Category: Stock Market

Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV) stock is a really attractive investment to me for both its dividends and growth. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) share has plenty of pleasing characteristics, which I’ll explore in this article.

Lovisa sells affordable jewellery to younger shoppers.

Strong profitable growth

Investors often like to judge a company based on profit and how much it’s expected to make. In FY23, on a 52-week comparative basis, Lovisa grew net profit after tax (NPAT) by 20.1% to $68.2 million.

A key part of Lovisa’s growth (and that of almost any ASX 200 share) is revenue growth. Store count growth is a large driver of revenue growth. In FY23, Lovisa’s revenue rose by 33.1% on a 52-week basis, and the store count grew by 27% (or 172 stores) to 801 stores.

A lot of those new stores have been open for less than a year, so a full 12 months of operations will add to revenue and profit. Opening a new store or entering a new country comes with costs before any revenue flows in. It’s an upfront investment but well worth it.

Lovisa entered a number of new markets in FY23, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Namibia, Botswana, Spain, Italy, Hungry, Romania, UAE and Mexico. In FY24, it’s entering markets like China and Vietnam. The longer the growth runway, the more it can help Lovisa stock.

At the end of FY23, it had 195 stores in Australia and New Zealand out of a global total of 801.

The company could open a significant number of potential stores in the next decade.

For now, I’m just working on the premise that Lovisa can roughly double its store count over the next five years. This could boost its revenue and profit by roughly double, particularly if operating leverage can help with its growing store count. This would then be very supportive of Lovisa’s stock price, in my opinion.

Great dividends

If revenue and profit can continue to grow at the rate I think it might, there could be a lot of scope for the dividend to keep growing if it sticks to the same dividend payout ratio.

I’d expect capital growth to make up the larger portion of overall returns over the long term from this ASX 200 share. But the dividends are a welcome boost, particularly if we don’t want to sell any shares and still benefit from the profit growth.

In FY23, the company paid an annual dividend per share of 69 cents. That translates into a trailing cash yield of 3% and a grossed-up dividend yield of around 4%.

The dividend may not be as strong in FY24 based on the current retail conditions, but by FY26, it could pay an annual dividend per share of 91 cents (according to Commsec). This would be a potential cash yield of 4% or a grossed-up dividend yield of more than 5%.

At the current Lovisa stock price, I’d be happy to buy some shares for the long term and top up on any sell-offs.

The post Why I think Lovisa stock is an amazing ASX 200 buy for both dividends and growth appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here’s how I’m targeting a generous ASX passive income in retirement!
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has positions in Lovisa. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Lovisa. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Lovisa. 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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Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) shares have been on a wild ride over the last 12 months.

After soaring to a 52-week high of $5.43 in August, the lithium miner’s shares ended the week at $3.53.

While the decline over the five months might be disappointing for some, I doubt that longer term shareholders will be too dismayed.

That’s because Pilbara Minerals’ shares have delivered staggering returns for them over the last decade.

The state of play a decade ago

If you were to have invested in Pilbara Minerals shares 10 years ago, you wouldn’t have been investing in an ASX lithium share.

This battery making ingredient wasn’t on the menu for the company at that point.

For example, in November 2013, the company raised $750,000 to support drilling activities at the Tabba Tabba Tantalum Project in Western Australia.

It wasn’t until a year later that the company signed an agreement to “evaluate the potential to produce high-grade lithium carbonate from the extensive lepidolite mineralisation at its 100%-owned Pilgangoora Lithium-Tantalum Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.”

The company’s CEO at the time, David Biddle, said: “This is a great opportunity which could unlock substantial value.”

He wasn’t wrong.

What would $10,000 invested in Pilbara Minerals shares 10 years ago be worth now?

If you had been lucky enough to invest $10,000 into Pilbara Minerals shares in January 2014, you would have been able to snap them up for 3 cents each.

This means you would have ended up holding approximately 333,333 units.

Fast forward to today, with the Pilbara Minerals share price now fetching $3.53, those units would be worth almost $1.2 million if you had held onto them.

It’s also worth noting that over the last 12 months, the company has paid out 25 cents per share in fully franked dividends.

That would have seen you receive a pay check of approximately $83,000 in dividends for the 12 months.

I think I might look for the next Pilbara Minerals this long weekend!

The post If I invested $10,000 into Pilbara Minerals shares 10 years ago, I would have… appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here’s what Bell Potter is saying about the Pilbara Minerals share price
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today
• Is the Pilbara Minerals’ interim dividend at risk of being axed?
• Why Karoon Energy, Kogan, Northern Star, and Pilbara Minerals shares are jumping today
• Pilbara Minerals shares charge higher on rock solid Q2 update

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro 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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If I were retired, I would make sure to keep investing in ASX dividend shares to fund a comfortable lifestyle with passive income that would ideally last as long as I needed it to. But I wouldn’t just invest in any dividend-paying share if I was in this fortunate position.

For retirees, income certainty is one of the most important traits that a dividend share can possess. After all, we wouldn’t want to have any unexpected passive income droughts in our golden years just because a company decides to cut its dividend.

So with that in mind, here are two ASX dividend shares I would happily buy if I were retired today for 2024 and beyond

2 ASX dividend shares I would buy for passive income in 2024

Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS)

First up is a company we’d probably all know (and may or may not love), Telstra. Retirees who have been relying on dividends for many years might have bad memories of Telstra’s dividend cuts back in 2016 and 2017.

However, the Telstra of today is a completely different beast, with the woes of the NBN rollout well behind it.

Today, the telco easily maintains its role at the top of the Australian mobile and broadband markets. Telstra is simply the preferred provider of telecommunication services in the country.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the company has a near-41% share of total NBN connections. Its closest rival, TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG), has just a 21.3% share. The numbers are similar when it comes to mobile connections.

That makes this company extremely resilient, in my view. Telstra maintained its dividend all throughout the pandemic and even gave investors a pay rise last year.

What’s more, Telstra shares offer an attractive and fully-franked dividend yield of almost 4.3% today.

Transurban Group (ASX: TCL)

Next up, we have another company most city dwellers may know if not love. Transurban is the largest toll road operator in the country. It runs almost every toll road in Sydney, as well as several across Melbourne and Brisbane.

If you regularly motor around any of these major cities, you’d be familiar with how hard it is to avoid paying Transurban for the privilege.

Most of the company’s roads are major arterial routes.  But even better (for investors, not motorists), Transurban has generous provisions built into most of its long-term contracts for these toll roads.

Most allow the company to increase its tolls every quarter by at least the rate of inflation. Some even allow increases at the rate of inflation or 4%, whichever is higher.

All this makes Transurban a fantastic and reliable ASX passive income payer, in my view, and one perfect for a retiree. Today, the company has a chunky trailing yield of 4.68% on the table.

The post Retirees: 2 Top ASX dividend shares I’d buy now for passive income in 2024 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has positions in Telstra Group. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Transurban Group. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Telstra Group. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Tpg Telecom. 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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It saddens me greatly that our national day of celebration is so controversial these days.

It’s understandable that the ‘date’ is controversial – I’m not sure the arrival of the First Fleet is the right thing to commemorate, given the impact that event had on Indigenous Australians, and that it would cost us nothing to choose a different date.

It’s just a shame that as a result – and given the various and contradictory emotions January 26th stirs up – the controversy detracts from our ability to celebrate a national day, together, in unity.

Because we have much to celebrate, as a country. And we should.

As I’ve written many times, on January 26th and other dates throughout the year, that we have problems, but I don’t know that there would be many countries on Earth that wouldn’t swap their problems for ours.

And, as I also write regularly, we don’t have to be free of those problems to celebrate the good stuff, just as we shouldn’t let those celebrations blind us to the things we need to fix.

Indeed, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were here long, long before 1788, modern Australia had its roots famously (infamously?) as a penal colony.

And from that inauspicious start – criminals and dispossessed original inhabitants – we have built a modern, prosperous, tolerant society. We are blessed with natural beauty and a largely (though not entirely) benign climate.

We have a past that we are still yet to entirely or appropriately reckon with, but we have a future that can be as bright as we’re prepared to make it.

Yes, economically, but more than that, too. After all, the economy is vitally important to the society, but it serves that society, not the other way around.

Australia is one of the richest nations on Earth. We aren’t as equal as some, but we’re far more equal than many, and even that equality sees all but the very poorest Australians better off than almost all of the rest of the world. Native-born Australians truly have won what Warren Buffett calls ‘the ovarian lottery’, and those who have joined us by choice have made a wonderful decision.

We have experienced social, sporting and economic success that is the envy of most other nations. And, as evidenced by recent events, we have started to infiltrate the aristocracy of Europe, and will shortly commence our takeover of those institutions. Queen Mary is playing the long game. Just wait and see… (Okay, that last point may not be entirely true. But you can’t prove it’s not, and it would only take a small change to our Constitution to make Denmark an Australian State. We’d even let Frederick be the first gentleman to Governor Mary Donaldson!)

No, we shouldn’t start believing in an Australian ‘exceptionalism’ of the sort that intoxicates many of our American friends when they think about their homeland. But we should be proud of the country we are and have become.

Because from those reflections, we can take inspiration as we think about the country we aim to be. The things we want to continue doing, and being. The parts of our national life we might want to minimise or jettison, and those things we might want to do more of, or start doing, as we aim to make our country even better.

Our national flag is sometimes hijacked by those who would be less tolerant, more divisive or less caring. That’s not who we are.

But also, its rejection, and the rejection of national pride or national ambition by others also misses the mark.

(No, this isn’t a ‘both sides’ thing: The former are despicable, while the latter are simply misguided, in my view.)

We should be proud to be Australian. Proud of the economic development and success we’ve achieved. Proud that we were one of the first countries to grant women suffrage, and of the secret ballot (that was, for a while, known around the world as ‘the Australian ballot’). Proud of the wealth we’ve created, and the culture we embrace. Proud of the ‘fair go’ and a national system of safety nets that are some of the best in the world. 

We should be proud of our sportspeople who have taken on the world, and won. And also our scientists, businesspeople and diplomats. Our war veterans and our aid volunteers. The oldest continuous culture in the world. Our national parks and our philanthropists. And yes, even our sometimes-dysfunctional democracy.

I am the last person to give anyone a free pass if they’re doing the wrong thing, as you may know by now. And we shouldn’t paper over our issues just because other parts of our nation are wonderful. We should never lose sight of our obligation to help make things better, particularly for those who are unable to have an equal chance of making them better for themselves.

But I’m also very careful to remember that being able to point out things that, on a national scale, are usually minor imperfections in an otherwise strong and vibrant country is a privilege many others don’t have – either because dissent is not allowed, or because our problems are tiny compare to the issues many others face.

I will be celebrating Australia today. Not because the date is the right one, or because we have no problems, but because those things can be true at the same time as we recognise how bloody lucky we are to live here, whether we were born here or arrived here to make a new life.

It is my deep hope that this time next year, we can all say that the last 12 months was yet another year of (imperfect) improvement for our country; another year that took the national project further in the right direction.

Happy Australia Day. 

Fool on!

The post Happy Australia Day appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here’s how I’m targeting a generous ASX passive income in retirement!
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Motley Fool contributor Scott Phillips 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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Believe it or not, many Australians are closer to retirement than they think.

That’s because ASX shares and compounding can accelerate your investment, taking it to a level where each year a useful amount of cash can be extracted.

Let’s take a hypothetical look at how one can do this:

Growth vs dividend vs cyclical shares

We’ll imagine you can start with $40,000 of stocks.

Why that number? Comparison site Finder last year conducted research that found the average amount of savings Australians had in the bank was around that mark.

While there are many different styles one could employ in constructing a stock portfolio, personally I’m a fan of ASX growth shares.

That’s because I find it fun to watch the businesses I’ve backed grow to new levels. It’s fascinating to see what new products and services these companies will come up with next, and the markets that they will expand to.

It’s almost like watching sport.

Also, I find growth stocks arguably lower maintenance than ASX dividend shares or cyclical stocks.

You don’t have to worry about reinvesting dividends each year, which requires decisions about what stocks to buy and complicates capital gains tax calculations.

And cyclical stocks require careful monitoring of macroeconomics and commodity prices, and possible buying and selling, which is a hassle I don’t need.

What kind of returns could I aim for?

Now, with that $40,000 growth portfolio, I reckon it’s not out of the question to get 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) out of it in the long run.

Is that realistic? Take some popular stocks as an example: 

• Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV) shares have tripled over the past five years, meaning a CAGR of 24.6%
• An arguably more mature company, Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO), has seen its shares rise 166% over the same time, which equates to 21.6% annually
• And Resmed CDI (ASX: RMD), despite all its Ozempic-related troubles in the past six months, has still gained 84.4% over the last half-decade for a CAGR of 13%

Of course, not every stock in the portfolio will necessarily do as well as the above.

But with careful diversification, these sorts of stars will carry your other picks that haven’t turned out so well, and overall you gain 12% each year.

Passive income to retire on

So that $40,000, with $400 added each month and growing at 12% a year, will end up around: 

• $208,000 after 10 years
• $397,000 after 15 years
• $731,000 after 20 years

The idea is that whenever you decide to turn on the passive income tap, you start selling off that year’s gains and pocket the proceeds.

You can pick when you retire. The later you can leave it, the greater the passive income will be.

In our example, after 10 years the annual income will be $25,000. If you can wait 15 years, the yearly reward will be more than $47,000.

If you have enough patience to not touch the nest egg for two decades, you can harvest an enticing passive income each year in excess of $87,000.

Can you even imagine receiving $87,000 every 12 months in return for no work?

That’s how I’m planning to put my feet up.

The post Here’s how I’m targeting a generous ASX passive income in retirement! appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today
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Motley Fool contributor Tony Yoo has positions in Lovisa, ResMed, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Lovisa, ResMed, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended ResMed and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Lovisa. 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 Arafura Resources Limited (ASX: ARU) share price reset its 52-week low on Thursday at 12 cents after the ASX rare earths developer released its December quarterly activities report.

However, Arafura shares later recovered and closed the session up 4% at 13 cents. The ASX rare earths share has lost 77% of its value over the past 12 months.

Arafura owns the Nolans Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) Project in the Northern Territory. NdPr is used in electric vehicles (EVs).

Let’s review the report.

Arafura share price hits new 52-week low

Let’s cover some of the numbers from the report first.

Over the three months to 31 December 2023:

• $800,000 spent on exploration and evaluation activities
• $2.7 million spent on corporate, administration, and business development
• $22.8 million spent on project development activities
• Average monthly cash expenditure decreased over the quarter to $8.7 million
• Cash reserves of $67 million as of 31 December, including institutional placement proceeds
• Arafura declared it has 2.5 quarters of funding left.

What else happened during the quarter?

Arafura completed early construction work at Nolans during the quarter. It now has an operations program underway to prepare the site for main construction once final project funding is sorted out.

The company expects to finalise funding in the first quarter of 2024. It says there are currently no material changes to capital cost estimates for the Nolans Project.

Arafura is seeking to fund Nolans via offtake agreements, debt funding and an institutional and retail capital raise.

Last month, Arafura received a letter of interest (LoI) from Korea EXIMbank (KEXIM), otherwise known as the Export–Import Bank of Korea and the official export credit agency of South Korea. KEXIM indicated an offer of up to US$150 million of debt funding via direct lending and an untied loan guarantee.

The LoI is linked to binding offtake arrangements with Hyundai Motor Corporation and Kia Corporation. South Korea wants to secure NdPr supply to help in the electrification of its car manufacturing sector.

Arafura said all contracted offtake groups are now strategically linked to international export credit agency support via non-binding Lols or similar.

$10 million share purchase plan fails to reach target

Today, Arafura also announced the results of its share purchase plan (SPP), which closed on Monday.

The SPP provided eligible shareholders the opportunity to apply for up to $30,000 worth of new Arafura shares at 16 cents per share. At the time Arafura announced the capital raise, this was a 20% discount.

Arafura was hoping to raise $10 million but received $6.5 million (before costs) from 710 applications.

The SPP follows a fully underwritten institutional placement in December, which targeted $20 million but was upsized to $25 million due to “strong demand from leading investor groups”, the company said.

Arafura share price snapshot

The Arafura share price has fallen 77% over the past year.

By comparison, the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has increased by 0.98%.

The post Arafura share price resets 52-week low after quarterly update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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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 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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The post Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen 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 Nanosonics and ResMed. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Nanosonics and ResMed. 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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Despite pockets of optimism among ASX lithium shares today, the Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) share price is whimpering as we approach the long weekend.

The lithium producer is fetching 18.5 cents apiece in afternoon trade, down 5.1% from yesterday. Meanwhile, other popular names in the space are climbing higher, such as Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN), which has lifted 5.3% after releasing its quarterly update.

Core Lithium has a catalyst of its own today in the form of an exploration update. However, it doesn’t appear to be striking a chord with shareholders.

Increased confidence not flowing to Core Lithium shares

Expanding available resources is important for miners, helping to ensure they don’t get depleted. No resource means no product, and no product equates to zilch revenue.

Last year, Core Lithium worked on avoiding such a fate by conducting an exploration program. The program was segmented into three phases, encompassing drilling works across several targets at the company’s Finniss District in the Northern Territory.

The 2023 program is now complete, with Core Lithium summarising its findings.

In the first phase, the company conducted drilling at BP33 and Carlton. Results from this have previously been reported, namely the increase of BP33’s mineral resource estimate to 10.5 million tonnes at 1.53% lithium oxide.

What is new knowledge to investors is the drill program in phase two. This phase focused on Lees-Booths, Hang Gong, Ah Hoy, and Penfolds deposits (see the drilling map below for context).

The findings are as follows:

Lees-Booths deposit

• 15 metres at 1.18% lithium oxide from 490 metres
• 20 metres at 1.64% lithium oxide from 485 metres
• 21 metres at 1.42% lithium oxide from 171 metres
• 16 metres at 1.57% lithium oxide from 146 metres
• 11 metres at 1.75% lithium oxide from 168 metres
• 20 metres at 1.02% lithium oxide from 165 metres
• 15 metres at 1.40% lithium oxide from 244 metres
• 26 metres at 1.13% lithium oxide from 246 metres

Penfolds

• 20 metres at 1.20% lithium oxide from 295 metres
• 25 metres at 1.20% lithium oxide from 89 metres
• 20 metres at 1.48% lithium oxide from 155 metres
• 44 metres at 1.23% lithium oxide from 235 metres
• 26 metres at 1.61% lithium oxide from 195 metres

Hang Gong (best result)

• 13 metres at 1.29% from 164 metres

In phase three, the company applied ambient noise tomography to identify new pegmatite bodies. These results were used to inform drilling locations during the third phase. Importantly, Core Lithium highlighted its goal of locating larger targets to drive scale.

The exploration program will be reviewed in the March 2024 quarter to determine its next steps.

Demand driver at risk

Some insight into the demand for lithium in 2024 could also be dragging on the Core Lithium shares.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) published its latest quarterly figures this morning. Inside its presentation, the company warned its vehicle production growth could be “notably lower” than in 2023.

As EVs require lithium for their batteries, a reduced increase in production could mean lower lithium required than originally anticipated, potentially putting more pressure on the already slaughtered price of lithium.

Core Lithium has had to suspend mining operations amid the lower commodity price. Any hint at even softer conditions could cause alarm among investors and Core Lithium shares.

The post Core Lithium shares dive 5% on exploration update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler has positions in Tesla. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Tesla. 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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Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) shares are in COVID-recovery mode, with the share price climbing from an all-time low of $8.92 during the market crash in March 2020 to $20.03 today.

After a four-year freeze on dividends, the company resumed paying them last year.

Flight Centre announced the resumption of dividends as part of its FY23 full-year results. The company told the market it had returned to profit and would pay an 18-cent final dividend, fully franked.

That was well off the last final dividend of 98 cents per share announced in September 2019.

That 18 cents represented a measly 0.8% dividend yield based on the Flight Centre share price at the time.

The company said it would allocate 50% to 60% of net profit after tax (NPAT) to dividends and/or buybacks in the future.

What has happened since COVID?

COVID decimated Flight Centre’s business and earnings and forced an internal operations overhaul.

But the company made it out of the COVID emergency alive, and in FY23, it reported its second-best full-year result ever after total transaction value (TTV) more than doubled during the recovery to $22 billion.

That was second-best to the financial year prior to the pandemic, FY19. Back in those days, Flight Centre shares were trading at all-time highs, hitting a historical peak in August 2018 at $70.53.

Today, the ASX travel share is trading at less than a third of that value, but its earnings are clearly on the way back to pre-pandemic levels.

Not only that, but that overhaul mentioned earlier led to operating expenses falling to 75% of what they were in FY19. Productivity has also improved, with TTV per full-time employee up 52% compared to FY19.

Does this present an opportunity to buy Flight Centre shares at a pandemic-pummelled price, with the dividend yield on those holdings likely to rise as earnings and dividends grow from here?

Let’s see what the experts have to say about the passive income potential of Flight Centre stock.

What are the brokers forecasting for dividends?

The consensus analyst forecast published on CommSec today shows the Flight Centre full-year dividend is expected to be 47.4 cents in 2024. On today’s share price, that’s a yield of 2.26%.

In 2025, the analysts expect Flight Centre to pay about 69 cents per share. That’s a yield of 3.3% on today’s price.

And in 2026, the analysts are tipping a dividend of 84.2 cents, or a yield of 4%. That’s pretty much the average dividend yield delivered by ASX 200 shares.

But here’s the bigger question.

Could Flight Centre ever go back to paying dividends at the level it did before the pandemic?

In 2019, the company paid $1.58 per share (excluding a special cash dividend). In 2018, it paid $1.67 per share. At those levels, the yield on Flight Centre shares bought today would be 7.5% to 8%!

Will the Flight Centre share price grow in 2024?

Analysts at Morgans think the Flight Centre share price could appreciate by about 25% this year.

They have an add rating on Flight Centre shares with a 12-month price target of $26.

The broker says it has confidence that the travel recovery “has much further to go”. It also noted that the benefits of Flight Centre’s transformed business model are only now emerging.

The consensus rating on Flight Centre, as published on CommSec today, is a moderate buy. The travel stock was upgraded from a hold rating in February 2023. It was reviewed in May and kept the same.

Of the 17 analysts providing ratings on Flight Centre shares, eight say the stock is a strong buy. Three say it’s a moderate buy, and six say it’s a hold.

It’s worth noting that Flight Centre shares have been among the most shorted stocks on the ASX for some time. In our latest report, we revealed a short position of 8.3% on Flight Centre shares.

While this is a significant portion of capital, it is a vast improvement on this time last year when 14.07% was shorted.

At the time, Flight Centre was trading at $15.86 per share. The travel stock continued to rise throughout 2023, defying those pessimistic predictions of price falls.

The post Is now the time to buy Flight Centre shares for passive income? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has positions in Flight Centre Travel Group. 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 Flight Centre Travel Group. 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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It’s been a mildly positive day overall for ASX shares this Thursday. At the time of writing, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has inched 0.09% higher and is back over 7,750 points. But let’s talk about what’s going on with the BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) share price.

Brainchip shares have had a very interesting day so far. The artificial intelligence (AI) stock closed at 15.5 cents a share yesterday. But this morning saw the company spike just after market open, climbing as high as 16.2 cents. That was a spike worth roughly 4.5% at the time.

Since then, Brainchip shares have cooled off and are flat at 15.7 cents each.

Brainchip hasn’t exactly been a lucrative investment of late. The AI company remains down more than 76% over the past 12 months, so any significant gains in the stock price are probably going to be very welcome for investors.

Today’s gains come after Brainchip released its latest quarterly activities report this morning, which probably explains the company’s positive moves.

Brainchip shares bounce after losses slow

Brainchip’s quarterly report covers the three months to 31 December. The company started off by touting that its Akida 2.0 product became available for customers during the period.

On the balance sheet, Brainchip revealed that it ended the quarter with US$14.3 million in the bank, compared with US$17.8 million at the end of the previous quarter.

Cash outflows slowed to US$3.3 million, down from US$4 million the previous quarter.

In some other good news, the company also announced that its cash inflows from customers were positive for the quarter, with the company earning US$780,000 in inflows for the three months to 31 December. That compares against a loss of US$30,000 for the preceding quarter.

So it’s possible investors are feeling positive after these numbers become public this Thursday, and are thus rewarding the Brainchip share price during today’s trading.

As we touched on earlier though, Brainchip shares have a long way to go if investors are to recover the past 12 months’ losses. Let’s see what the rest of 2024 holds in store for this ASX AI stock.

The post Here’s why BrainChip shares are making waves today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen 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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