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

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

Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ)

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

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

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

Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nitro Software Ltd (ASX: NTO)

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

Pushpay Holdings Group Ltd (ASX: PPH)

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

Whispir Ltd (ASX: WSP)

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

The post 3 exciting ASX tech shares to watch appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:

Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)

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

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

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

Reject Shop Ltd (ASX: TRS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Centuria has declared that the offer is now unconditional.

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

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

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

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

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

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

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

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

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

NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)

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

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

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

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

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

The post 2 fantastic ASX shares that could be quality buy and hold options appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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

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

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

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

Here are the reasons for their optimism.

Financial shares currently in favour

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

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

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

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

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

Strong tailwinds for insurance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post Why we love this cheap ASX 200 share: Wilson appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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

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

Why these experts see higher dividend yields ahead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 ASX shares tipped to pay higher dividends

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

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

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

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

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

The post 5 ASX shares tipped to pay higher dividends: fund manager appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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

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

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

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

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

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

Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN)

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

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

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

The post Fund managers are buying Qantas (ASX:QAN) and this ASX share appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The Argosy Minerals Limited (ASX: AGY) share price is in negative territory today. This comes despite the company announcing a positive update on the construction works at the Rincon Lithium Project.

Argosy holds a 77.5% interest in the Rincon project, located in Salta Province, Argentina. The mine is situated within the ‘lithium triangle’ – the world’s dominant lithium production source.

During late afternoon trade, the lithium miner’s shares are down 3.03% to 9.6 cents apiece.

How is Argosy progressing?

Investors are selling Argosy shares regardless of the company providing a snapshot of its progress on the Rincon Lithium Project.

According to its release, Argosy stated that around 24% of the total works have now been completed to bring the Rincon Lithium Project online. The development of the modular 2,000tpa (tonnes per annum) of lithium carbonate production plant remains on schedule and on budget.

The company is targeting to achieve the first commercial production of lithium carbonate product from mid-2022.

Major construction works such as building the process plant, equipment and associated installations, and expansion of the brine system have all progressed. As such, Argosy provided a snapshot of the current progress:

• 74% of earthworks/land movements completed;
• 31% of site works completed (site camp/accommodation, laboratory, office, and other works);
• 65% of the brine system completed (pumping station and plant settling ponds);
• 25% of the process plant completed (plant equipment acquisition and plant warehouse);
• 13% of utilities and associated services (vapour system, communication system and ancillary services); and
• 2% plant commissioning works completed (raw materials acquisition and team development).

Argosy revealed that it is continuing discussions with a number of strategic groups on product off-take agreements and investment options. The company hopes to expand the 2,000tpa of lithium carbonate to a 10,000tpa project development.

Furthermore, Argosy believes that with lithium prices rising and tightening market supply and demand conditions, potential off-take arrangements will become more attractive.

What did management say?

Argosy managing director, Jerko Zuvela commented:

The Company’s Puna operations team have continued their strong progress with construction and development works, toward commencing 2,000tpa lithium carbonate production operations at our Rincon Lithium Project.

We are excited as we continue our works to transform Argosy into a battery quality lithium carbonate producer and cashflow generator, and to further progress the 10,000tpa project development expansion. We look forward to a significant near-term growth phase from increasing development activity at the Rincon Lithium Project

About the Argosy share price

Since the beginning of the year, Argosy shares have performed modestly, recording gains of around 20%. The company’s share price reached a 52-week high of 21.5 cents in January.

Based on valuation grounds, Argosy presides a market capitalisation of roughly $120 million, with approximately 1.25 billion shares outstanding.

The post Argosy (ASX:AGY) share price backtracks despite positive update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price is up 1.3% in late afternoon trade. CBA is currently trading for $102.54 per share.

It was only last Friday, 28 May, that the CBA share price closed higher than $100 for the first time.

That psychological level didn’t last long. CommBank closed lower on the first 2 days of this week, with the CBA share price at $99.46 by Tuesday’s closing bell.

The tail end of this week has been a different story, with CommBank closing in the green the past 3 days. Assuming today’s gains hold, the CBA share price looks set to close at a new record high today.

CBA in the news

Over the past 3 months, CBA has been the best performing of the big 4 banks. And a growing chorus of analysts expect that CBA will be giving some of its profits back to shareholders by ramping up dividends.

Matthew Haupt, portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, calls CBA “the best bank in Australia.” As Reuters reports, Wilson Asset Management has a position in all the big 4 banks.

According to Haupt

[CBA] is absolutely flush with capital so they are in a great place to be able to return capital to shareholders… Probably around August, they’ll come out with a market buyback with a large franking credit portion. They should be leading the charge in capital management.

CommBank has roughly $11.5 billion more capital than it’s required to hold under the 10.5% core capital regulations.

That staggering sum has analysts at Morgan Stanley forecasting CBA will raise its dividend payment when it reports on its 2021 financial year earnings on 11 August. The broker also believes CommBank will make an off-market share buyback in the range of $5–5.5 billion.

CBA share price snapshot

The best performing of the big 4 banks in recent months, CommBank shares are up 52% over the past 12 months. By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has gained 22% in that same time.

Year-to-date the CBA share price is up 22%.

The post Why the CBA (ASX:CBA) share price is at record highs appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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If you haven’t already noticed, initial public offerings (IPOs) usually take advantage of industry strength in their timing. Copper mining company 29Metals is no different, with the possibility of it becoming the second-largest IPO so far this year.

The strategic timing is set to make the most of the red metal’s soaring price. Increasing demand for copper has pushed the commodity’s price up 44.5% in the last year. As of today, the conductive element is going for roughly US$9,810 per tonne.

Let’s take a look at the details of 29Metals and its anticipated IPO.

Billion-dollar copper company in the making?

Firstly, what is 29Metals? It’s not exactly a household name like BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) or Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO). The copper-focused miner operates two Australian producing mines and a Chilean exploration project.

A little more specifically, the miner’s portfolio includes Golden Grove in Western Australia – with a production rate of 1.4 million tonnes per year. Its other Australian project is Capricorn Copper in Queensland – with a production rate of 1.8 million tonnes per year.

29Metals is forecasting that it will achieve $658.4 million in revenue for the 2021 financial year, which would be a 25% increase on its 2018 revenue. The copper miner also expects net profit after tax of $39 million for the year – more than double its 2018 profit.

Credit Suisse, Macquarie Capital, and Morgan Stanley are jointly conducting the IPO. The brokers were closing their books at 12.30pm today, so now it’s a waiting game to see if the deal gained enough interest.

Bids were to be placed in 5 cent increments between $2 and $2.40 per share. However, closer to the books closing, that price range had narrowed to between $2 and $2.10. If the order books were filled, 29Metals could be looking to list at an enterprise value of between $1.05 billion and $1.2 billion.

What’s driving interest in copper shares?

Investors have been gobbling up shares in copper mining companies over the past year. There are various catalysts at play, namely the power and constructions sectors, and electric vehicles.

S&P Global has reported the surging pace of electrification means global copper production will need to rise by an estimated 3% to 6% by 2030. Analysts are expecting a lack of new mines and exploration will lead to demand outstripping our global supply.

Big #Copper pricing forecast

Goldman Sachs shifted its copper outlook in an April 13 research report, projecting a 2025 copper price of $15,000 per tonne, or $6.80 per pound, up from a prior price forecast under $10,000/t pic.twitter.com/LKkknmMJ5r

— Michael Bond (@MichaelBond_SP) April 15, 2021

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Analysts at Goldman Sachs have even gone as far as to say copper is “the new oil”. Additionally, Goldman slapped a price target of US$15,000 per tonne on the commodity by 2025. The analysts pointed to electric vehicles, solar power, and wind power being three key drivers for green copper demand.

What’s next for 29Metals?

If 29Metals managed to rally enough interest, a prospectus will be filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

From there, the mining company will hit the ASX boards on 23 June 2021, joining the likes of OZ Minerals Ltd (ASX: OZL) and Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR).

The post 29Metals IPO heats up as books close on the copper miner appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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