.99%.

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Motley Fool contributor Phil Harpur owns shares of Bapcor. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Bapcor and Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post Bapcor and 1 other quality ASX share to add to your portfolio appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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The Paragon Care Ltd (ASX: PGC) share price is a standout performer on the market today as investors react to a business update.

At the time of writing, Paragon Care shares have rocketed 83.33% to 22 cents apiece.

Paragon Care is a provider of medical equipment, devices and consumables for the Australian and New Zealand healthcare market.

The company also offers equipment repair, maintenance and total equipment management through its service and technology division.

Over the years, the primary way Paragon Care has grown its business has been through acquisitions. As such, the company has a many number of brands under its banner, including Insight Surgical, REM Systems, MediTron, and Immulab.

Why is the Paragon Care share price spiking?

This afternoon, Paragon provided an update regarding the impact of COVID-19 on its business.

In prior trading updates, Paragon noted demand for its products and services were being affected by restrictions and the cancellation of non-essential elective surgery.

As such, Paragon’s revenue in April 2020 tracked at 30% less than the prior year, allowing the company to be eligible for JobKeeper payments.

When Paragon disclosed these developments to the market in late April, it expected the significantly lower revenues to continue throughout the remainder of the June 2020 quarter.

However, the company announced today it has seen a “solid” improvement in its May and June revenues. Paragon attributed this to a higher than expected level of elective surgery cases due to recent favourable policy changes by the Federal Government.

As a result, the company is expecting its FY20 revenues to exceed $220 million. For context, Paragon delivered full-year revenues of $236 million in FY19.

Other developments

According to today’s release, Paragon has made “significant progress” towards its previously announced strategy of delivering a more efficient cost structure. 

To date, the company has achieved more than $4 million of permanent annualised cost savings. It expects this amount to double over the next financial year.

Additionally, Paragon advised that its rationalisation of 14 individual businesses into four main pillar businesses is “well advanced”. This rationalisation has seen the company integrate its businesses into the four pillars of devices, diagnostics, services, and capital & consumables.

Paragon said it will provide more details of this restructure, along with the associated costs, when it reports its full-year FY20 results in late August 2020.

More reading

• 3 ASX payments shares that could double your money
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• Australian businesses are running out of cash
• Bapcor and 1 other quality ASX share to add to your portfolio

Motley Fool contributor Cathryn Goh has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post Why the Paragon Care share price is rocketing 83% today appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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The ASX is home to a growing number of exciting tech companies. Each year the list seems to get bigger. ASX tech shares were dominated by traditional sectors of telecommunications and IT services just a decade ago. However, since then, sector coverage has expanded significantly. It now also includes companies linked with a growing number of industries. Think data centres, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), logistics, and the buy now pay later (BNPL) industry.

Here we look at 3 of my top tech share picks right now: NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT), Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) and Altium Limited (ASX: ALU).

NEXTDC

NEXTDC has evolved over the past decade to be Australia’s largest local data centre provider. Global international data centre providers like Equinix, Global Switch and Digital Realty dominated the market by 5-10 years ago. However, NEXTDC has grown significantly during that time. It now rivals these providers in terms of market scale and data centre efficiency.

The company has a nationwide network of Tier III and Tier IV data centre facilities throughout Australia. It continues to expand rapidly with a number of data centres under construction.

NEXTDC recently completed a $672 million equity raising. This will further assist in its expansion strategy.

Appen

Appen has evolved to become a global leader in providing data with respect to machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).  

This ASX tech company services a range of industry players. This includes major technology companies such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), automakers, and governments. For example, Appen assists Apple and Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google in training their virtual assistants like Siri in how to interact with their users.

In a market update in late May, Appen revealed that there has been minimal impact on its major customers to date during the coronavirus pandemic.

I believe that Appen is very well placed to see continued strong growth, driven by the rising demand for artificial intelligence products.

Altium

Another ASX tech share that I would consider adding to your share portfolio is Altium. This tech company designs software that enables engineers to produce printed circuit boards (PCBs) for a broad range of devices. This includes everything from computers to cars and an increasing number of devices that make up the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT).

Altium revealed in a May update, that it possibly won’t reach its aspirational goal of US$200 million in total revenue during FY 2020. This is a result of the current challenging economic consequences. Despite this, I believe the long-term future for Altium is very bright, driven by the rapidly expanding IoT market.

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Phil Harpur owns shares of Altium, Appen Ltd, and NEXTDC Limited. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Altium. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of Appen Ltd. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post Here are 3 top ASX tech shares to buy with $5,000 today appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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