The Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd (ASX: WMC) share price is currently 56.5 cents – the same as it has been for an entire month.

The gold mining company put its stock in the freezer back on 6 May and it hasn’t resurfaced yet.

So, what’s keeping the Wiluna Mining share price on ice? Let’s take a look.

Why is Wiluna Mining still frozen in June?

Fans of Wiluna Mining shares might have had a slow month as the stock remains halted, but hope is on the horizon. Wiluna Mining could return to trade within the next fortnight.

The company is currently working on “recapitalising” after a difficult period of operations.

The recapitalisation project – which appears to have taken the form of a pro-rata entitlement offer – was announced to the market 12 days after the company first entered its ongoing trading halt.

The capital raise is designed to deleverage Wiluna Mining’s balance sheet, improve its working capital position, and de-risk its business.

It came after the company struggled against numerous happenings outside its control, including:

• The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting labour shortages in Western Australia;
• Delays to the sale and monetisation of gold concentrate born from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and
• Supply chain issues delaying the commissioning of the WilTails plant.

The challenges saw the company with around $8 million of cash and an anticipated net cash outflow of $24 million (after sales) required to normalise its creditors and receivables.

Thus, Wiluna Mining decided to enter a longer-term trading halt. Doing so allowed it to manage its disclosure obligations while continuing discussions of a recapitalisation with financiers.

Wiluna Mining undergoes capital raise

Now, the company is undergoing an entitlement offer wherein eligible shareholders can subscribe for one new share in the company for every share they already own at a cost of 40 cents per new share.

The offer price represents a 29.2% discount on Winula Mining share price’s last close, a 42.4% discount to its 10-day volume-weighted average, and a 46.3% discount to its 30-day volume-weighted average price.

Participating investors will also receive a new option for every share received. The options will be exercisable at 60 cents and expire at the end of 2024.

The capital raise is expected to line the company’s pockets with an additional $50 million to $84.5 million.

The offer opened on 1 June. It’s expected to close on Friday with the new shares tipped to trade as normal from 20 June.

Though, those looking to trade Wiluna Mining shares might want to hold their excitement for now. The company’s current trading halt appears to cover the entirety of this month.

Wiluna Mining share price snapshot

This year was a tough one for the Wiluna Mining share price prior to its ongoing trading halt.

It tumbled 40.5% between the start of 2022 and 6 May. It’s also currently 33.5% lower than it was this time last year.

The post The Wiluna Mining share price has been frozen for a month. What’s happening? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper 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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This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

He’s the head of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), the largest electric vehicle maker in the world, but Elon Musk has made headlines recently for a different reason. He’s an avid user of short-form social media platform, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), and in April he made a blockbuster bid of $54.20 per share to buy the entire company, worth $44 billion. 

But the deal is seemingly falling apart. The broader tech market sell-off has in-part sent Twitter shares plunging to $38 as of this writing, and it has also crushed Tesla stock, which is where most of Musk’s net worth is tied up. And despite having a signed contract, the two parties have been exchanging words after Musk accused Twitter of understating the number of bots and fake accounts on its platform. 

But there might be an even greater challenge ahead of Musk if he successfully closes the deal: Twitter’s financial performance. Based on its recent results, the company is in danger of falling short of its ambitious 2023 targets. Was Musk’s offer to buy Twitter a little too enthusiastic?

The post-lockdown slowdown

In early 2021, Twitter laid out a roadmap for its growth in both revenue and daily monetizable active users (mDAU). At the time, most social media companies were doing extremely well because the pandemic had resulted in lockdowns and an increase in the number of people working from home, which meant more screen time. 

Twitter had just released its 2020 earnings report where it revealed $3.7 billion in full-year revenue and 192 million monetizable daily active users. The company told investors that it would seek to more than double its revenue by the end of 2023, to $7.5 billion, and grow its active user base to 315 million. But more than a year has passed, so how is the plan progressing?

By the end of 2021, Twitter had 214.6 million mDAU, but its year-over-year growth rate had more than halved to 11.8%, from 27% in the prior period. Even if Twitter grew the metric by 19.4% annually in both 2022 and 2023, which is the midpoint of those two figures, it would still fall about 6 million users short of its goal. The problem is the figure came in at 15.9% in the first quarter of 2022 so it’s not even hitting that mark right now. 

On the revenue front, the company has been a little closer to the growth rate it needs. It generated $5 billion during 2021 which was a 37% jump compared to 2020, but that growth rate slowed materially to 22% on an adjusted basis in Q1 2022. And analysts haven’t bought into Twitter’s lofty goals; they anticipate revenue will grow just 15.9% in 2022, and in 2023, they expect the company will fall about $350 million short of its target, hitting $7.15 billion. 

But Musk wants even more

If slowing growth is a problem, Musk doesn’t seem worried at all. According to a report by the New York Times, he thinks he could more than triple Twitter’s projected 2023 revenue by 2028, to over $26 billion, with 931 million users. 

Musk wants to focus on growing the company’s paid subscriber base. It would be a pivot from Twitter’s revenue model right now which is driven by advertising, making up about 88% of money in the door during 2021. 

He has also floated some ideas (on Twitter, ironically) to more carefully verify all real users on the platform so bots are more easily distinguishable, which would make for a better user experience. But this might be countered by the fact that he wants free speech to reign — while it sounds great at face value, it’s hard to determine what that looks like. Less moderation could lead to more abuse, for example. 

Will Musk actually buy Twitter?

Will Musk eventually follow through on acquiring Twitter? He can be a wildcard, to put it mildly, so only he really knows. The spat over the company’s reporting of fake accounts seems to be a sticking point right now. This morning, Musk fired a letter over to Twitter accusing it of failing to provide important data which will help him determine whether the company’s claim that fake accounts represent less than 5% of the user base is, in fact, accurate.

One thing is for certain; Twitter stock trades about 28% lower than his offer price right now, which would translate to a $12.5 billion hit for Musk if the deal closed. That might be tough to swallow, even for the richest guy on Earth, especially since Tesla stock has declined by a whopping 40% this year as well. 

Reversing Twitter’s slowing growth might be Musk’s greatest challenge if he becomes its new owner. And given the difficult market environment for technology stocks right now, he might even find himself better off if the deal fails to go through. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post Twitter stock: The 1 huge challenge Elon Musk faces appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Anthony Di Pizio 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 and Twitter. 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.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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The Lake Resources NL (ASX: LKE) share price is leaping today, just a day after being added to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).

The company’s shares are currently trading at $1.49, a 5.67 gain. For perspective, the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) is up 0.04% at the time of writing.

Let’s take a look at why the Lake Resources share price could be jumping today.

Lithium prices in focus

The Lake Resources share price is rising today, but it is not alone. Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) is jumping 6.7% and was also an addition to the index as part of the June 2022 quarterly rebalance. The Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE) share price is rising slightly, up 0.77%, while Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) is 0.12% in the green. In contrast, Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR) is slipping 0.81% while Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) is flat.

In news overnight, it has emerged a recent move by Argentina to set a reference value for lithium carbonate prices may not impact lithium prices as much as first thought.

ASX lithium shares plunged last Wednesday after news Argentina had set a reference price for lithium carbonate exports of US$53 per kilogram.

A report out of S&P Global Commodity Insights overnight quoted Chinese lithium carbonate producers stating “overseas prices won’t drop drastically following Argentina’s announcement”. A source said:

The aim of the reference value is actually to prevent sellers from avoiding tax evasion by declaring low prices with customs.

Hence, we don’t see any impact of this announcement on the spot market in the near term.

Lake Resources aims to produce lithium carbonate from the Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina by 2024.

Share price snapshot

The Lake Resources share price has soared 451% in the past year while it has jumped 48% year to date.

For perspective, the ASX 200 has lost nearly 1% in a year.

Lake Resources has a market capitalisation of about $2 billion based on its current share price.

The post Why is the Lake Resources share price rising 6%? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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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 Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1) share price has come under pressure on Tuesday.

So much so, this afternoon the network as a service company’s shares have dropped over 5% to a multi-year low of $5.96.

This means the Megaport share price is now down almost 70% since the start of the year.

Why is the Megaport share price falling today?

Investors have been selling down the company’s shares on Tuesday in response to weakness in the tech sector and the release of a mixed broker note out of Citi.

In respect to the latter, Citi has retained its buy rating but slashed its price target by 26% to $12.30.

Though, it is worth noting that even after this sizeable cut, Citi’s price target implies potential upside of over 100% for investors over the next 12 months.

Why did the broker cut its price target?

According to the note, the broker has reduced its valuation to reflect lower earnings estimates due to price reductions for Megaport’s services.

Citi acknowledges that some investors may interpret these price cuts as a sign of softening demand and sees potential for Megaport to fall short of consensus estimates in FY 2023 because of the softer pricing.

However, it believes the price cuts are being used to help the company increase adoption rather than being demand related.

Furthermore, it still expects Megaport to deliver very strong revenue growth despite these cuts. Based on this, it feels the Megaport share price is very attractively priced at the current level.

Citi explained:

While the reduction in MVE pricing could suggest softer demand, we see the new bandwidth options as positive as high IP transit costs was a barrier for MVE adoption in ANZ and it could also drive adoption among existing SDWAN customers.

While we see risk to consensus forecasts in FY23e, with the stock trading on 6x revenue, with 30%+ topline growth, we maintain our Buy call but lower our target price by 26% to reflect higher cost of capital and earnings downgrades.

The post Megaport share price hits multi-year low: Is this a buying opportunity? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Citigroup is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. 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 positions in and has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. 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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Lower iron ore prices are coming, it’s just a matter of when. But if you own BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares, here’s how the mining giant is planning on meeting this challenge.

The head of BHP’s WA iron ore operations, Brandon Craig, warns that the strong prices for the commodity won’t last, reported The Age.

BHP shareholders may not want to hear this news as the price of the steel making ingredient stays stubbornly high.

Tailwinds for BHP shares may be waning

In fact, analysts have been left scrambling to upgrade their iron ore price forecasts over the past several months as the mineral stayed around US$140 a tonne.

This is in part due to stimulus spending by several countries to kick start their economy as we emerge from COVID-19.

More significantly, the world’s largest importer of iron ore, China, is said to be readying a new round of stimulus.

While the high prices may hold for a while yet, Craig said the good times won’t last as the effect from the stimulus support fades.

Oversupplied in the long-term

This is because the iron ore market is in a structural surplus. The laws of economics dictate that commodity products always revert to competing on cost in the long-term.

It’s a good thing that BHP and its peer Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) are among the lowest cost iron ore producers in the world.

But those who own BHP shares will be happy to hear that there’s an opportunity to squeeze more profits. Craig outlined ways he can cut more operating expenses to protect profits.

BHP shares supported at the margins

For instance, laser scanners are being installed at BHP’s eight ship loaders at Port Headland. This will automate the loading of vessels with little human intervention.

The project will cost $50 million over five years and is forecast to cut 30 minutes off the average ship loading time. That may not sound much, but it can help defer the need to build a new berth, which will ultimately cost a lot more.

Savings from automation can also be achieved through its 1,300 kilometres rail network and from using green energy.

BHP can’t offset the surge in fuel prices from its petroleum division since it divested that to Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS).

BHP still cautious on green energy

The cost of solar and wind power is dropping at a time when fossil fuel prices are surging. This could help justify the economics of green energy projects, although Craig is still working out where best to deploy capital.

That is a more conservative approach than the one taken by Rio Tinto, according to The Age. Rio Tinto committed $2 billion to replace 80% of the gas used for power with sustainable energy. It’s convinced that the project economics stacks up without applying a cost to emissions.

The BHP share price has fallen 5% over the past year while the Rio Tinto share price has dipped 7%.

The post Own BHP shares? Here’s how the miner plans to offset lower iron ore prices appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau has positions in BHP Billiton Limited and Rio Tinto Ltd. 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 Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) is down 5.6% over the past 24 hours, currently trading for 7.85 US cents.

That puts the popular meme coin, with a Shiba Inu as its mascot, down 55% so far in 2022. And it’s now down 89% since hitting all-time highs of 73.8 US cents precisely 13 months ago, on 8 May 2021.

Despite that retrace, and because the rest of the crypto market has been tumbling this year as well, Dogecoin remains the number 10 crypto in terms of market cap, with a total valuation just shy of US$11 billion.

Not bad for a token that initially was created in 2013 as a joke by Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon, and Jackson Palmer from Sydney, Australia.

Yet despite Dogecoin now being a household name, at least among the crypto-savvy, co-founder Palmer is one of its staunchest critics.

‘Wherever there’s smoke there’s probably crypto’

Palmer turned his back on the crypto world in 2016, when he became highly skeptical of the wider industry.

Now he’s launching a podcast called Griftonomics, which focuses on modern scams investors should be wary of. And cryptos, including Dogecoin, top the list.

According to Palmer (courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald):

When I set out to do Griftonomics, I wanted the series to be mostly about things that weren’t crypto-related, like hustle culture, online gambling, carbon credits, things like that. But the interesting thing about crypto is, as you start to scratch the surface of the things I just mentioned, in every topic, you find a crypto angle.

There is some way that this parasitic thing has got its claws in every single kind of scam that is out there. It’s a facilitating technology. Crypto acts as an enabler of many groups of scams by providing an unregulated, harder to control system for scammers to perpetuate their scams.

Wherever there’s smoke there’s probably crypto.

Big names pump up Dogecoin and other cryptos

Palmer says that industry “grifters” use the idea that cryptos like Dogecoin and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) offer “some sort of cutting-edge new technology” along with much-hyped endorsements from billionaires and celebrities to lure in new investors.

“Elon [Musk] has had a big impact, especially on the Dogecoin market and making people believe that it is something, which I obviously don’t agree with,” he said.

And they’re always ready to spin a new angle.

According to Palmer (quoted by the SMH):

Every two or three years there’s a new narrative. In 2009, it was that Bitcoin was going to replace all these banks that just screwed you over. Then a few years later when that didn’t work out, the narrative was that it was just a store of value. Then it pivoted again to ICOs [initial coin offerings], democratising fundraising, and then recently we went through the DeFi [decentralised finance] narrative, which was just a total sham.

Now we have NFTs [non-fungible tokens], which are simply the latest in a long string of changing narratives, so the industry can get a bunch of new suckers in.

Even when it comes to Web 3.0 – which envisions remaking the global internet based on blockchain technology – Palmer is dismissive.

“I’m a huge proponent of decentralisation, I had a person on the podcast who was the creator of Mastodon, a decentralised social network a lot like Twitter,” he said. “Does it need a blockchain? Does it need cryptocurrency to function? Absolutely not.”

The post ‘Wherever there’s smoke there’s probably crypto,’ warns Dogecoin founder appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Bitcoin. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Bitcoin. 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) is out of form again on Tuesday. In afternoon trade, the benchmark index is down 0.9% to 7,143.3 points.

Four ASX shares that are falling more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are dropping:

Codan Limited (ASX: CDA)

The Codan share price is down 4% to $7.16. Investors have been selling this metal detector focused technology company’s shares this week after S&P Dow Jones Indices kicked it out of the ASX 200 index at the next quarterly rebalance.

Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX: IPL)

The Incitec Pivot share price is down 2.5% to $3.51. This appears to have been driven by a broker note out of Ord Minnett this morning. According to the note, the broker has downgraded this industrial chemicals company’s shares to a hold rating with a $3.90 price target. Ord Minnett has a few concerns with the company’s plans to spin off its commercial explosives business.

Xero Limited (ASX: XRO)

The Xero share price is down 3% to $82.00. This follows broad weakness in the tech sector on Tuesday which has seen this side of the market become a sea of red. The S&P/ASX All Technology Index is down 1.8% at the time of writing.

Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP)

The Zip share price is down 10% to 68.7 cents. Investors have been selling Zip and other buy now pay later (BNPL) shares after tech giant Apple announced the launch of its BNPL service. Apple Pay Later allows users to split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments with no interest. The service works with any merchant that already supports Apple Pay and does not require a new payments terminal.

The post Why Codan, Incitec Pivot, Xero, and Zip shares are dropping 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 positions in and has recommended Xero and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Xero. 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 pretty paltry month or so for the Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price, no way around it. Xero shares were going for $95.20 back on 5 May. Today, the online accounting software provider is asking just $82.20 a share at the time of writing.

Not only is that down a nasty 2.58% for the day thus far, but it also means Xero has lost more than 13% since 5 May.

But this is arguably just an extension of the pretty bleak year Xero has suffered through so far in 2022. Since the start of the year, the Xero share price is down by 44%.

So now that we’ve seen such a steep fall in the value of Xero shares, many investors might be wondering whether this is turning into a buying opportunity for this ASX tech share. So let’s see what the experts reckon.

Is the Xero share price a buy today?

One ASX broker who likes the look of Xero right now is Goldman Sachs. As we covered a few days ago, Goldman has maintained a buy rating on Xero shares, together with a 12-month share price target of $118.00. Goldman liked what it saw in Xero’s recent earnings report, and expects another strong increase in revenues in FY 2023 to almost NZ$1.4 billion.

But Goldman isn’t the only investor expecting big things from Xero. My Fool colleague Tony chatted to Tribeca Investment Partners’ Jun Bei Liu this week. Here’s some of what she said about Xero:

We love this company because, for many years, it’s demonstrated its execution in dislodging incumbents and growing its share and became a dominant player across the New Zealand, Australian markets. And now it’s gone to the UK. It’s demonstrated it’s gaining [market] share really well.

Share price, again, [is] being punished because of people rotating out of growth stocks into others. And I think the current share price is [at] very reasonable levels. It’s not something you buy for next month’s earnings. It is something you buy for the bottom drawer, for the longer term, for the next five years.

So we love Xero.

So that’s how two ASX investing experts view the Xero share price right now. They seem to be fairly unanimous on this tech company’s rosy future. But we shall have to wait and see how right they are.

In the meantime, the current Xero share price gives this ASX 200 tech share a market capitalisation of $12.44 billion.

The post Down 13% in a month, fundie says Xero share price is ‘very reasonable’ 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 Goldman Sachs and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Xero. 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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In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to record a disappointing decline. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is down 0.8% to 7,150.2 points.

Four ASX shares that are not letting that hold them back are listed below. Here’s why they are pushing higher:

Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO)

The Core Lithium share price is up 6% to $1.27. This is despite there being no news out of the lithium developer today. However, a number of emerging lithium players are rising today. Investors appear to believe they have been oversold during recent market volatility.

Perenti Global Ltd (ASX: PRN)

The Perenti Global share price is up 15% to 79.8 cents. Investors have been buying this engineering company’s shares after it announced a major contract win. According to the release, Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) has awarded Perenti a contract for all the underground development and production works for its Cowal Underground project. This contract is estimated to be worth $520 million.

Strandline Resources Ltd (ASX: STA)

The Strandline Resources share price is up 6% to 36 cents. This morning the minerals sands company revealed that construction of its 100%-owned Coburn mineral sands project in Western Australia is now 75% complete. This means the company remains on track for its first production of heavy mineral concentrate later this year.

Yancoal Australia Ltd (ASX: YAL)

The Yancoal share price is up 3% to $5.60. Investors have been buying this coal miner’s shares after an independent expert concluded that a low-ball takeover offer was not in the best interests of shareholders. Yankuang Energy Group – Yancoal’s parent company and controlling shareholder – was hoping to snag the company at a discount of $5.07 per share.

The post Why Core Lithium, Perenti, Strandline, and Yancoal shares are pushing higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Here’s why the Perenti share price is rocketing 18% today
• Yancoal share price lifts as potential takeover slammed
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• Could the Core Lithium share price be set to take off again in June?
• Appen and PolyNovo tumble after being kicked out of the ASX 200 along with these shares

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 Vanguard Australian Shares High Yield ETF (ASX: VHY) is one of the more popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The fund size is around $2.3 billion.

As the name suggests, it’s an investment that targets businesses with higher dividend yields from the ASX share market.

Vanguard is the provider of this investment. It’s one of the largest funds management organisations in the world. Vanguard tries to provide its investment options as cheaply as possible.

In Vanguard’s own words:

The ETF provides low-cost exposure to companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that have higher forecast dividends relative to other ASX-listed companies. Security diversification is achieved by restricting the proportion invested in any one industry to 40% of the total ETF and 10% in any one company. Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs) are excluded from the index.

Let’s look at two of the key features of this ETF.

Low cost

Vanguard says this ETF is a low-cost investment.

Its annual management fee is 0.25% per annum. That is relatively low compared to many other investment options. However it’s not the cheapest way to invest in ASX shares.

Vanguard itself has an ETF that charges less than half this cost annually. The Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) charges an annual fee of just 0.10%.

Higher dividend yield

There are some businesses on the ASX where the dividends and distributions they provide make up a sizeable part of the total return over time.

The top 10 positions in the VHY ETF all pay relatively high dividends to shareholders. Those top 10 largest holdings are Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ), Transurban Group (ASX: TCL), Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO).

Looking at the returns of the ETF, at the end April 2022, the distribution return had been an average of 5% per annum over the prior three years. That also doesn’t include the franking credits, which makes the income return even higher.

According to Vanguard, the forecast grossed-up dividend yield for the ETF is currently 7.3%.

Any downsides?

I think it’s important to remember that an investment isn’t a buy just because of a dividend.

In my opinion, the investment and valuation also have to make sense.

Businesses paying out most of their profit as a dividend aren’t generally known for displaying growth. They aren’t re-investing much profit back into the business for more growth. At the end of April 2022, Vanguard Australian Shares High Yield ETF had seen capital growth of an average of 2.1% per annum over the prior five years and 3.3% per annum over the previous 10 years.

Maybe that’s all investors are looking for — a little bit of long-term capital growth with strong dividend potential year to year.

For investors that aren’t seeking maximum income, I think other options could produce better total returns over the longer term as those (underlying) businesses re-invest more profit back into the business. For example, over the last five years to April 2022, the VAS ETF returned an average of 0.65% per annum more than the VHY ETF, showing that the excluded ASX growth shares made a difference to the overall picture.

The post Is the Vanguard Australian Shares High Yield ETF a good investment for dividends? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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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 no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Telstra Corporation Limited and Wesfarmers Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. 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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