• ASX stock of the day: LiveTiles share price surges 15% following shareholder letter

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    The Livetiles Ltd (ASX: LVT) share price is up 15% today after the founders issued a shareholder letter. The letter provided a positive update to investors amid the COVID-19 situation. According to the Australian Financial Review, LiveTiles is the fastest-growing technology company in Australia and the fifth-fastest growing company across all industries. 

    What does LiveTiles do? 

    LiveTiles supplies tools to create dashboards, employee portals, and corporate intranets. Headquartered in New York, LiveTiles has operations across the US, Europe, and Australia. The LiveTiles share price is up more than 116% from its March lows as the increase in remote working promotes interest in its products. 

    LifeTiles technology extends to underlying Microsoft platforms such as Office365, Sharepoint, and Azure. The company creates value-adds and enhancements to the underlying platforms that address common business needs and priorities. LiveTiles can be accessed and leveraged by customers through channels such as Microsoft Teams and Internet Explorer. 

    What did LiveTiles report?

    LiveTiles reported it has a strong medium and long-term outlook. And it added that COVID played a global role in accelerating digital workplace software adoption. Having secured its first paying customer in 2015, LiveTiles now boasts 1,200 enterprise customers and over 1,000 recurring subscription customers. 

    Revenue has increased alongside customer numbers. At 31 March 2020, annualised recurring revenue was $55 million. Since inception, LiveTiles has operated as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business with a recurring subscription model. The implied lifetime value of the recurring revenue pool built by LiveTiles has increased 4.9 times over 2 years. Yet the company believes it has only penetrated a little over 1% of its addressable customer pool. These insights are likely a big reason why the LiveTiles share price jumped so high today.

    Impact of COVID

    There is no doubt that the increase in remote working due to the coronavirus has pushed interest in digital interaction solutions. The pandemic means solutions like those offered by LiveTiles are moving towards “must-have” status compared to a “nice to have” approach. 

    While the longer-term outlook is bright, LiveTiles was aware at the start of the pandemic that the lockdown may reduce its cash runway. It wanted to be unquestionably financially stable during and after the pandemic. The company substantially reduced headcount in order to reduce cash burn. This and other initiatives have resulted in $18 million in annualised cost savings. 

    What’s next for LiveTiles? 

    LiveTiles vision is to create the world’s foremost intranet software company. Coronavirus has thrown up both opportunities and challenges in the short term. While the global macroeconomic outlook remains highly uncertain, LiveTiles has elected to take a conservative position on cash burn. 

    Nonetheless, LiveTiles believes COVID-19 will undoubtedly accelerate market adoption of digital workplace software. A recent survey of the US workforce showed 83% of employees were willing to work remotely compared to 37% pre-COVID-19. The company estimates it has a $15 billion market opportunity which remains in the early stages. It is increasingly optimistic about the external forces shaping its future. 

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    Kate O’Brien has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of LIVETILES FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended LIVETILES FPO. 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 ASX stock of the day: LiveTiles share price surges 15% following shareholder letter appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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  • 3 ASX 200 shares to buy for income and growth

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    S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares can be a good source of income and growth.

    Businesses can reach a point where they don’t need to invest as much for growth if they’re already in a strong market position, so they’re able to send some of the profit to shareholders in the form of dividends.

    I think dividends are a good sign that an ASX 200 share is profitable and that management have a focus on rewarding shareholders.

    Here are three of the ASX 200 shares I’d consider for growth and income:

    Share 1: Bapcor Ltd (ASX: BAP)

    Bapcor is Australia’s leading automotive parts business. It runs a variety of parts brands such as Burson which supplies auto parts to mechanics – this is the main profit generator for Bapcor. It also runs Autobarn, ABS, Midas and a number of specialist wholesalers including ones focused on truck parts. I like how it’s diversified across several areas of the auto industry. 

    The COVID-19 shutdown was obviously bad news for the ASX 200 auto parts business. Heavily reduced driving on the roads meant less cars needing car parts. But restrictions have been lifting and the Bapcor share price has gone up 80% since 23 March 2020.

    Before the pandemic hit, Bapcor had a solid history of dividend growth. I think that good dividends could return as early as FY21. Bapcor currently has a trailing grossed-up dividend yield of 4.4%. I think the FY21 dividend could end up being a similar yield.

    Over the longer-term I’m excited by Bapcor’s plan to expand to more than 80 locations in Asia, with a turnover target of $100 million.

    Share 2: TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM)

    TPG has grown into a large ASX 200 telco player. It offers a cheaper service for customers and runs with lower costs than rivals like Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS).

    In the shorter-term the big plan is to merge with Vodafone Australia. Creating one larger company would result in very useful synergies. In-particular, only one 5G network would need to be built.

    TPG plans to pay a special dividend of between $0.49 to $0.52 per share. The combination of TPG and Vodafone Australia should also lead to higher ordinary dividends.

    The new 5G services should unlock more revenue opportunities for TPG. It’s hard to imagine what the next phase of technology will bring. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (AR) will probably be two areas of data demand growth for the ASX 200 telco share.

    Share 3: InvoCare Limited (ASX: IVC)

    InvoCare is an interesting (and morbid) ASX 200 share. It’s the largest funeral operator in Australia and New Zealand.

    The InvoCare share price is still down 23% from where it was on 27 February 2020. COVID-19 restrictions meant the number of people who could attend a funeral was limited. However, those restrictions are now lifting and funerals are returning to normal operation.

    Thankfully, Australia and New Zealand have hardly seen any deaths caused by COVID-19 infections. Indeed, there may be even less deaths this year because of the social distancing and increased personal hygiene. This will lower the funeral operator’s FY20 profit.

    However, the ASX 200 share is still predicted to be a beneficiary from the long-term tailwinds of the ageing demographics. Death volumes are expected to grow by 1.4% per annum between 2016 to 2025 and then increase by 2.2% per annum from 2025 to 2050. This is a good slow-and-steady tailwind to have. 

    InvoCare currently has a trailing grossed-up dividend yield of 5.1%. I believe the FY21 dividend could bounce back to a similar (or higher) level.

    Foolish takeaway

    I believe that each of these ASX 200 shares has decent growth prospects over the next few years. InvoCare and Bapcor have a history of reliable dividends whilst the combined TPG-Vodafone Australia business will pay higher ordinary dividends.

    At the current prices I’d probably go for Bapcor. The fall in new car sales could see more people buying auto parts to make their car live longer instead of buying a different car. Older cars are more likely to need a part replaced.

    The above ASX shares have good growth potential, but these hot stocks could deliver much stronger growth numbers over the coming years…

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    Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Bapcor. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended InvoCare 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 3 ASX 200 shares to buy for income and growth appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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  • FCC chair calls T-Mobile U.S. network outage ‘unacceptable’, vows probe

    FCC chair calls T-Mobile U.S. network outage 'unacceptable', vows probeThe @FCC is launching an investigation. Neville Ray, president of technology at T-Mobile, said on Twitter Monday that engineers were working to resolve a voice and data issue that has affected customers around the country.

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