At lunch on Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has followed the lead of US markets and is pushing higher. The benchmark index is currently up 0.3% to 7,334.6 points.

Here’s what is happening on the ASX 200 today:

Rio Tinto quarterly update

The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is trading lower today following the release of its third quarter update. That update reveals that the mining giant had a mixed quarter. As a result, management has downgraded its iron ore shipments and copper production guidance. In respect to the former, Pilbara iron ore shipments are now expected to be in the range of 320Mt to 325Mt. This compares to its previous guidance of 325Mt to 340Mt.

Treasury Wine update

The Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) share price is tumbling lower on Friday following the release of a first quarter trading update at its annual general meeting. That update reveals that Treasury Wine’s performance during the quarter was softer than expected. Management commented: “As we exit the first quarter of fiscal 22, the recovery of key luxury channels impacted by the pandemic are slightly behind the expectations we had at the beginning of the year.”

IAG taken to court by ASIC

Also heading lower today is the Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price. This follows news that ASIC has launched civil proceedings against the insurance giant in the Federal Court. The corporate watchdog alleges Insurance Australia misled customers by applying discounts while simultaneously upping premiums. It is alleged NRMA customers missed out on more than $60 million worth of discounts.

Best and worst ASX 200 performers

The best performer on the ASX 200 on Friday has been the ARB Corporation Limited (ASX: ARB) share price with a 6% gain. This morning Citi upgraded the auto parts company’s shares to a buy rating with a $55.45 price target. This was in response to its AGM update. The worst performer has been the Pendal Group Ltd (ASX: PDL) share price with a 10% decline following its funds under management update.

The post ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Rio Tinto cuts guidance, Treasury Wine disappoints appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why the Treasury Wine (ASX:TWE) share price is tumbling 6% on Friday
• Why the Pendal (ASX:PDL) share price is sinking 9% today
• IAG (ASX:IAG) share price on watch as ASIC launches legal action
• Treasury Wine (ASX:TWE) share price on watch after first-quarter update
• 3 reasons why the Brickworks (ASX:BKW) share price could be a buy

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 owns shares of and has recommended Insurance Australia Group Limited and Treasury Wine Estates Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended ARB Corporation Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) share price is selling off on Friday following the company’s first quarter trading update.

At the time of writing, the Treasury Wine share price is down 5.78% to $11.58.

What triggered the selloff?

Treasury Wine flagged that operating channel conditions across Asia, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand were slightly below its recovery expectations.

Management was reserved with their commentary, citing that “as we exit the first quarter of fiscal 22, the recovery of key luxury channels impacted by the pandemic are slightly behind the expectations we had at the beginning of the year.”

“This is particularly the case in the US where re-openings continued at a gradual pace, but with on-premise depletions growth slower than we had anticipated, and in Australia, where extended lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne have resulted in the closure of the onpremise channel, delaying our execution plans outside of the large retailers, particularly for Penfolds,” said Treasury Wine CEO, Tim Ford.

“In Asia, significant disruptions to key luxury sales channels continue across large parts of the region,” he added.

Another factor weighing on the Treasury Wine share price could be the cycling of elevated sales.

Ford said that while the company’s retail and e-commerce channels continue to perform strongly, growth rates were moderating compared to the prior year where there were “significant shifts in consumer purchasing behaviour”.

The concept of moderating and cycling of elevated sales from FY20 has weighed on many ASX 200 shares in the retail space including heavyweights Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) and Endeavour Group Ltd (ASX: EDV).

Treasury Wine share price selling off on heavy volume

Almost 2 million shares have traded hands within the first two hours of trade.

To add some perspective, Treasury Wine’s 10-day average volume sits at around 1.45 million.

The Treasury Wine share price has largely been range bound since early June, struggling to hold above $13 but finding plenty of buying support as it approaches the mid $11 level.

The post Why the Treasury Wine (ASX:TWE) share price is tumbling 6% on Friday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Rio Tinto cuts guidance, Treasury Wine disappoints
• Treasury Wine (ASX:TWE) share price on watch after first-quarter update
• Why is the Treasury Wine (ASX:TWE) share price in the green today?
• 2 ASX dividend shares that could be very reliable
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday

Motley Fool contributor Kerry Sun 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 owns shares of and has recommended Treasury Wine Estates Limited and Wesfarmers Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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How do you know whether an ASX share is expensive, cheap or otherwise?

A regularly used tool is to calculate the valuation multiple. This is seeing how a specific financial metric compares to the share price.

The traditional one is the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio. But there are also price-to-sales, enterprise-value-to-sales and enterprise-value-to-earnings, among a whole bunch of others.

According to Montaka Global Investments senior research analyst Amit Nath, valuation multiples are “probably the most enduring pieces of investment analysis of all time”.

“‘That company is expensive because its valuation multiple is high’ — this is one of the most used and repeated phrases of market commentary,” he wrote on a Montaka blog.

“Unfortunately, they are often completely useless.”

If you only have a hammer, everything has to be a nail

Nath speculated that for many investors, valuation multiples are the only metric they have to judge a stock.

“The law of the instrument, or ‘Maslow’s hammer’, is a cognitive bias where people rely too much on a familiar tool,” he said.

“For many market commentators and armchair enthusiasts, valuation multiples are their Maslow’s hammer, and they apply it indiscriminately.”

According to Nath, valuation multiples are a “simplified, abbreviated and short-cut” way of analysing a business’ worth.

“They don’t tell the whole story or give a complete picture of underlying value and are prone to sizable error when applied in isolation,” he said.

“And, sadly, multiples have never been less useful than they are today.”

Abraham Maslow, the psychologist behind the eponymous hammer, explained it the best.

“It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

The trouble is that the world is full of high-growth ventures that are revolutionising their industries or even creating new ones.

“For traditional valuation multiples to be effective, a company needs stable and predictable cash-flows, which are generally found in mature industries like utilities, real-estate and infrastructure,” said Nath.

“Multiples provide an inadequate view when companies have high and relatively sustained growth rates, particularly for the world’s best software-driven ecosystems like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN).”

Humans are terrible at exponential thinking

Nath explained that humans naturally prefer to use “a simplifying linear concept”, and this simply doesn’t represent non-linear phenomena like high-growth businesses.

“Google’s world-renowned futurist and Director of Engineering, Raymond Kurzweil, believes humans are linear thinkers by nature, whereas technology, biology and our environment are often exponential,” he said. 

“That, he says, creates enormous blind spots when we pursue higher-order thinking and seek to solve increasingly complex problems.”

Kurzweil cited a simple thought experiment to demonstrate.

“It takes 7 doublings to go from 0.01% to 1%, and then 7 more doublings to go from 1% to 100%,” said Nath.

“So within 14 time periods an emerging system has gone from being completely invisible in the linear world (0.01%), to entirely encompassing it (100%).”

The COVID-19 pandemic recently demonstrated in real life the power of exponential growth, but our brains simply can’t handle the concept.

So what do we use instead of valuation multiples?

If valuation multiples are so flawed, what measure should investors use to judge whether a stock is expensive or a bargain?

“The truth is, there are no short-cuts in valuing a business,” said Nath.

“It is a hard, detailed, and rigorous exercise that takes considerable time and insight to get right.”

He revealed that Montaka conducts considerable research on the industry landscape and how the business might fare in 5 to 10 years.

It also puts together metrics like discounted cash flow (DCF) and total addressable market (TAM) for a full picture of the stock’s potential.

Nath put up Amazon to demonstrate how useless it is to base one’s stock-buying decisions purely on valuation multiples.

In 2006, Amazon shares were trading at an enterprise-value-to-EBITDA ratio of 26 times, while the US market generally was at 10.

Since then, the stock price has returned 115 times over.

“You could have paid double the share price for Amazon in 2006 and still made nearly 60 times your money today.”

The post Why valuation multiples are a terrible way to judge ASX shares appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Motley Fool contributor Tony Yoo owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long January 2022 $1,920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1,940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS) share price is rocketing, up 29% at the time of writing. It had earlier been up by more than 40%.

Below, we take a look at the ASX resource explorer’s latest lithium results that look to be driving investor interest.

What lithium results were reported?

The Essential Metals share price is surging after the company reported positive assay results at its 100% owned Pioneer Dome Lithium Project, in Western Australia.

According to the release, 4 reverse circulation (RC) holes returned “excellent lithium assays and widths” from the Cade Deposit. Essential Metals said the high lithium tenor encountered in the drilling indicates there likely has been minimal depletion of lithium near the surface.

Results from the 4 holes included:

• 21m @ 1.08% Li2O from surface
• 24m @ 1.29% Li2O from surface
• 15m @ 1.06% Li2O from 47m
• 26m @ 1.46% Li2O from 51m

Commenting on the results driving the Essential Metals share price, managing director Tim Spencer said:

These assay results once again reinforce that the Dome North area hosts a high quality resource with the potential to be mined with minimal overburden. We now need to undertake further drilling and metallurgical test work to advance the project towards development in parallel with more exploration. We will announce the program details as soon as we can finalise the various practicalities and contractors.

The company said it intends to release the results of all the assays from its drilling program towards the end of October.

Essential Metals is planning to start a diamond drill campaign in November to increase its understanding of the area, providing metallurgical test work samples for its Davy and Cade Deposits.

The company is also working on securing a mining lease and conducting the required environmental and hydrology studies to get the project “development ready”.

Essential Metals share price snapshot

With today’s intraday gains factored in, the Essential Metals share price is up an impressive 150% so far in 2021. That compares to a year-to-date gain of 10% posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).

Over the past month, Essential Metals shares are down around 20%.

The post Essential Metals (ASX:ESS) share price rockets 29% on lithium update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Essential Metals (ASX:ESS) share price tumbles 20% on lithium update

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 Bruce Jackson.

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AM Diagnostics has been on the radar of many ASX-watchers recently.

Particularly, after at-home COVID-19 antigen rapid tests, supplied by the Perth-based Australian company, received approval from the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) this week.  

Australians might be able to choose between one of three at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen tests from 1 November. All three are supplied by AM Diagnostics and provide results within 15 minutes.

AM Diagnostics leads Australian at-home testing

According to reporting by The Australian, the TGA’s thumbs-up means Australians might soon be able to buy rapid COVID-19 tests at supermarkets, pharmacies, and other easy-to-access locations.

Two of the approved tests provide results from oral fluid, requiring a user to spit into a tube to learn their COVID-19 status. The other provides results using a nasal swab.

The tests state they are accurate 97% to 98% of the time.

Can you invest in AM Diagnostics on the ASX?

Understandably, many ASX investors are currently wondering how to get a piece of AM Diagnostics into their portfolio.

Unfortunately, there isn’t good news for those looking to invest in the manufacture and distributor of medical and diagnostic equipment.  

AM Diagnostics is registered as a private company with the Australian Government. Thus, investors can’t buy shares in AM Diagnostics on the ASX.

However, there are several companies that might peak the interest of would-be-AM Diagnostics investors.

Atomo Diagnostics Ltd (ASX: AT1), for instance, is the developer of the CareStart EZ COVID-19 rapid antibody test.

The company’s at-home test has been authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use.

Another ASX-listed share involved in the COVID-19 home testing market is AnteoTech Ltd (ASX: ADO).

AnteoTech has partnered with unlisted Brisbane-based company, Ellume, to provide its AnteoBind technology for Ellume’s at-home COVID-19 tests.

The post Is AM Diagnostics listed on the ASX? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Why is the Atomo Diagnostics (ASX:AT1) share price halted?
• These were the 5 top performing ASX shares in September
• Here’s why the Anteotech (ASX:ADO) share price is up 57% in a month

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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price is pushing higher on Friday.

In morning trade, the mining giant’s shares are up 1.5% to $14.52.

Why is the Fortescue share price pushing higher?

There have been a couple of potential catalysts for the rise in the Fortescue share price this morning.

The first is a rebound in iron ore prices overnight. According to CommSec, the spot benchmark iron ore price rose by US$2.40 or 1.9% to US$126 a tonne during Thursday night trade.

Also potentially giving the Fortescue share price a boost was the release of an announcement relating to its Fortescue Future Industries business.

What did Fortescue announce?

This morning Fortescue announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Plug Power for a 50-50 joint venture to build a Gigafactory in Queensland, Australia.

Plug Power is a Nasdaq listed leading provider of turnkey hydrogen solutions for the global green hydrogen economy.

If the agreement goes ahead, the two companies will build a two gigawatt factory to produce large-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers. It will also have the ability to expand into fuel cell systems and other hydrogen-related refuelling and storage infrastructure in the future.

The release advises that Plug Power will supply the electrolyser and fuel cell technology and the Fortescue Future Industries business will contribute advanced manufacturing capabilities.

Fortescue Future Industries will also be the primary customer of the products manufactured by the joint venture, enabling its ambitions in decarbonising its operations with stationary power and mobility applications running on green hydrogen.

Fortescue Future Industries’ CEO, Julie Shuttleworth, commented: “We need solar panels, wind towers, and electrolyzers in such scale that we need to produce them where we use them – including in Australia. We have enough solar and wind in Australia to power many countries of the world. Working together with Plug Power, we can create this future.”

The post Fortescue (ASX:FMG) share price rises amid Gigafactory plans with Plug Power appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Fortescue (ASX:FMG) share price up 3% against all odds
• 3 reasons why the Fortescue (ASX:FMG) share price could be a buy
• Fortescue (ASX:FMG) share price down 5% as iron ore retreats
• Why Bank of Queensland, Fortescue, Liontown, & Pact shares are dropping
• Here’s why ASX hydrogen shares are leaping higher 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price is moving higher in morning trading today. Shares are currently changing hands at $188.47, a gain of 3.06%.

That marks a record high for Macquarie, whose shares have been on an extended bull run this past year.

What’s more, the banking giant has achieved this growth on its price chart in the absence of any market-sensitive news over the last month.

What’s fuelling the Macquarie share price lately?

The Macquarie share price began gaining ground last month after the company released an update on its near and medium-term outlook at the Jeffries Asia Forum.

Although it sees some meaningful headwinds in the short-term, looking further out, the company feels it is well-positioned to “deliver superior performance in the medium term”.

The news appeared important enough for investors to start bidding up the Macquarie share price, baking in its future earnings expectations to value the bank’s equity.

Momentum from the wider industry is also apparent in Macquarie’s case, with the S&P/ASX 200 Financials index (ASX: XFJ) also climbing into the green this past month.

However, Macquarie is leading the broad ASX financials index by a country mile, and there may be some other factors at play here – especially with its entrance into the green energy and renewables sector.

That’s what two leading brokers reckon anyhow, after their analysis on the company and its share price.

Can Macquarie keep gaining past its record high?

Analysts at investment banking giants JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley certainly believe so, particularly given their Australian counterpart’s moves into ‘green capabilities’.

Morgan Stanley’s analysts rate Macquarie as having one of the best ‘green’ mantras among listed financial companies worldwide.

As a result, it reckons Macquarie is about to have a period of accelerated earnings growth versus its peers, and that it should therefore command a “green premium” on its valuation multiples.

Morgan Stanley thinks Macquarie can grow its green revenue by 20-25% annually over the coming 5-year period.

The broker arrives at these conclusions from its own analysis, as it thinks “Macquarie’s critical scale in renewables should command a further green premium and reduce its cost of capital”.

As such, it raised its price target by 37% to $240, implying around 27% upside potential on today’s pricing.

Fellow market maker JP Morgan has also offered its opinion on the Macquarie share price.

The broker has a $190 price target on Macquarie shares and maintains its overweight rating to investors.

It too believes the bank can deliver high earnings growth, forecasting approximately 15% net profit after tax in FY22, and 15% return on equity from FY22–24 for the company.

Looking further ahead, it sees “the annuity divisions driving strong medium-growth, with MAM (Macquarie Asset Management) well placed to benefit from structural demand for alternative asset classes”.

It also feels Macquarie Investment Management will benefit from the acquisition of Waddell & Reed completed in FY21.

In any sense, both brokers are bullish on Macquarie shares and believe they have the legs to extend the bank’s run into the green much further into the future.

The Macquarie share price is up 34% this year to date and 41% in the past 12 months.

The post What leading brokers are saying about the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why did the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price have such a great FY22 first quarter?
• Is the Westpac (ASX:WBC) share price a buy for its 7% dividend yield?
• Why the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price hit its all-time high on Friday
• How did the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price perform in September?
• The most important catalyst for outperforming ASX shares: fund manager

The author Zach Bristow has no positions 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 owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Macquarie Telecom Group Ltd. (ASX: MAQ) share price has been a top performer in 2021, up 45% year-to-date.

Macquarie Telecom’s outperformance has largely been attributed to a single-day jump in share price on 14 July, when the company announced plans to build a new data centre at the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus. Its shares jumped 15.4% on the day of the announcement to $63.50.

The Macquarie Telecom share price continued to rally following the new data centre announcement, scoring an all-time high of $82.50 on 31 August.

From a fundamental perspective, the company has delivered sound growth with its FY21 full-year results reflecting a seventh consecutive year of EBITDA growth.

Looking ahead, the company said that it expects EBITDA to continue to grow in FY22, driven by its investments and performance in data centres, cloud services and government.

In an interview with Livewire, Investors Mutual’s Simon Conn and Montgomery Investment Management’s Roger Montgomery shared with investors companies that have a solid growth outlook.

Why there could be more upside to the Macquarie Telecom share price

Montgomery pitched Macquarie Telecom when asked to pick a company that is a “strong candidate for an earnings upgrade.”

“We think the market doesn’t appreciate how they make their money from selling their volume. They often sell a large part of their available power, if you like, at a lower price. But they can make just as much money – they can actually double their revenue and their EBITDA – from selling the last 10% of the volume at 10 times what they sold the original 90% for.”

“I don’t think that’s widely appreciated. So we’ve got valuation on the stock of over $100, and its recent weakness gives, I think, us and other people an opportunity to buy,” he added.

The Macquarie Telecom share price has been trading sideways since early August, around the mid $70 level.

The post Why this broker sees a 30% upside in the Macquarie Telecom (ASX:MAQ) share price appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Kerry Sun 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price is up 7% over the past week and flat over the past 24 hours. One Bitcoin is currently worth US$57,564 (AU$77,789).

That, according to data from CoinMarketCap, gives the world’s first and biggest crypto a market cap just north of US$1.08 trillion dollars. It also means Bitcoin represents some 45% of the total global crypto market in terms of value.

With the digital token again closing in on its all-time highs of more than US$64,863, some crypto bulls are eagerly eyeing the US$100,000 level.

Others, like Cathie Wood, the founder of asset manager ARK Invest, believe it will run far higher.

All the way to US$500,000.

Bitcoin price to US$500,000?

It’s not the first time Woods has made this prediction for the Bitcoin price. She’s a long-term avowed Bitcoin bull.

ARK not only owns Bitcoin in its portfolio, the asset manager is hoping to launch a futures-based Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) in the United States. To date the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to greenlight any crypto related ETFs. But the SEC is considering the matter.

So how does Woods see the Bitcoin price soaring another 770% from here?

Speaking at the CFA Societies of Australasia conference yesterday, Woods said (quoted by the Australian Financial Review):

I have seen two periods in my investment life where what seemed like new asset classes were moving into institutional portfolios. Real estate in the 70s and 80s and emerging markets…

If institutions around the world were to allocate 5 per cent of their portfolios to bitcoin, that allocation alone, and this is just one of many use cases out there, would add roughly $500,000 to bitcoin’s price.

To be clear she’s talking about US dollar prices here. Meaning a forecast Bitcoin price of AU$675,000.

Woods doubled down on her prediction saying, as the AFR summarises, that it doesn’t even take into account “the potential for large corporations like Square, MicroStrategy, and Tesla to allocate more of their balance sheet holdings to bitcoin instead of cash”.

Proceed with caution

If Woods is right about the direction of the Bitcoin price, ARK and other Bitcoin investors stand to make some heady gains.

But don’t forget that just one year ago today, on 15 October 2020, Bitcoin was trading for US$11,500.

Go back a little further, to 12 March 2020, and the Bitcoin price was as low as US$4,900. That came during the global market selloff following the initial pandemic panic, indicating the token was far from immune from forces impacting the wider asset markets.

Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

The post Bitcoin price to half a million US dollars? Why ARK’s Cathie Woods is doubling down appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX set to welcome first cryptocurrency ETF… but there’s a catch
• What happened to the Bitcoin price in the FY22 first quarter?
• Are NFTs a bubble awaiting a pin or the next big investment theme?
• Here’s what happened to the Bitcoin price in September
• How these top 3 cryptos performed in the first quarter of FY22

Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Bitcoin, Microsoft, Square, and 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Pendal Group Ltd (ASX: PDL) share price is on course to record a sizeable decline on Friday.

In early trade, the fund manager’s shares are down 9% to $7.05.

Why is the Pendal share price sinking?

Investors have been selling down the Pendal share price on Friday following the release of its latest funds under management (FUM) update.

As you might have guessed from the share price weakness, Pendal’s FUM update was a touch disappointing.

At the end of September, the company had total FUM of $139.2 billion. While this was an increase of 30.5% over the $106.7 billion FUM it reported at the end of June, this increase was driven by favourable foreign exchange and market movements and the acquisition of Thompson, Siegel & Walmsley.

Pendal actually reported net fund outflows of $2.3 billion during the three months.

Management commentary

Pendal’s CEO, Nick Good, commented: “The acquisition of Thompson, Siegel & Walmsley LLC (TSW), delivered a step-change in FUM from $106.7 billion to $139.2 billion. For shareholders this is proving to be a value accretive acquisition.”

Mr Good also explained why Pendal experienced its net fund outflows during the quarter.

”There was significant volatility in client sentiment leading to re-balancing of portfolios and profit taking, giving rise to outflows in a range of channels and strategies,” he said.

Nevertheless, the CEO appears confident in the direction the company and its investments are heading.

He concluded: “At Pendal we are anchored by our high-conviction investment philosophy, which means we invest through the cycles to deliver superior long-term value and performance for our clients. The continued diversification of our business supports growth in FUM and shareholder returns.”

Pendal will be releasing its full year results for FY 2021 next month on 5 November.

The post Why the Pendal (ASX:PDL) share price is sinking 9% 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 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 Bruce Jackson.

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