Here we are on the final day of April and the Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price is leaving the S&P/ASX 50 Index (ASX: XFL) in its dust. The company’s shares are up more than 12% this month against the index’s 3.5% gains.

Xero shares are now worth a tidy $142.31 each, at the time of writing, and April’s gains have come without the company releasing a single price-sensitive market update the entire month. 

Whilst it’s impossible to know exactly what’s driving positive investor sentiment towards Xero, let’s take a look at what’s been happening for the company…

How has Xero been performing?

As mentioned, we haven’t heard any earth-shattering news from the Aussie business and accounting software developer during April. In March, however, the company announced it was acquiring two companies, Planday and Tickstar, which will push the company outside of its usual market and into the workforce management space.

The acquisition of both these companies was seen as a positive move by Goldman Sachs. This month, the major broker reiterated its buy rating on the company, setting its Xero share price target at $153.

Goldman’s upsides on Xero made for pretty optimistic reading. It highlighted the company’s limited competition, which it believes supports pricing power. The broker also flagged Xero’s high level of digitisation and VAT compliance as well as increasing regulation supporting e-invoicing. 

Xero is also aiming to expand into Scandinavia which, despite the region’s size, is a potentially lucrative, tech-mature market. Goldman also gave a nod to these plans, tipping a potential addressable market of more than 2 million subscribers for the fintech to target.

The other possibility for all this optimism surrounding Xero shares is actually that they are simply recovering from previous losses. The company’s share price dropped a whopping 30% from its all-time high of almost $158 set in December to around $108 in early March. So, could the company’s recent gains just be a market correction…of a correction?

April has also been a strong month for the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX), with the index beating the ASX 50 by around 7%. 

Xero share price snapshot

The Xero share price has added almost as much value in the past 12 months as it did in the prior 10 years. But those dramatic losses between January and March this year (a $40 loss in two months) show Xero shares can still be as volatile as they come.

More reading

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• 2 excellent ASX 200 blue chip shares to buy
• 2 of the best ASX 200 shares according to analysts

Lucas Radbourne-Pugh has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Xero. 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 Ether price gains of late haven’t gotten nearly the amount of media attention as the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price.

But with the Ether price (or Ethereum if you prefer) hitting new record highs again today, you can expect to hear more about the world’s second largest cryptocurrency.

Ether price versus the Bitcoin price

The Ether price at the time of writing is US$2,763 (AU$3,542), according to data from CoinDesk. That’s down a tad from the $2,800 it reached earlier today, but still up 1.1% over the past 24 hours.

Admittedly, in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies, that’s not a huge price gain. But just 12 months ago Ether was trading for a mere US$212. Meaning anyone who bought Ether this time last year is sitting on a 1,203% gain.

At the current price, this gives Ether a market cap of US$319.6 billion. And Ether is changing virtual hands at a significant rate, with more than US$38.9 billion in transaction over the past 24 hours.

So how does this compare to Bitcoin?

Well, Bitcoin remains the world’s largest digital asset. At the current price of US$53,515, Bitcoin has a market cap of US$1.0 trillion.

The Bitcoin price is down 2.2% over the past 24 hours, with US$48.3 billion of Bitcoin transacted in that time.

Over the past 12 months, Bitcoin has gained 504%.

What’s driving crypto investors’ interest in Ether?

Ether’s blockchain can be used to facilitate financial transactions.

As Reuters reports, the record Ether price this week appears to be linked to “the European Investment Bank’s plans to launch a ‘digital bond’ sale on the ethereum blockchain network“.

Anonymous sources, first reported by Bloomberg, revealed that “the EIB plans to issue a two-year 100-million euro digital bond, with the sale to be led by Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, and Societe Generale”.

Danny Kim is the head of revenue at cryptocurrency broker SFOX. He concurred that news of the European Investment Bank’s digital bond sale had “triggered a bullish institutional use case for ethereum”.

Kim also pointed to a lower supply for the run-up to record high ether price:

The amount of ethereum sitting on exchanges continues to drop lower and has been the lowest in the past year. With less supply on exchange available, there’s less likely a chance of a major sell-off.

Whether you’re considering investing in Bitcoin, Ether or even Dogecoin, remember that crypto prices are notoriously volatile.

While the Ether price is currently sitting at record levels, no one can accurately predict where it’s heading next.

More reading

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• Tesla’s Bitcoin sale helped boost quarterly profits
• Should you invest your super in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?
• Is Dogecoin still a joke?

Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Bitcoin. 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 has been a sensational performer in April among the ASX 50 shares. It’s currently the second-highest gainer this month, following only — you guessed it — Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT).

At the time of writing, Fortescue shares are up 13.53% in April to $22.70, quadrupling the broader ASX 50’s return after a busy month for the mining giant.

But there’s a little more to the movements than meets the eye. Let’s take a look at the hold-on-to-your-pants month of a Fortescue investor.

Fortescue’s April highs and lows

The Fortescue share price has benefitted from record global iron-ore prices, with rivals BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) also notching up bumper 12 month periods.

This month has been no different, and continued hydraulics under the commodity’s value in mid-April once again led to solid gains.

Fortescue often chews up a few more news bites than its rivals, however, largely due to its ambitious climate targets. It wants to be carbon neutral by 2030, which will encompass a huge reduction from the millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas it currently emits every year.

Fortescue chair Andrew Forrest is becoming the spearhead of Australia’s business-led fight against climate change, and the company is taking a proactive approach in shifting towards the production of green hydrogen.

This month alone, Forrest said Australia should become “the Middle East” of hydrogen production, mere days after his company met with the Jordanian government to discuss investment in their hydrogen production facilities. He also called fossil fuels “the most dangerous industry in the world”. 

But despite the solid gains, not everything is rosy in term of outlook for the Fortescue share price long-term. UBS has called time on the iron-ore boom (admittedly, prices have kept rising since then).

Moody’s noted that Fortescue’s market capitalisation fell by a whopping 17% between February and March alone, and Goldman Sachs has actively downgraded Fortescue to a sell rating, noting its earnings-per-share is well below BHP and Rio.

Fortescue share price snapshot

It’s also worth noting that the Fortescue share price is the only of the big three miners to have a negative return in 2021 so far, still down 4% despite this month’s gains.

However, those shares have still increased in value by 88% over the past 12 months. That’s beaten the basic materials sector by 47% and the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) by 60%. 

More reading

• Not too late to buy these small ASX mining shares for the commodities boom
• Top broker slaps sell rating on Fortescue (ASX:FMG) share price
• ASX 200 rises, Woolworths falls, Fortescue was flat
• NRW (ASX:NWH) share price rises on Fortescue deal
• ASX 200 up 0.3%: Woolworths and Fortescue lower on updates, Newcrest impresses

Motley Fool contributor Lucas Radbourne-Pugh 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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Investors who have been around the proverbial block a few times might remember ‘the Buffett indicator’. This is a market metric that has been made famous by the great investor Warren Buffett – hence the name. 

It hasn’t been thrown around too much over the past few years. Many investors even think it’s outdated, or doesn’t truly reflect the mechanics of the modern stock market. We should all hope that they are right because the Buffett indicator has never looked so dire for future investing returns.

But let’s rewind. What exactly is the Buffett indicator?

The Buffett indicator is a simple metric that measures the market capitalisation of the entire US stock market against the gross national product (GNP) of the US economy. Put simply, it measures how values shares are compared with the broader economy. 

The Berkshire Hathaway way

Here’s how Buffett explained it back in 1999:

[It] shows the market value of all publicly traded securities as a percentage of the country’s business–that is, as a percentage of GNP. The ratio has certain limitations in telling you what you need to know. Still, it is probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment. And as you can see, nearly two years ago the ratio rose to an unprecedented level. That should have been a very strong warning signal.

For investors to gain wealth at a rate that exceeds the growth of U.S. business, the percentage relationship line on the chart must keep going up and up. If GNP is going to grow 5% a year and you want market values to go up 10%, then you need to have the line go straight off the top of the chart. That won’t happen.

For me, the message of that chart is this: If the percentage relationship falls to the 70% or 80% area, buying stocks is likely to work very well for you. If the ratio approaches 200%–as it did in 1999 and a part of 2000–you are playing with fire. As you can see, the ratio was recently 133%.

So basically Buffett is saying that stock markets should grow in line with US GNP over time. If they exceed GNP, then the market is overvalued (like it turned out to be in 2000). If they undershoot GNP, the market is undervalued. Even though Buffett said that this method “has limitations”, he also thought that “it is probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment”. Well, at least he did in 1999. Buffett hasn’t said too much on it since this interview.

How is the Buffett indicator looking today?

As implied earlier, the Buffett indicator today does not paint a rosy picture. According to currentmarketvaluation.com, US GNP is standing at US$21.9 trillion, as of 22 April. But the value of the US markets is sitting at US$51.3 trillion. That means that the Buffett indicator is flashing red at 234% – meaning that US stocks are worth 234% more than the country’s GNP. That’s the highest the indicator has ever been, including where it was at the peak of the dot-com bubble back in the early 2000s (when Buffett made the above remarks).

Of course, many investors aren’t too worried. There’s a lot that has changed since 1999 when Buffett outlined his position on this indicator. Back then, the US’s largest companies were stocks like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Now they are companies like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL). And US companies have far more global reach than they used to. Software-as-a-Service business models have made them more profitable than ever. And let’s not forget that interest rates have never been as low as they are today. That is certainly playing a role in the current market valuations.

But who knows, maybe we’ll be looking back in a decade and think ‘how did no one see the dangers of the Buffett indicator’? Or maybe everyone will have forgotten this rather unique ratio by then. Time will tell!

More reading

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• Why the Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL) share price is sliding 7% today

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. Sebastian Bowen owns shares of Alphabet (A shares). The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Amazon and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 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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Centuria Industrial REIT (ASX: CIP) shares are gaining today on the back of a new property purchase. At the time of writing, the Centuria share price is $3.49, up 0.87% on yesterday’s close.

Let’s take a closer look at the news released by the industrial real estate investment trust this morning.

New industrial estate

Centuria has acquired an 8-hectare parcel of land in Dandenong South, near Melbourne, on which it plans to build a six-asset industrial estate.

The land has cost Centuria $26.3 million and the company will be spending another $62.5 million to build on it. Centuria estimates the end value of the estate will be $88.8 million. The project is expected to be practically completed by 2022 and will be funded through the company’s existing debt facilities.  

The finished product will be made up of units with areas from around 3,400 square meters to around 13,600 square metres. They will cater to a range of industrial tenants. The development’s total gross lettable area will be around 40,400 square metres.

Centuria hopes that, on completion, the development will achieve a ‘Design & As Built’ five-star green rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It will incorporate sustainable features such as solar panels, recycled water, sustainable and recycled building materials and native vegetation.

According to Centuria, vacancy levels in the industrial market of the Melbourne suburb are around 1%.  

The estate will be built in partnership with commercial and industrial property developer Cadence Property Group. It will be constructed by Texco Construction.

The new property adds to the company’s 7 existing assets in southeast Melbourne. The purchase has increased Centuria’s portfolio to 63 assets which, when combined, will be valued at $2.7 billion on completion.

Commentary from management

Centuria’s fund manager Jesse Curtis commented that the acquisition is an opportunity to secure an asset in a market where industrial properties are rare: 

The asset builds [Centuria’s] value-add pipeline and delivers brand new industrial product to the portfolio creating further value for unitholders…

The site is set to benefit from the newly announced Dandenong South Inland Port, enabling direct containerised freight from the port of Melbourne which is expected aid in leasing demand.

Centuria share price snapshot

The Centuria Industrial REIT share price is having a good run on the ASX as of late.

Currently, it’s up 12% year to date. It’s also up 32% over the last 12 months.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $1.9 billion, with approximately 551 million shares outstanding.

More reading

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Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper 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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Checked the market this morning? Then you have probably noticed the $900 million elephant in the room. That’s roughly how much has been erased from the market capitalisation of Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) as the share price suffers a devastating fall.

At the time of writing, shares in the oil and gas producer are 22.02% lower at $1.31.

What’s dismantling the Beach Energy share price?

Declining production 

The substantial decline in the Beach Energy share price comes after the company provided its results for the third quarter of FY21.

Standing out like a sore thumb, Beach’s production dropped 5% compared to the previous quarter, and 15% lower compared to Q3 FY20. The company attributed this to reduced reservoir performance and natural field decline, predominantly from the Cooper Basin Western Flank oil fields.

Lower customer nominations for the Victoria Otway also dampened production numbers. As a result, Beach Energy recorded 5.89 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) for the quarter.

Partially offsetting the mood in the room, the company managed to increase revenue by 14% to $393 million compared to the prior quarter. The increase in revenue was aided by a higher realised oil price during the quarter. However, on a year-over-year basis, revenue fell 9%.

Major downgrade to oil reserves

Shareholders have been startled by the sudden destabilisation in oil reserve estimates for the company’s Western Flank 2P reserve.

Beach Energy was prompted to conduct an urgent review of its 2P reserves, following production declines. The review’s findings indicate a 13.4-million-barrel net downgrade to the Western Flank oil reserves. Meanwhile, gas reserves suffered a 5.0 MMboe net downgrade.

In total, the reserve writedown equates to roughly 5% of Beach Energy’s 2P reserves. The 2017 acquisition of Lattice assets was drawn upon by the company, stating it had diversified Beach beyond the Cooper Basin.

Consequently, the company withdrew its five-year outlook – rattling the Beach Energy share price. This has led to a reduction in production guidance for FY21, falling to 25.2 to 25.7 MMboe, as opposed to the previous 26.5 to 27.5 MMboe forecast.

More reading

• ASX 200 down 0.6%: ResMed lower on Q3 update, Beach Energy crashes 23%
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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler 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 Pointerra Ltd (ASX: 3DP) share price is unmoved despite the data technology company announcing today it is purchasing a US drone business.

At the time of writing, shares in the company are trading for 67.5 cents each – down 10.6% on yesterday’s close. By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 0.62% lower.

Let’s take a closer examination of the acquisition.

What’s going on with the Pointerra share price?

In a statement to the ASX, Pointerra declared it has signed a non-binding agreement to buy US drone-based digital asset management business Airovant LLC.

Pointerra will issue US$1 million in ordinary shares to Airovant, as well as 2 million ordinary shares to each of the four founders of the company being acquired, to complete the procurement.

Airovant is a digital data as a service (DaaS) business for customers wishing to have a “digital representation” of worksites and assets. Using a mixture of 2D images (captured from the ground and the air via drones) and 3D modelling, customers are given “actionable intelligence” to aid in their decision-making around their assets. Between the years 2018 and 2020, Airovant’s annual revenue averaged US $1.4 million and the company had positive cash flow.

In its statement, Pointerra said it made the decision to purchase Airovant after working with the company in the US over the last few years. Along with the actual business, Pointerra highlighted the fact Airovant’s human resources and existing customer base will also become a part of its business.

Investors appear to be unimpressed with the news, judging by the Pointerra share price.

Pointerra says it sees opportunities for further expansion in the US. The company says the growing construction, mining, energy, and other sectors are opportune for it. As well, it says it can benefit from government investment in infrastructure at a local, state, and federal level. Infrastructure spending is key part of the US’ economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Management commentary

Pointerra managing director Ian Olson said:

Attracting the Airovant team to potentially bolster our US and global operations will also deliver new customers, revenue and ACV contribution – we couldn’t be happier with the potential acquisition.

Airovant CEO Jonathan Montague added:

Airovant is thrilled with the opportunity to join the Pointerra team and combine our product lines. Increasingly, critical business decisions are made using digital asset data, which requires an easy to use yet powerful platform solution to enable all stakeholders to make informed decisions around their operations.

Pointerra’s platform technology truly enables the digital experience for asset management that is increasingly performed leveraging remotely accessed solutions in a safe and effective manner. Across multiple verticals, our customers will benefit from the increased capability and expanded feature-sets adding deeper value to their businesses. The integration of Airovant’s core founder team with Pointerra will also synergistically accelerate the growth of segment-specific data solutions within the Pointerra ecosystem.

Pointerra share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, the Pointerra share price has rocketed 1,710%. Only last week, the company’s value increased by 28% in a day after exceptional sales results for Q3.

Pointerra has a market capitalisation of $509.8 million.

More reading

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Marc Sidarous has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Pointerra Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Pointerra 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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Dubber Corp Ltd (ASX: DUB) shares are surging to an all-time record high today after the company released a record March quarter update. At the time of writing, the Dubber share price is trading a whopping 16.28% higher to $2.50.

Dubber produces cloud-based call recording software designed for service providers and businesses. Its technology can capture calls and conversations automatically, storing them in the Dubber Voice Intelligence Cloud with enriched artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to allow for instant replays, insightful transcription, sentiment analysis, alerts and notifications. 

Dubber March quarter highlights 

The Dubber share price is rocketing to record highs after the company announced that all key metrics had experienced substantial growth. 

Annualised recurring revenue increased 20% quarter on quarter to $34 million, or 158% on the prior corresponding period. Similarly, revenue increased 54% to $6.6 million from a quarterly perspective and 152% compared to a year ago.

Dubber’s strong growth was driven by a record rate of new users joining, with a 155% year-on-year increase to more than 380,000 subscribers. The company expects user growth to continue to increase significantly in the current quarter with the introduction of its Foundation Partner Program.

In further news boosting the Dubber share price, several of the company’s existing service provider partners will deploy the Dubber platform as a standard feature across their network base. This will provide Dubber with a large-scale customer reach into end-user accounts for jointly up-selling additional services. 

During the quarter, the Dubber platform went live with three AT&T networks that target large enterprise, government, education, and business clients. The company is seeing a positive uptake in its software-as-a-service (SaaS) monthly subscription users and services.

Dubber’s unified call recording (UCR) feature has continued to make headway with previous partnership/integration with Microsoft Teams and Cisco’s Webex, and availability on Zoom this quarter. This allows for secure compliance and voice intelligence call recording for the respective meeting rooms.

Dubber believes it will be a significant beneficiary of telecommunication services increasingly moving to a cloud environment.

Management commentary 

Dubber CEO Steve McGovern commented on the company’s results, saying: 

We are delighted to have delivered such a strong quarter, achieving outstanding growth in all of our key metrics. The company is very well positioned to continue to take advantage of the major shift towards cloud based and ‘work from anywhere’ communications we are seeing in all our geographies. Governments and businesses understand the need to act on the requirement to capture conversations and voice data across their entire business.

Ever expanding requirements to record and store conversations for proactive compliance and dispute resolution, and, revenue, customer and personnel intelligence all continue to drive the need for voice data and intelligence at scale. We remain very positive as to Dubber’s growth and leadership

Head above the clouds for the Dubber share price

The Dubber share price was a test of patience between late November 2020 and April 2021. Despite a continuous stream of positive news, the company’s shares continued to move back and forth between highs of $1.85 and lows of $1.45 between this period. 

Its shares finally pushed above its trading range after the announcement of its collaboration with Zoom on 14 April. Year to date, the Dubber share price has surged by nearly 43%. Over the past year, the company’s shares have rallied by almost 175%. 

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Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Kerry Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Microsoft and Zoom Video Communications. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Dubber. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Zoom Video Communications. 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 Piedmont Lithium Ltd (ASX: PLL) share price is sliding, down 6.6% in late morning trade.

It’s the first day of losses in some time for Piedmont Lithium’s shareholders, with the ASX lithium share posting gains for the past 6 consecutive days.

Below we take a look at the company’s latest activity report for the quarter ending 31 March.

What did Piedmont Lithium report?

The Piedmont Lithium share price is falling despite the company reporting positive results over the quarter.

Those include a 40% increase in the ASX lithium miner’s total Mineral Resources at its Piedmont Lithium Carolinas project in the United States. Total Mineral Resources at the project were upgraded to 39.2 million tonnes (at a grade of 1.09% LI2-O). 55% of that is classified in the Indicated category.

Piedmont underwent a significant expansion of its senior management team over the quarter. Among those, David Klanecky was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Klanecky has extensive experience in hard rock lithium mining and chemical processing activities.

The company completed a US$122.5 million (AU$159.1 million) capital raising on 24 March via a US public offering.

And it entered into agreements to acquire 19.9% of Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) along with a 25.0% interest in its subsidiary, Sayona Quebec. Sayona Quebec owns a number of “highly prospective” lithium projects in North America.

The company also opted (following its shareholders’ approval) to move its primary listing to the Nasdaq, while maintaining its ASX listing via Chess Depositary Interests (CDIs).

Commenting on the past quarter, Piedmont’s CEO said:

This was an eventful quarter, as we positioned Piedmont to be the United States’ first greenfield lithium project in over 50 years… Piedmont is at the nexus of two important megatrends – the electrification and decarbonisation of the economy, and the regionalisation of supply chains.

Piedmont Lithium share price snapshot

Despite sliding today, the Piedmont Lithium share price remains up an eye-popping 820% over the past 12 months. That blows the doors off the 30% gains posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).

Year-to-date the Piedmont Lithium share price has continued to shoot for the stars, up 147% so far in 2021.

More reading

• ASX lithium shares are surging across the board. Here’s why
• Why the Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL) share price is pushing higher
• These ASX shares have doubled in value in 2021

Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben 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 Family Zone Cyber Safety Ltd (ASX: FZO) share price has edged lower despite announcing a strong set of March quarter results and future growth initiatives. 

At the time of writing, the Family Zone share price is down 1.52% to 51 cents per share.

Family Zone March quarter highlights 

Despite the lack of traction for the Family Zone share price in 2021, the company has continued to tick off a number of financial and operational milestones.

Family Zone achieved strong sales growth in what it is typically a quiet March quarter. The company ended the quarter with a 135% year-on-year increase in contracted schools to 3,135 or a 136% increase in contracted students to 1.65 million. The signed contracts were worth an annual value of $1.8 million or 92% higher than a year ago. 

Beyond its financial results, the company announced that it had commenced marketing in the Canadian education market, achieving its first deal this quarter. 

All eyes on US market 

Looking ahead, the company eyes a launch in the significant United States market. Family Zone managing director Tim Levy commented on the opportunity.

“The massive US education market is enjoying unprecedented increases in funding. We’re entering the key US sales period, well organised having invested in growing our team to be ready to handle a record sales pipeline,” he said.

Last quarter, the US government finalised US$54 billion of funding for the education sector through its 2021 COVID-19 response and relief supplemental appropriations act. This funding is expected to be drawn down over a number of years, which provides a buoyant outlook for Family Zone’s cyber safety industry. 

The company has run a number of small trials in the US over the past 6 months and highlights an impressive 17.5% conversion of free customers to paid premium offerings. Family Zone plans for a soft launch in the US this quarter with a full launch planned for the September quarter. 

The company notes that it is well funded to execute on its growth strategies with $20.4 million in cash at the end of the quarter. 

Family Zone share price takes a breather in 2021

The Family Zone share price has been chopping back and forth around the 40 to 50 cent level since August 2020. This follows a spectacular 300% run from 15 cents in June 2020 to a high of 63 cents in August 2020. 

More reading

• Why the Family Zone (ASX:FZO) share price will be on watch this morning

Motley Fool contributor Kerry Sun 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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