S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) real estate stock Aspen Group Ltd (ASX: APZ) is marching higher today.

Aspen Group shares closed yesterday trading for $5.18. During the Friday lunch hour, shares are changing hands for $5.24 apiece, up 1.2%.  

For some context, the ASX 300 is up 1.2% at this same time as well.

Taking a step back, however, Apen Group shares have strongly outperformed the 2.8% 12-month gains delivered by the benchmark index. 

Indeed, if we add in the 11 cents per share in partly-franked dividends the ASX 300 real estate stock has paid out over the past year, then the accumulated value of Aspen shares has surged 40.1% in 12 months.

And according to Joe Wright, deputy portfolio manager on the Airlie Australian Share Fund, the company is well-positioned to keep outperforming in the year ahead.  

Here’s why.

ASX 300 real estate stock in the sweet spot

“We love residential property developer and operator Aspen Group,” Wright said (quoted by The Australian Financial Review).

“There continues to be a huge undersupply of affordable housing in Australia, which is exactly the area that Aspen looks to serve,” he added.

Summing up his bullish outlook on the ASX 300 real estate stock, Wright concluded:

Joint chief executives John Carter and David Dixon are experienced operators with a fantastic track record of buying land well and building houses that are reasonably priced and people want to live in.

It means there is a lot of demand, and that’s led to significant earnings growth and returns which we expect to continue over the next five years.

What’s the latest from Aspen Group?

Aspen released its Q3 FY 2026 update on 9 April, with management noting that the company is “well on track to achieve earnings guidance for FY26 and FY27”.

As for that earnings growth Wright mentioned above, for the nine months to 31 March the ASX 300 real estate stock reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $43.1 million. That’s up 45% from the same nine-month period in FY 2025. 

Management maintained full year FY 2026 EBITDA guidance of $53.3 million.

Also growing strongly was the company’s realised development profit, which leapt 153% year on year to $19 million in the first nine months of this financial year. 

Aspen Group management noted, “By the end of March, we achieved 88% of development profit guidance [of $21.5 million] for FY26, and we expect to achieve 100% in May.”

The post Up 40%. Why this surging ASX 300 real estate stock is tipped to keep outperforming appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben 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.

Talga Group Ltd (ASX: TLG) shares are having one of their best sessions in months on Friday.

At the time of writing, the ASX battery materials stock is up 28.57% to an intraday high of 27 cents. 

The rally comes after a tough run for shareholders. Talga shares are still down 28% in 2026 and 36% over the past 12 months. 

But investors finally have something to cheer about. 

After years of work on its battery anode plans, Talga has given investors a sign that commercial progress is finally starting to show. 

Here’s what the company announced. 

First commercial deliveries begin

According to the release, Talga has started commercial deliveries of its flagship battery graphite anode product, Talnode-C, to Nyobolt. 

Nyobolt is a battery technology company focused on ultra-fast charging batteries, which are being developed for areas such as heavy-duty vehicles, mining equipment, and industrial robotics. 

The first shipment was delivered from Talga’s EVA demonstration plant in Lulea, Sweden, under the binding 3,000-tonne offtake agreement announced in May last year. 

While the early volumes aren’t huge, the update is still significant for the company. It means Talga has moved from testing and customer qualification work to commercial sales under a binding offtake agreement. 

The balance of the 3,000-tonne offtake is expected to come from Talga’s planned commercial-scale anode plant in the same area. Construction is targeted to start in 2027, although this still depends on a final investment decision.

A closer look at Nyobolt

Nyobolt is working on batteries that can charge very quickly and handle heavy use. 

Talga said the company recently completed a Series C capital raise at a US$1 billion valuation. So, clearly there’s some serious money behind what it is trying to build. 

Nyobolt advised that it has already demonstrated charging from 10% to 80% in under 5 minutes.

With that kind of speed, the batteries could be valuable in markets where downtime can cost operators money.

And that is why Nyobolt is targeting heavy-duty commercial vehicles, trucks, mining equipment, and autonomous warehouse robots.

These are all areas where battery performance, charging speed, and reliability need to hold up.

Talga also pointed to demand beyond passenger electric vehicles. This includes potential uses in industrial drones, hybrid heavy-duty vehicles, defence hardware, AI data centre power solutions, and backup power systems.

Foolish Takeaway

This update should give Talga shares more support after a brutal start to the year.

Talga has talked up its battery anode opportunity for years, making these first commercial sales a welcome milestone for investors. 

Furthermore, management said it is in advanced talks with offtake parties and new customers are nearing final qualification and onboarding.

If more deals follow, the share price could keep powering higher.

 

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Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras 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.

Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) shares are sliding today.

Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) energy stock closed yesterday trading for $28.03. In late morning trade on Friday, shares are swapping hands for $27.69 apiece, down 1.2%. 

For some context, the ASX 200 is up 1.3% at this same time. 

Some of today’s underperformance looks to be driven by another dip in global oil prices.

Currently trading for US$71.60 per barrel, the Brent crude oil price is down 0.3% overnight, which now sees the oil price down more than 25% over the past month.

Investors may also be tuning into the latest board shakeup announced by the oil and gas giant this morning.

What’s happening with Woodside shares?

Before market open today, Woodside announced that Tony O’Neill has resigned as a non-executive director, effective as of the first of this month, just two years after joining the board. 

Since June 2024, O’Neill served on Woodside’s Audit & Risk, Sustainability, Nominations & Governance committees.

Commenting on the abrupt departure that could be dragging on Woodside shares today, chairman Richard Goyder said: 

Tony’s wise counsel and strategic guidance on sustainability, decarbonisation and operational performance have been highly valued during what has been a transformative period for Woodside. We appreciate Tony’s leadership and commitment to delivering value for our shareholders and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

What are the experts saying?

According to various media speculations, O’Neill’s resignation appears to be linked to historic United Kingdom-based business dealings at Odin that he had with Mark Cutifani. Cutifani joined the Woodside board earlier this year. Their business relationship had, reportedly, not been clarified to other board directors. 

As The Australian Financial Review reported, a Woodside spokeswoman said O’Neill resigned “to allow the company and board to focus on delivery and remove ongoing distraction”. 

As for the potential impact on Woodside shares, MST Marquee energy analyst Saul Kavonic noted that O’Neill’s resignation “may now be too little, too late to fully alleviate investor concerns on governance”.

According to Kavonic (quoted by the AFR):

Governance concerns will persist for as long as the chairman succession process isn’t seen to be beyond reproach.

That Woodside’s board persist with the assertion that this is about dealing with a distraction rather than facing up to a substantive governance issue is a further sign that change of leadership of the Woodside board is overdue, and shouldn’t be passed to another director who was involved in this debacle.

Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility lead analyst Alex Hillman added:

We raised concerns at the recent AGM about the appointment of Mark Cutifani as a director, in circumstances where Tony O’Neill and Mark Cutifani have had overlapping business interests.

The resignation of Tony O’Neill does, however, create an opportunity for Woodside to appoint the type of director that the company needs.

With today’s intraday dip factored in, Woodside shares remain up 17.2% in 2026.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben 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.