Well, earnings season is over for another six months. And there was a lot to take in.

(Quick plug: Members of Motley Fool services can expect some additional video content on earnings season over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!)

But one thing seems very clear. Unfortunately for many, I think 2024 will be a year of significant cost-cutting across the economy.

Frankly, we’re already seeing it, with Optus, ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and others. And outside the ASX, Paramount Global (the owner of Channel 10) is doing the same. And they’re just for starters.

Why? Well, it’s the old story.

Sales growth is hard to come by. Inflation is pushing up costs across the board. And with business owners (including public company shareholders) looking for profits to be maintained or increased, that puts cost-cutting front and centre.

For employees, that’s grim news. The easiest costs to cut tend to be staff costs (once you’ve frozen discretionary spending on things like travel and events).

In part, it’s why the RBA and Treasury are expecting the unemployment rate to rise during the year: a slowing economy will have that impact, both on volume (businesses going broke) and cost-cutting grounds.

And for investors? What are we to make of the economy and market we’re in at the moment?

Well, I’d start with the observation that economic cycles aren’t new. They might have been sleeping, but turns out this particular parrot wasn’t dead after all.

It’s one of (the only?) benefit of getting old: we’ve seen this movie before.

The opportunity for the true long-term investor (‘long term investor’ should be a tautology, by the way, but sadly isn’t always) is to play that out. We may be near the bottom of the cycle, but that means – by definition – that there are better times ahead.

No, not for every company. Not even for every sector. But overall, a recovering economy will see the better companies grow sales and profits.

And it’s where the idea of ‘thinking like a business owner’ comes in.

I’ve used this analogy before, but let’s say you wanted to buy a cafe. The cafe’s sales have been falling, because roadworks have impacted parking and access. Profits have fallen even faster, because a lot of its costs are fixed, even after it has reduced staff numbers.

Now, it’s possible that the roadworks are so disruptive that the cafe goes broke before they’re finished. You can’t rule out that possibility.

But it’s also likely that, as a cafe in a good location, with loyal customers and decent-but-not-exceptional competition, it recovers when the roadworks are finished, and profits return to normal.

If you were going to buy the cafe, what would you base your purchase price on? You might not want to assume a 100% chance of full recovery, of course, but if the owner was selling it cheaply, based on the temporary lull in earnings, you’d probably jump at the chance to buy.

The benefit of buying a private business, of course, is that you don’t have someone constantly telling you what they think it’s worth between 10am and 4pm, 5 days a week.

You can focus on the business, and the recovering profits, relative to the price you paid.

Don’t get me wrong: being able to sell my shares at a moment’s notice is a pretty compelling reason to buy and sell on the ASX. But the downside is that constant price quotes tend to mess with your head.

We’ve already seen some share price recovery, by the way, for many retail companies, as investors (belatedly) realise the long-term will be brighter than the recent past or the near future.

But not all. And not completely.

And by the way, this is a great time to remind yourself that cycles have peaks, too. Yes, it might feel a long way away, but just as you shouldn’t assume a cyclical low won’t last forever, be careful not to get carried away at the peak, when it comes!

I also want to go back to that cost-cutting thing, too, with an observation that I don’t think is made often enough.

The share market tends to cheer companies that cut costs, hoping to collect the higher profits that come as a result. But managers shouldn’t be too roundly cheered.

See, while some labour costs are directly volume-related (you might need fewer warehouse workers if there are fewer boxes to be put on trucks), many/most aren’t.

So, if a CEO is cutting those staff, today, one of two things is true. Either:

– Those people shouldn’t have been hired/kept on in the good times, and the business was mismanaged and bloated; or

– The cost-cutting is too extreme, and those people are actually needed for long-term success, meaning the CEO is putting short-term profits ahead of long-term value creation.

Sure, a cafe can fire the barista and the cook, and bet/hope that they’ll be able to replace them with similar or better people when the good times return. But if the coffee and the food suffer, the customers might just go elsewhere.

I’m not saying all cost-cutting is bad. Or that companies should keep people on staff who aren’t contributing equal or greater value to what they receive in compensation.

Just that we should be careful what we wish for – and what we’re happy to see. As a business owner (because that’s what we are, as shareholders) I’d far rather my company carry good people in the bad times, so it’s ready to rebound, strongly, when good times return, rather than jettison them, and roll the dice on recovery.

Yes, that means the company needs to have the financial ability to carry those costs. But also, do you really want to own shares in a mob that is so stretched, its very survival is at risk?

No. Me either.

Fool on!

The post One big lesson from earnings season appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• This ASX healthcare stock is up 12% in 2 days since All Ords inclusion: Should you buy?
• How is the Coles share price down 3% today?
• Guess which ASX small cap stock is rocketing 27% on ‘transformative’ merger
• Is the surging Nvidia share price causing a stock market bubble?
• Guess which ASX lithium stock just surged 94% on a deal with Mineral Resources

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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4DMedical Ltd (ASX: 4DX) shares are having another positive session.

At one stage today, the ASX healthcare stock was up as much as 7.5% to 78 cents.

When its shares hit that level, it meant they were up 12% in the space of just two days.

Why is this ASX healthcare stock jumping this week?

The catalyst for this rise has been news that the company’s shares will be added to the All Ordinaries index later this month.

According to the update from S&P Dow Jones Indices, the medical research technology company is one of a number of new additions that will join the famous All Ordinaries index at the next quarterly rebalance on 18 March.

Furthermore, it will also join the S&P/ASX All Technology Index on the same day in the place of the ejected FINEOS Corporation Holdings PLC (ASX: FCL).

Is this good news?

Generally speaking, this can be very good news for a company’s share price.

That’s because fund managers often have restrictions on the shares they can buy. This is to stop them from risking client funds in speculative investments.

It’s possible that some fund managers have investment mandates that allow them to invest in All Ordinaries shares. So, if they have been waiting to grab a piece of this ASX healthcare stock, this rebalance will allow them to finally press the buy button.

In addition, index funds that track the All Ordinaries or S&P/ASX All Technology Index will need to buy shares to reflect the changes.

Should you invest?

Bell Potter is very positive on the company, though it sees it as a higher risk option.

The broker currently has a speculative buy rating and $1.10 price target on the ASX healthcare stock.

This implies potential upside of over 40% for investors from current levels.

The post This ASX healthcare stock is up 12% in 2 days since All Ords inclusion: Should you buy? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• How is the Coles share price down 3% today?
• Guess which ASX small cap stock is rocketing 27% on ‘transformative’ merger
• Is the surging Nvidia share price causing a stock market bubble?
• Guess which ASX lithium stock just surged 94% on a deal with Mineral Resources
• Why is the Lovisa share price sinking today?

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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It’s been a slow start to Tuesday’s trading so far for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has slipped by 0.07%, and is down to around 7,730 pints. That makes what’s happening with the Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) share price appear even stranger.

Coles shares are seemingly getting singled out for some punishment too. The ASX 200 supermarket stock closed at $17.03 a share yesterday afternoon. But this morning, Coles shares opened at just $16.75 each and are currently trading at $16.52. That’s a fall worth a hefty 2.99%.

But investors shouldn’t be too concerned. This steep share price might even be welcomed by some investors. That’s because today is Coles’ ex-dividend date.

Supermarket falls as shares trade ex-dividend

Last month, Coles announced its latest earnings, covering the six months to 31 December. As we discussed at the time, this set of earnings was well-received by investors. Coles reported a 6.8% uptick in revenue from continuing operations, as well as a 4.2% increase in underlying earnings to $1.9 billion.

This led to Coles declaring an interim dividend of 36 cents per share, fully franked, for the period. That’s steady on last year’s interim dividend

However, as we warned last week, Coles is scheduled to trade ex-dividend for this upcoming payment today. That means that anyone who wanted to secure this dividend but didn’t already own Coles shares, needed to own them as of yesterday’s closing bell.

Today, Coles stock no longer comes with the rights to receive this upcoming dividend attached.

As such, Coles shares have just become intrinsically less valuable. So it’s no surprise to see the grocer’s share price take a bit of a hit. This is the norm when a dividend stock trades ex-dividend.

For anyone who owned Coles shares as of yesterday’s close, the dividend payday is set for 27 March later this month.

Coles share price snapshot

Coles shares have bounced since the company reported its earnings last month, leaving the company with a year-to-date gain of 2.23% at present. However, over the past 12 months, the Coles share price remains down by 6.4%.

At current pricing, Coles shares are trading on a dividend yield of 3.98%.

The post How is the Coles share price down 3% 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 positions in and has recommended Coles 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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Paragon Care Ltd (ASX: PGC) shares are taking off on Tuesday after returning from a trading halt.

At the time of writing, the ASX small cap stock is up 27% to 26 cents.

Why is this ASX small cap stock rocketing?

Investors have been fighting to get hold of the healthcare supplier’s shares after it announced plans to merge with CH2 Holdings.

CH2 is a privately owned, Australian based distributor and wholesaler of pharmaceuticals, medical consumables, and complementary medicines. It has an 85-year history of providing innovative supply chain solutions to the Australian healthcare industry.

According to the release, the two parties have agreed to a “transformative merger” that they believe will create a leading healthcare wholesaler, distributor, and manufacturer operating across growing healthcare markets in the Asia Pacific region.

The combined entity will have estimated FY 2024 pro-forma revenues of $3.3 billion and EBITDA of $93 million. This includes synergies and cost efficiencies of more than $5 million per annum.

As a comparison, Paragon Care recently released its half-year results and reported revenue of $159.5 million and EBITDA of $13.4 million for the six months.

How does the merger work?

Under the merger, it is proposed that Paragon Care will acquire all of the issued share capital in CH2 in exchange for issuing 943,524,071 shares.

This implies a purchase price of approximately $201.5 million based on where its shares last traded.

The merger will be subject to the approval of Paragon Care shareholders by ordinary resolution (>50%) at a general meeting in late May.

The ASX small cap stock’s board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions to be considered at the merger meeting. This is in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to the independent expert’s report.

The post Guess which ASX small cap stock is rocketing 27% on ‘transformative’ merger appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• How is the Coles share price down 3% today?
• Is the surging Nvidia share price causing a stock market bubble?
• Guess which ASX lithium stock just surged 94% on a deal with Mineral Resources
• Why is the Lovisa share price sinking today?
• Why did the Tesla share price just tumble 7%?

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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The NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) share price has been on an incredible run. It’s impressing the market with its strong financial growth. In this article, I’m going to look at whether this is the sign of a stock market bubble.

It’s a fantastic time to own NVIDIA shares and be involved in any company that has genuine exposure to artificial intelligence growth.

Since the start of 2024, the NVIDIA share price has risen 77%. The last year has seen a 262% increase for the company. In five years, it has gone up more than 2,100%.

Is this a stock market bubble?

Some investors may think it’s fair to compare this period to the 1999 dot com bust. Businesses that were involved with the internet that had hardly any revenue (or none at all) were being valued astronomically.

But, NVIDIA, Microsoft and many others are generating lots of revenue.

A few weeks ago, NVIDIA reported quarterly revenue of US$22.1 billion, up 22% quarter over quarter and up 265% year over year. FY24 full-year revenue was up 126% to $60.9 billion.

It also said that underlying earnings per share (EPS) was US$12.96, an annual increase of 288%.

NVIDIA revealed it’s expecting the FY25 first-quarter revenue to be around US$24 billion, which would be a quarter-over-quarter increase of 8.6%.

It’s demonstrating real growth, making huge revenue and posting enormous growth in its profit. The current forecast on Commsec puts the NVIDIA share price at 36 times FY25’s estimated earnings and 30 times FY26’s estimated earnings.

To me, those sorts of forward price/earnings (P/E) ratios are not excessive at all considering how quickly it’s growing. It could deliver stronger growth than what investors are expecting. Microsoft shares are trading at 31 times FY25’s estimated earnings.

I’m not going to call these stocks cheap, and the higher interest rate environment does raise the question of what multiple is fair in the current economic environment.

However, in three years, these large tech stocks may have materially grown earnings and interest rates could be materially lower.

Billionaire investor recently commented on LinkedIn about the stock market bubble question:

When I look at the US stock market using these criteria, it—and even some of the parts that have rallied the most and gotten media attention—doesn’t look very bubbly.

The Mag-7 is measured to be a bit frothy but not in a full-on bubble. Valuations are slightly expensive given current and projected earnings, sentiment is bullish but doesn’t look excessively so, and we do not see excessive leverage or a flood of new and naïve buyers. That said, one could still imagine a significant correction in these names if generative AI does not live up to the priced-in impact.

We can look for instance at Nvidia today versus Cisco during the tech bubble. The two cases have seen similar share price trajectory. However, the path of cash flows has been quite different. Nvidia’s two-year forward P/E is around 27 today, reflecting that, even as the market cap has grown ~10x, earnings have also grown significantly and are expected to continue to grow over the next year or two because of actual orders that we can validate. During the tech bubble, Cisco’s two-year forward P/E hit 100. The market was pricing in far more speculative/long-term growth than we see today.

My 2 cents on share valuations

I’m not an expert on US shares or AI. But, businesses that are delivering strong long-term growth are likely to see rising share prices as the market realises their potential.

Most of the large US tech companies are delivering numbers that justify some excitement. I don’t think we’re seeing a stock market bubble.

Are other industries and businesses reporting numbers that justify their current share prices? That’s what investing in shares is all about – making decisions about price and value.

I was very excited about share prices in late October 2023 and early November 2023, with loads of opportunities. I’m a lot less excited now. I believe business profits and share prices can rise over time from here, and there are still some undervalued areas, in my opinion, while some areas look challenged.

Keep in mind that if economies remain strong, interest rates are likely to remain higher for longer.

For a five-year investment, I’d rather buy a name like Nvidia, Microsoft or Alphabet over Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) or BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) because of the potential earnings growth for those US tech names.

The post Is the surging Nvidia share price causing a stock market bubble? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Should I buy Nvidia stock as an Australian investor?
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• The Brainchip share price is up 213% this month. Is Nvidia to blame?
• Is the Nvidia share price on course to reach US$1,400?

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison 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 Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet and Nvidia. 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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A little-known ASX lithium stock is lighting up the boards on Tuesday.

This comes following the announcement of a joint venture agreement with S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) lithium share and diversified resources producer Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN).

Shares in the small-cap lithium explorer closed on Monday trading for 16 cents.

In earlier trade today shares were swapping hands for 31 cents apiece, up a whopping 94%. After some likely profit-taking, shares are trading for 27 cents at the time of writing, up 67%.

Any guesses?

If you said Dynamic Metals Ltd (ASX: DYM), go to the head of the virtual class.

Here’s why investors are sending the ASX lithium stock flying higher today.

Dynamic Metals shares surge on deal with Mineral Resources

The Dynamic Metals share price is off to the races after the company reported on a binding joint venture and farm-in agreement with HoldCo, a 100% owned subsidiary of Mineral Resources.

Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, the agreement will see the ASX lithium stock sell 40% of its lithium mineral rights at the Widgiemooltha tenement package for $5 million.

On completion, Mineral Resources (via HoldCo) and Dynamic will form a 40% / 60% unincorporated joint venture.

Mineral Resources has the right to increase its stake to 65% by sole funding an additional $15 million of exploration over the four years following completion of the agreement.

The deal only relates to lithium. Dynamic Metals will retain the rights to all other minerals at the project.

The agreement will see Mineral Resources pay $400,000 straight off as a signing fee with an additional $3.6 million in cash on completion. The remaining $1 million will be paid on 1 July 2025.

The companies anticipate the deal to be completed in the second quarter of 2024.

Commenting on the agreement sending the ASX lithium stock rocketing today, Dynamic Metals managing director Karen Wellman said:

The Widgiemooltha Project is a regionally significant tenement package that has yet to be fully assessed for its lithium potential. Although we have had some encouraging results with our first pass exploration activities, the sheer size of the Project means that it would likely have taken Dynamic many years and considerable expenditure to assess its potential and realise value…

The initial consideration will be used to advance exploration of our pipeline of new projects, whilst lithium exploration at Widgiemooltha is expected to generate considerable news flow, both short and medium term.

How has the ASX lithium stock been tracking?

With today’s intraday gains factored in the ASX lithium stock is well into the green in 2024.

Since the closing bell on 28 December (the last day it traded in 2023), the Dynamic Metals share price is up 86%.

The post Guess which ASX lithium stock just surged 94% on a deal with Mineral Resources 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.

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The Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV) share price is having a tough time on Tuesday.

At the time of writing, the fashion jewellery retailer’s shares are down 3.5% to $30.58.

Why is the Lovisa share price under pressure?

The good news for shareholders is that today’s decline has nothing to do with a bad update or a broker downgrade. In fact, today’s decline could be seen as a positive for them.

That’s because the Lovisa share price weakness has been driven by its shares going ex-dividend today for its upcoming interim dividend.

When a share goes ex-dividend, it means the rights to the dividend payment are locked in. So, if you were buying shares today, you would not receive the dividend on pay day. Instead, the dividend would go to the seller of the shares.

In light of this, a share price will generally fall in line with the value of the dividend to reflect this. After all, you don’t want to pay for something you won’t receive.

If you are an eligible Lovisa shareholders, you can now sit back and wait for pay day next month. The company will be paying shareholders a 50 cents per share partially franked dividend on 18 April.

Should you buy shares?

The team at Morgan Stanley may see the weakness in the Lovisa share price today as a buying opportunity.

Last month, the broker put an overweight rating and $32.50 price target on its shares.

However, as this implies only modest potential upside of 6.3% for investors over the next 12 months, it may be better waiting to see if a more compelling entry point emerges in the near future.

The post Why is the Lovisa share price sinking today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• I’d use the Warren Buffett method and buy this ASX stock

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro 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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The Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) share price closed down 7.2% overnight.

Those losses added to selling pressure on the Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: .IXIC), with the tech-heavy index closing the day down 0.4%.

Shares in Elon Musk’s EV and tech company closed on Friday trading for US$202.65. At market close, those shares were swapping hands for US$188.14 apiece.

As you can see in the chart above, the Tesla share price soared an eye-popping 102% in 2023.

But 2024 has been a different story so far, with the stock down 24% since the opening bell on 2 January.

Here’s why Nasdaq investors were hitting the sell button again overnight.

Why is the Tesla share price under selling pressure?

Much of the overnight sell-off looks to have been spurred by some gloomy sales data out of China, the world’s top EV market.

According to data from China’s Passenger Car Association, Musk’s company shipped 60,365 vehicles from its Shanghai-based factory in February. That’s down almost 16% from January shipments. And it’s the lowest number of shipments in more than two years, heaping pressure on the Tesla share price.

Atop the falling vehicle sales in China, troubles continue to build for Elon Musk at X (formerly Twitter).

More lawsuits at X

While most of the headwinds buffeting the Tesla share price look to be related to the slumping China sales data, ongoing legal ructions at X could also be stoking investor angst.

As you likely recall, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for US$44 billion back in October 2022.

And not everyone was happy with how that acquisition was carried out.

There are already several class action lawsuits in the works, with sacked workers seeking more than half a billion US dollars in severance pay.

And, as Reuters reports, yesterday saw yet another lawsuit filed on behalf of four former high-ranking Twitter executives. They’re asking for a total of more than US$128 million in unpaid severance.

“This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him,” Twitter’s sacked executives stated in the lawsuit documents.

As for the 2024 Tesla share price plunge, long-term investors should still be sitting pretty.

Shares in the US EV giant remain up 893% over five years.

The post Why did the Tesla share price just tumble 7%? 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 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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The Wildcat Resources Ltd (ASX: WC8) share price crashed by 19% shortly after the market open on Tuesday.

This follows the release of drilling results at the flagship Tabba Tabba lithium project in Western Australia.

The Wildcat Resources share price is currently 68 cents, down 12.65%.

The stock hit an intraday low of 63 cents shortly after the opening bell, representing an 18.7% spiral from yesterday’s closing value of 77.5 cents.

Investors appear to be displeased with the latest update, but it’s worth keeping in mind that despite today’s fall the ASX lithium share is still up 2,150% over the past 12 months.

Perhaps today’s price drop is a case of exuberant investors’ expectations being a bit too high.

Let’s check out the details of this update.

Wildcat Resources share price crashes 19% on mine update

Wildcat reported results from its 100,000m drill program at Tabba Tabba today.

The latest results are from the Leia pegmatite, including:

• 119.2m at 1.0% Li2O from 334.3m (TADD010) (estimated true width) including 31m at 1.7% Li2O from 336.0m and 34.5m at 1.2% from 418.5m
• 62.3m at 1.0% Li2O from 223.2 (TARC162D) (est. true width)
• 83.4m at 0.8% Li2O from 314.2m (TARC242D) (est. true width) including 22.7m at 1.4% Li2O from 262.4m
• 84.6m at 0.7% Li2O from 238m (TARC239D) (est. true width) including 9.6m at 1.7% Li2O from 308.4m

Wildcat estimates that the Leia pegmatite is more than 2.2km long with mineralisation extending from the surface to significant depths. The thickest intercept to date is 180m at 1.1% Li2O.

Over the past two months, Wildcat said it has also completed a high-resolution ground gravity and magnetic survey, drone aerial imagery, and a detailed geological map of the tenement package.

What’s next at Tabba Tabba?

Wildcat said results are still pending for 27 holes and 3,294 samples.

Meantime, drilling is underway at the Hutt and Han pegmatites to follow up on last year’s discovery.

The miner is funded to complete the 100,000m drilling program at Tabba Tabba this year.

Wildcat Resources share price history

Wildcat might be a relatively new name to many investors after gaining attention during the 2022 and 2023 lithium boom. But the company has actually been listed on the ASX since 2005.

The Wildcat Resources share price really exploded in 2023, as the graph below shows.

The stock hit a 15-year high of $1.01 in November following the release of assay results from Tabba Tabba.

The miner completed its acquisition of the project in October.

The post Up 2,150% in a year, why is the Wildcat Resources share price crashing today? 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 S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) may be slipping into the red today, but the same cannot be said for Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) and NIB Holdings Limited (ASX: NHF) shares.

Both private health insurers are outperforming today with solid gains.

For example, Medibank shares are currently up 2% to $3.76, whereas NIB shares are up 3.5% to $7.85.

Why are Medibank and NIB shares outperforming?

Investors have been buying their shares this morning after the Australian Government gave the green light to premium increases in 2024.

According to a government release, the Albanese Government has approved an average industry premium increase of 3.03%.

Commenting on the increases, the release states:

The Albanese Government has ensured Australians get value for money from their private health insurance, with the average cost of private health insurance premiums rising at a much slower rate than the increase in wages, the age pension and inflation.

The 3.03 per cent increase is well below the annual rise in wages, social security payments and inflation, with wages rising by 4.2 per cent and inflation increasing by 4.1 per cent in 2023, and social security payments increasing in line with inflation.

NIB increases

NIB has been able to score a larger than average increase to its premiums.

An announcement this morning reveals that its 2024 health insurance premiums will rise by an average of 4.1% from 1 April 2024.

Its CEO, Mark Fitzgibbon, notes that the increase reflects the return of hospital and ancillary treatment post COVID-19, and a rise in health and medical treatment costs. He also highlights that claims inflation has moved back to long-term trends and believes it is crucial that insurers are able to price for this.

Mr Fitzgibbon commented:

We’re not sitting back passively responding to inflationary pressure by just lifting premiums. We have a range of new measures designed to help members maintain good health as well as reduce out of pocket expenses. Essentially, we’re trying to provide members with more value for their premiums.

Medibank will be increasing its premiums by a lower rate of 3.3% for 2024.

The post Why Medibank and NIB shares are outperforming today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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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 positions in and has recommended NIB Holdings. 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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