Stock Pick

  • Why the Appen share price fell nearly 5% today

    Budget results in share price falling

    The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price slumped 4.59% today to close at $29.08.

    Why the Appen share price fell today

    The drop came Friday after an after-market announcement on Thursday that revealed a number of Appen’s directors have been selling shares.

    The company chair, Chris Vonwiller, sold 18% of his holding for an average price of $29 per share. He sold them for personal reasons, including philanthropy. This left him with a total of 9 million shares.

    CEO and managing director Mark Brayan sold 18.6% of his holding at an average price of $30.60 per share. Brayan sold in order to meet tax obligations and to diversify his personal wealth. He continues to hold 418,309 Appen shares. 

    Non-executive director Bill Pulver sold just over 45% of his holding in Appen at an average of $30.69 per share. This director sold in order to diversify his personal wealth and has a remaining holding of 332,384 shares.

    Together, the directors sold an aggregate of 2.37 million shares, representing a total value of $68,919,600 at today’s share price. 

    While the directors each gave reasons why they sold some of their holdings, this didn’t stop the Appen share price from falling in response today. 

    The company’s share price today is down from its 52 week high of $32.30 reached in May. It has, however, risen 11.20% compared to this time last year. The company’s share price has also risen significantly since the beginning of January when it sat at $22.18.

    Appen has seen considerable success lately through the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) products. The company builds software that can recognise language and images. At its AGM in May, Appen outlined that global AI spending is rising at 28% per year. This demonstrates that it has the ability to reach a rapidly growing market. 

    The company’s revenue has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59% since 2015. Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation have risen at a CAGR of 64% over the same timeframe.

    Appen had $100 million in cash on its balance sheet in May.

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    Motley Fool contributor Chris Chitty has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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 Why the Appen share price fell nearly 5% today appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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  • ASX 200 closes higher, banks keep rising

    ASX 200

    What happened today on the ASX?

    The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) closed higher today, with the ASX banks pushing higher.

    The ASX 200 keeps going higher despite an initial wobble this morning. The Australian dollar keeps rising as well.

    Here are some ASX highlights from today:

    ASX banks pull the index higher

    The ASX may have finished in the red if it weren’t for the continued positive movements by the major ASX 200 banks. It has been a huge week for them.

    Today we saw the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price rise 1.9%, the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price rose by 3.4%, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) share price went up 2.9% and the National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price went up nearly 3%.

    Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) shoots the lights out

    The online retailer is seeing an astonishing amount of growth in the final quarter of FY20. The Kogan.com share price rose 8.6%, so it’s well on its way to entering the ASX 200 this year. 

    Today it said it added another 126,000 active customers in May 2020, bringing the total to 2.074 million at the end of last month.

    So far in the fourth quarter of FY20, gross sales and gross profit have grown by more than 100% and 130% respectively. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) has risen more than 200%.

    The company finished with $58.6 million of cash and $26 million of debt at the end of May 2020.

    New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC) delayed again

    The ASX 200 coal miner announced today that the High Court of Australia has granted Oakey Coal Action Alliance Inc (OCAA) special leave to appeal the orders of the Queensland Court of Appeal which were made on 1 November 2019.

    New Hope said that OCAA isn’t challenging findings on groundwater or any other environmental issue that is relevant to any decision being made by the government. This is why the company thinks the Queensland state government should immediately approve the New Acland Stage 3.

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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 Kogan.com 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.

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  • Broadcom Reports Solid Results, Dividend As Analysts Boost PTs

    Broadcom Reports Solid Results, Dividend As Analysts Boost PTsBroadcom (AVGO) has reported an in-line April quarter, and guided to an in-line July quarter at $5.75B (consensus $5.8B). Shares in AVGO gained 1% in Thursday’s after-hours trading following the earnings release.Specifically, Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $5.14 was in-line with consensus expectations, while GAAP EPS of $1.17 beat by $0.21. Revenue of $5.74B climbed 4% from the previous year, and topped Street estimates by $50M. Meanwhile Q2 adjusted EBITDA was $3.2B, again, coming in slightly higher than the $3.11B consensus.Semiconductor Solutions reported revenue of $4,027M (-1% y/y) but Infrastructure software revenue came in strong at $1,715M (+21% y/y).“Second quarter results were in-line with our expectations, and saw limited impact from the effects of COVID-19,” commented Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom Inc. “Looking ahead, our third quarter guidance for semiconductors reflects a surge in demand from cloud, telecom and enterprise customers, offset by supply chain constraints and an expected substantial reset in wireless.”At the same time the company declared a $3.25/share quarterly dividend, in line with previous payouts, for a forward yield of 4.2%.“We generated record quarterly free cash flow of over $3 billion and reinforced our balance sheet, ending the quarter with over $9 billion of cash,” explained Tom Krause, CFO of Broadcom Inc. As a result, AVGO “remain[s] committed to maintaining our dividend while we navigate these unprecedented times.”Following the report Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh reiterated his AVGO buy rating while ramping up his price target from $315 to $325 (5% upside potential).“We continue to see AVGO as well positioned, driven by 5G networking and wireless, software M&A, strong FCF, and dividends, with near-term COVID-19 headwinds subsiding” Rakesh told investors, adding that the company is currently trading at an attractive ~13.1x F21E (Oct) P/E.Likewise RBC Capital’s Mitch Steves boosted his price target from $300 to $340 noting that AVGO is seeing much more demand than it can currently supply for Q3. “AVGO is seeing strong uplift in demand from the ramp of next-generation deep learning inference chips” the analyst wrote, while demand from enterprise customers for data protection controllers has recovered and is showing strength.Overall, AVGO scores a bullish Strong Buy Street consensus, with 19 buy ratings offset by 2 hold ratings. However, the average analyst price target stands at $303, indicating downside potential of 2%. Shares in AVGO are trading down 2% year-to-date. (See AVGO stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Slack Plunges 15% Post-Print Despite Multi-Year Amazon Deal Ebay Lifts Quarterly Sales and Profit Forecast; Shares Jump To All-Time High Microsoft Buys Metaswitch For Cloud-Based Telecoms Move, 5G Expansion More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Slack Plunges 15% Post-Print Despite Multi-Year Amazon Deal * Seanergy’s Shipping Rates Set to Rebound While Equity Raises Will Reduce Debt, Says Analyst * 3 Under-The-Radar Cannabis Stocks Ready to Bounce * AstraZeneca Seeks To Make 2 Billion Covid-19 Vaccine Doses With New Supply Deals

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