Category: Stock Market

The Antisense Therapeutics Limited (ASX: ANP) share price soared today without any news out of the company. It seems the market may have been a bit slow on the uptake and was responding to news released by the junior healthcare company earlier in the week. On Tuesday, Antisense released an announcement regarding a muscular dystrophy study.

The company provided an update on its meeting with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in relation to the inhibitor ATL1102. At close of trading today, the biotechnology company’s shares were up 15.79% to 22 cents. This followed gains on Thursday’s session as well.

What’s drove the Antisense share price higher?

The rise in Antisense shares followed the release earlier this week of the FDA’s official minutes on the company’s Type C guidance meeting.

According to the statement, the FDA has given the nod for Antisense to explore higher dosage limits of ATL1102 in future studies. This follows the recent data findings of Antisense’s Phase II open-label study in Melbourne. A total of 9 Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients received 25 milligrams of ATL1102 per week for 24 weeks.

Furthermore, Antisense said the FDA has accepted the company’s proposed design of its Phase IIb/III study. The clinical trial will run for 52 weeks during which time participants will be assessed for muscle strength. The FDA also suggested Antisense submits a study protocol, outlining primary and secondary endpoints.

A 9-month monkey toxicology study will also be conducted into the effects of ATL1102. However, the FDA said once the animal study is at the report-writing stage, the Phase IIb/III human trial can begin.

Antisense is now consulting with US-based regulatory advisors regarding the next steps towards starting the Phase IIb/III human trial. In addition, the company is evaluating the cost and feasibility of the 9-month monkey study.

About Antisense and ATL1102

Founded in 2000, Antisense is focused on developing and commercialising antisense pharmaceuticals for patients suffering from rare diseases. Antisense is the non-coding DNA strand of a gene.

The company is developing ATL1102, an antisense inhibitor of the CD49d receptor, for DMD patients. Recently Antisense reported promising Phase II trial results, indicating a significantly reduced number of brain lesions in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

DMD is a severe type of muscular dystrophy that primarily affects boys. According to Antisense, it occurs as a result of mutations in the dystrophin gene which cause a substantial reduction in, or absence of, the dystrophin protein.

Ongoing deterioration in muscle strength affects lower limbs, leading to impaired mobility, and can also affect upper limbs, leading to further loss of function and self-care ability.

Over the past 12 months, the Antisense share price has jumped by almost 230%. Antisense shares are also up by around 70% year to date.

The post Why the Antisense (ASX:ANP) share price rocketed 16% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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There are a lot of growth shares for investors to choose from on the Australian share market.

To narrow things down, I have picked out three ASX growth shares that are highly rated. Here’s what you need to know about them:

ELMO Software Ltd (ASX: ELO)

ELMO is a HR and payroll platform provider. It has been growing at an impressive rate over the last few years thanks to solid demand for its offering in the ANZ and UK markets and acquisitions. Positively, the company looks well-placed to continue this positive form thanks to the shift to the cloud, its significant addressable market, and cross- and up-selling opportunities.

One broker that is particularly positive on ELMO is Shaw & Partners. It currently has a buy rating and and $9.00 price target.

IDP Education Ltd (ASX: IEL)

IDP Education is a provider of international student placement services and English language testing services. As you might expect, it was hit hard by the pandemic. However, thanks to its software business and strong balance sheet, the company has been tipped to win market share and resume its rapid growth once the crisis passes.

Morgan Stanley is positive on the company’s post-pandemic prospects. As a result, it recently retained its overweight rating and $30.00 price target on the IDP Education’s shares.

ResMed Inc. (ASX: RMD)

Another growth share to look at is ResMed. It is a medical device company with a focus on the sleep treatment market. Thanks to its industry-leading products, wide distribution, and successful acquisitions, ResMed has been growing at a very strong rate over the last few years. Pleasingly, thanks to its significant market opportunity and the growing prevalence of sleep disorders, it has been tipped to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

Credit Suisse is a fan of the company and believes upcoming launch of its new CPAP device, AirSense 11, will be a key driver of growth. The broker has an outperform rating and $29.00 price target on its shares.

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It’s been a good week for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which has gained 1.68% since last Friday’s close. Though, these 3 shares have blown the ASX 200’s gains out of the water.

Let’s take a look at this week’s best performing shares of the index.

This week’s top performers

Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG) – up 15.7%

Origin shares enjoyed a stellar week on the ASX despite there being no news out of the company.

But, as Motley Fool reported yesterday, the ASX 200 energy producer’s share price has been boosted by surging commodity prices, which underpinned solid gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

By the end of the week, the Origin Energy share price was trading at $4.72.

Worley Ltd (ASX: WOR) – up 15.6%

Since last Friday’s close, the Worley share price has gained an impressive 15.6% as a result of multiple announcements.

On Tuesday, the ASX 200 engineering company announced 2 contract wins – one with Celanese and another with Shell.

Worley’s contract with Celanese will see it conducting the engineering, procurement and construction of Celanese’s new acetic acid unit in Texas, United States.

Its contract for Shell will involve building a green hydrogen hub in the Netherlands.

Despite the good news, the Worley share price dropped during Tuesday’s trade – closing 0.5% lower than its previous session.

Luckily for shareholders, however, on Wednesday Worley released its investor day presentation. The presentation indicated that the company is set to deliver improved performance for the second half of the 2021 financial year.

Finally, Worley received multiple positive broker notes on Thursday as a result of its investor day presentation.

At Friday’s close, Worley shares were fetching $12.25 apiece.

Inghams Group Ltd (ASX: ING) – up 12.2%

This week, the Inghams share price seems to have been still basking in the glory of the company’s 2021 financial year earnings and guidance update, released last Friday.

The guidance seemed to exceed the market’s expectations, since the company’s shares gained 10% that day.

Then, on Monday, a note out of Goldman Sachs sent the poultry producer’s share price soaring once more when analysts retained their buy rating and lifted their price target on the Inghams share price to $4.50.

On Wednesday, Credit Suisse followed Goldman Sachs’ example. Credit Suisse retained its outperform rating on Inghams shares and lifted its price target to $4.10

Currently, one share in Inghams will set an investor back $3.83.

The post These 3 shares were the biggest gainers of the ASX 200 this week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Earlier this week the Reserve Bank of Australia elected to keep rates on hold again. Unfortunately for income investors, this looks likely to remain the case for some time to come.

The good news is that there are a large number of dividend shares with attractive yields ready to save the day. Two such examples are listed below:

Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ)

If you don’t already have exposure to the banking sector, then it could be worth considering ANZ. Especially given its improving outlook and the prospect of dividend increases in the coming years.

One broker that is particularly positive on ANZ is Morgans. The broker recently retained its add rating and lifted its price target on the bank’s shares to $33.50. This compares to the latest ANZ share price of $29.20.

In addition to this, the broker is forecasting fully franked dividends of $1.45 and $1.63 per share over the next two financial years. Based on the current ANZ share price, this will mean yields of 5% and 5.6%, respectively.

Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD)

Another ASX dividend share to look at is Sydney Airport. While trading conditions are tough for the airport operator right now, it looks well-placed to rebound once travel markets return to normal.

Goldman Sachs expects this to be the case. The broker recently retained its buy rating and $6.73 price target on its shares.

And while Goldman isn’t expecting much by way of dividends in FY 2021, it appears confident that things will normalise next year. The broker is forecasting dividends of 8.8 cents per share in FY 2021 and then 27.1 cents per share in FY 2022.

Based on the current Sydney Airport share price of $6.12, this will mean yields of 1.4% and 4.6%, respectively.

The post Should you buy ANZ (ASX:ANZ) and Sydney Airport (ASX:SYD) for their dividends? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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If you’re interested in making long term investments in tech shares, then you might want to check out the shares listed below.

All three have high quality products with long runways for growth. Here’s why they are worth watching closely:

Nitro Software Ltd (ASX: NTO)

The first ASX tech share to look at is Nitro Software. Its Nitro Productivity Suite is driving digital transformation in businesses around the world across multiple industries. Demand for the solution, which provides integrated PDF productivity and electronic signature tools, has been growing strongly over the last few years. This underpinned a 64% increase in annualised recurring revenue (ARR) to $27.7 million in FY 2020. Positively, similarly strong growth is expected in FY 2021. Management is guiding to ARR in the range of $39 million to $42 million. This will mean year on year growth of 41% to 51.6%.

Pushpay Holdings Group Ltd (ASX: PPH)

Another tech share to look at is Pushpay. It is a leading donor management and community engagement platform provider for the faith sector. As with Nitro, demand for its offering has been growing strongly. This is being driven by the accelerating digitisation of the church and the shift to a cashless society. This strong demand led to Pushpay recently reporting a 40% increase in operating revenue to US$179.1 million and a 133% increase in EBITDAF to US$58.9 million for FY 2021. Looking ahead, management is forecasting further growth in FY 2022 and is planning to expand into a new market.

Whispir Ltd (ASX: WSP)

A final tech share to look at is Whispir. It is a software-as-a-service communications workflow platform provider. Whispir provides an industry-leading software platform that allows governments and organisations to deliver actionable two-way interactions at scale using automated multi-channel communication workflows. It counts a growing number of blue chips as customers. These include AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGL), BP, ING, and KPMG to name just a few. Whispir is currently generating ARR of $50.3 million, which is just a fraction of its total addressable market of US$4.7 billion in just the United States.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) rose by another 0.5% today to 7,295 points.

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:

Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)

The Appen share price fell 6.3% today after news came of the sale of shares by a member of the leadership team.

The CEO and managing director of Appen, Mark Brayan, has sold 109,430 shares. This sale was to satisfy tax obligations arising from the vesting of 173,153 performance rights in March 2021.

Appen pointed out that Mr Brayan continues to hold 482,032 shares of the ASX 200 company directly and indirectly and has 294,033 performance rights available subject to meeting vesting conditions.

Reject Shop Ltd (ASX: TRS)

The Reject Shop share price fell around 6% after giving a trading update to the market.

Since the release of the half-year result, trading activity has continued to be challenging. The company’s stores in CBD locations and large shopping centres, typically in metro areas, continue to trade well below pre COVID-19 levels.

Preliminary and unaudited comparable sales for the first 48 weeks ended 30 May 2021 were down 1.4% compared to the comparable period in FY19. To contextualise this result, comparable sales at CBD locations and large shopping centres, amounting to 47 stores, were down 12%. The rest of the portfolio, comprising 290 stores, saw comparable sales up 0.9%.

In addition to the above, Reject Shop continues to incur materially increased supply chain costs, particularly higher international shipping costs as well as costs associated with holding inventory due to international shipping delays.

Management have been working to offset these headwinds through cost reduction. Reject Shop is expecting full-year sales for FY21 to be in the range of $776 million to $778 million. Pre AASB-16 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is expected to be in the range of $8 million to $10 million.

Reject Shop said that it continues to look for new locations, particularly in regional Australia, where it can more conveniently serve more Australians. The national store footprint has increased to 359 stores, up from 354 stores at the half-year result announcement. The company expects to progressively open a further two stores in June and nine stores in the first quarter of FY22.

Reject Shop concluded by saying that it’s focused on cost reductions. However, it has achieved substantial progress during the ‘fix’ phase of the turnaround strategy. The company said its balance sheet remains strong and is expected to support the growth strategy.

Primewest Group Ltd (ASX: PWG) and Centuria Capital Group (ASX: CNI)

It was announced today that the Primewest founding directors John Bond, David Schwartz and Jim Litis, who with their associates together own around 53% of Primewest, have accepted the takeover bid from Centuria Capital Group.

As a result of this, shareholders that own around 76% of Primewest shares have provided acceptances to Centuria.

Centuria has declared that the offer is now unconditional.

Primewest investors who have accepted the offer will receive $0.20 in cash as well as 0.473 Centuria securities for each Primewest security they own, within five business days.

The post ASX 200 rises, Appen drops, Reject Shop discounted appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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If you’re looking to invest in a growth share or two, then you might want to consider the ones listed below.

Here’s why these ASX shares could be top options for growth investors looking at long term buy and hold options:

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

This buy now pay later (BNPL) provider could be a quality buy and hold option. This is due to its extremely positive long term growth outlook.

Afterpay has been growing at a rapid rate in recent years and looks well placed to continue this trend in the years to come. This is thanks to its leadership position in the growing BNPL industry and its expansion into other financial products and geographies.

In respect to the former, a recent note out of Macquarie reveals that it believes the BNPL market could be worth as much as A$3.8 trillion by 2030. Given its leadership position, this can only be good news for Afterpay.

It is partly for this reason that Macquarie upgraded the company’s shares to an outperform rating with a $120.00 price target late last month.

NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)

Another ASX share to consider as a buy and hold investment is NEXTDC. Its 11 world class Tier III and Tier IV data centre facilities across Australia appear well-placed to benefit greatly from increasing demand thanks to the cloud computing boom.

This boom is being driven by more and more services becoming cloud-based and businesses continuing to shift in-house infrastructure into data centres.

And while the structural shift to the cloud has accelerated during the pandemic, it still has a long way to go. This is expected to underpin strong sales and profit growth for the foreseeable future. In fact, a significant amount of NEXTDC’s future capacity has already being contracted, which gives investors good visibility on its future earnings.

Looking ahead, the company is planning to expand into the Asia market. It recently opened up offices in Singapore and Tokyo with a view of entering these markets in the near future. If this expansion is a success, then it would give NEXTDC an even longer runway for growth over the 2020s.

Goldman Sachs is bullish on NEXTDC. Its analysts currently have a buy rating and $15.00 price target on its shares.

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One ASX share is set to soar from its unique position within the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), reckons a trio of portfolio managers.

Wilson Asset Management executives Matthew Haupt, Catriona Burns, and Oscar Oberg this week revealed their bullishness on QBE Insurance Group Ltd (ASX: QBE).

“QBE is a Sydney-headquartered general insurance and reinsurance company with 27 offices worldwide — the only truly global insurer in the ASX 200,” they wrote in an email to clients.

Wilson holds QBE in its WAM Leaders Ltd (ASX: WLE) listed investment company. 

Here are the reasons for their optimism.

Financial shares currently in favour

WAM Leaders has been overweight on the finance industry the last two quarters.

Haupt, Burns and Oberg cited the cyclical nature of these shares and their trading on “undemanding valuations” for their exposure.

“Exposure to real activity will be critical for outperformance when monetary policy is wound back, which we expect will be signalled from central banks in the coming months.”

As this happens, the portfolio managers noted money will move out from “companies artificially inflated by monetary policy”.

“We are confident in the outlook for cyclical stocks.”

Strong tailwinds for insurance

The insurance sector specifically has some forces working in its favour in the medium-term, according to the WAM memo.

“Tailwinds for QBE include the strong premium rate cycle globally, driving higher top-line growth in the coming years,” the portfolio managers said.

“Given their reliance on investment income, general insurers are also highly leveraged to bond yields, should these rise.”

It seems brokers at UBS agree with the Wilson managers. Last month the Swiss firm retained its ‘buy’ rating for QBE while upgrading the price target to $11.50.

QBE hit a new 52-week high in intraday trading on Friday, climbing 2.16% to $11.37 before closing the session at $11.33. But that’s still way below its pre-COVID high of $15.13 reached in February last year.

“QBE is trading at a discount to its peers such as Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG), and below its historical average.”

The insurance company now known as QBE started in 1886 as the North Queensland Insurance Company. The business now employs more than 11,000 staff in 25 countries.

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ASX shares, on average, paid out fewer dividends during the first quarter of the year than they did in Q1 2020. The fall, however, was less than their international counterparts.

And analyst consensus opinion is that we’ll see ASX shares upping their dividend payments in the latter half of the year, primarily thanks to mining and bank shares.

Why these experts see higher dividend yields ahead

Jane Shoemake is a client portfolio manager for global equity income at Janus Henderson Investors. Janus Henderson forecasts that ASX shares will boost their dividends by 40% in 2021, year-on-year.

According to Shoemake (quoted by the Australian Financial Review):

We are optimistic that Australians will experience a good year for dividends in 2021. With Australia’s dividend payers still so heavily concentrated, investors will be well-placed to take advantage of the commodity price boom supporting mining dividends and the dividend recovery of the big banks…

Australia’s concentration in a small number of dividend payers is likely to prove a tailwind in the recovery, as the local economy gets back on track and banks look to normalise their dividend payments, albeit at lower levels than prior to the pandemic…

Considering the outlook for mining stocks is also good because of the commodity price boom, the country’s dividend concentration will – on this occasion – work to Australians’ advantage.

Hugh Dive, Atlas Funds Management chief investment officer, also has a bullish outlook for ASX shares dividend payouts. According to Dive:

We don’t see any massive cuts so the outlook for dividends is generally positive.

Refugees from term deposits and bonds will still be coming to the market… Banks are balancing being prudent and wanting to reward shareholders who were hit hard last year… It’s hard to see massive spikes in unemployment or loan losses from current levels and house prices don’t look to be falling, so it makes the banks’ security look better.

The big miners are expected to be quite generous with their dividends in the August reporting season and will probably be the peak for dividends there. Unlike other [commodity price] spikes, they haven’t made poor acquisitions. They’re in a much better situation to pass on higher commodity prices because they’re not doing anything new.

5 ASX shares tipped to pay higher dividends

Dive named 5 ASX shares he expects will be lifting their dividend payouts from last year’s corresponding levels. Though dividend yields may remain below their 2019 levels.

According to Dive (quoted by the AFR), “The miners will pay higher dividends and overall, the economy is in relatively robust shape. Stocks like Ampol, JB Hi-Fi, Macquarie Group, Sonic Healthcare and Wesfarmers should all pay higher dividends.”

Here are the trailing dividend yields for these 5 ASX shares:

• Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD) pays a dividend yield of 1.7%, 100% franked.
• JB Hi Fi Limited (ASX: JBH) pays a dividend yield of 5.6%, 100% franked.
• Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) pays a dividend yield of 2.9%, 100% franked.
• Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) pays a dividend yield of 3.1%, 40% franked.
• Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX: SHL) pays a dividend yield of 2.5%, 30% franked.

You can find the list of 10 top ASX dividend shares here.

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I like to keep an eye on substantial shareholder notices. This is because these notices give you an idea of which shares large investors, asset managers, and investment funds are buying or selling.

Two notices that have caught my eye are summarised below. Here’s what these fund managers have been buying:

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

A change of interests of substantial holder notice reveals that Bennelong Funds Management has recently been increasing its stake in this pizza chain operator.

According to the notice, Bennelong Funds Management has added a further 1,094,865 shares to its holding, lifting its interest to a total of 5,811,725 shares. This represents a ~6.72% interest, up from ~5.42% previously. The fund manager was buying shares for as low as $87.88 and as high as $112.94. This compares to the latest Domino’s share price of $116.32.

Analysts at Bell Potter are likely to give the thumbs up to these purchases. The broker currently has a buy rating and $122.00 price target on the company’s shares.

Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN)

According to an initial substantial holder notice, First Sentier has been building a position in this airline operator since February.

The notice reveals that the fund manager, previously known as Colonial First State, has now accrued a total of 94,334,101 Qantas shares. This is the equivalent of a 5% stake in the airline. First Sentier was buying shares as recently as Monday when the Qantas share price closed the day at $4.71.

One leading broker that would be supportive of these purchases is Citi. On Monday the broker retained its buy rating but trimmed its price target slightly to $5.89. Based on the current Qantas share price, this implies potential upside of approximately 21% over the next 12 months.

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