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

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

ZoidPay, a cryptocurrency start-up with offices in Romania, Cyprus, and Hong Kong, has launched a nifty platform that lets consumers shop and pay in crypto at over 40 million major online retailers worldwide, including Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba. 

The “Shop Anything from Anywhere with Crypto,” team is zeroing in on an untapped market, a full-crypto payment shoppers’ platform that is usable in everyday life. ZoidPay relies on a practical ecosystem designed to benefit users in every way, ensuring a smooth, enjoyable shopping experience that works with most major retailers.

How ZoidPay Works

The platform features three main components to operate smoothly, a crypto payment card, digital wallet, and built-in marketplace (aka shoppers’ paradise).

Its crypto card lets shoppers make contactless payments with their crypto assets, while the digital wallet lets people manage their crypto in a user-friendly environment. By the way, merchants can also use it as an mPOS (mobile point of sale) to accept crypto payments. Pretty neat.

The marketplace is a global merchants’ aggregator that provides users with over $1 billion liquidity per day to spend crypto assets on major e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon. 

Very simply, this means you decide how much (or how little) of your crypto you want to liquidate so that you can actually buy stuff on the marketplace. 

The shopping experience itself is simple. First, users browse as a typical shopping experience, using the marketplace, even taking advantage of search filters. Then, you can add items to your cart, select your tokens from your wallet and get your virtual card issued to complete your payment.

Plans also include Google Chrome Extension integration, which allows users to buy anything from anywhere globally with their crypto simply by connecting their existing digital wallets. 

As a bonus, the ZoidPay digital wallet can also be used in physical stores simply by using your smartphone as a POS (point of sale.)

ZPAY Token is one to watch

ZPAY is ZoidPay’s native token and the backbone of the ZoidPay Marketplace economy, offering several benefits to users. These range from zero transaction fees to exclusive staking rewards, discounts, and of course, access to the Marketplace itself.

According to the company’s whitepaper, ZPAY has a total supply of 700 million coins, with a listing price of $0.16 per coin. Thus, this is a functional token with good value and potential.

The end of Fiat?

With an ever-increasing interest in crypto payments, the MasterCard New Payments Index shows that 93% of consumers are considering crypto for their online shopping ventures. 

It’s start-ups like these that investors need to be keeping eyes on, this is the future of online shopping, and the market is only getting hotter.

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

The post Amazon, major retailers embrace Crypto payments appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Isabelle Korman does not own any of the stocks mentioned. 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. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, and Mastercard. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended eBay and has recommended the following options: long January 2022 $1,920 calls on Amazon, short January 2022 $1,940 calls on Amazon, and short June 2021 $65 calls on eBay. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, and Mastercard. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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

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The Cedar Woods Properties Limited (ASX: CWP) share price could be one to watch after the company revealed strong sales conditions are driving record property presales. At close of trade on Monday, Cedar Woods shares were trading at $6.52, down 2.69%

Let’s take a closer look at what the property developer reported.

What did Cedar Woods announce?

The Cedar Woods share price will be in the spotlight after the company advised its projects in South Australia and Queensland are experiencing very strong sales conditions. This has resulted in a “near-sellout” of available land lots at locations including Ellendale and Greville in Queensland, and Glenside and Fletcher’s Slip in South Australia.

To meet demand, the company said that additional sales releases will be planned in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere, Victorian land lots at Wollert and townhouses at St A. and Williams Landing are also performing strongly, with an increase in interest in apartments and office properties.

The company advised that its Victorian apartment projects, Lincoln at Williams Landing and Aster at Jackson Green, have both surpassed presales hurdles to begin construction, with settlements expected to occur by mid-2022.

In the release, Cedar Woods advised that Western Australia faced softer sales conditions in April, following the end of the government’s housing stimulus packages in March 2021.

Pleasingly, Western Australia has seen sales rebound through May and June.

Finally, Cedar Woods said that strong sales are expected to continue into FY22 at its seven land estates across metropolitan Perth. The company highlighted its Incontro estsate in Subiaco, where townhouses are nearly sold out and first apartments are expected to be released in 1Q22.

Financial impact

The positive updates across Cedar Woods’ property portfolio have driven presales to a record $439 million as at 31 May 2021.

The company said that these presales figures are up more than 20% on the $360 million balance recorded at 30 June 2020.

The presales will be settled in future financial years.

Management commentary

In response to the strong results, Cedar Woods managing director Nathan Blackburne said:

New stage releases across our portfolio, which are scheduled for the first quarter of FY2022, will extend sales momentum and underpin revenue growth in future financial years.

Cedar Woods share price performance

The Cedar Woods share price has had a relatively flat year-to-date performance, up by about 4%.

Despite underperforming the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), the company has performed strongly from an operational and financial perspective.

Its third-quarter operational update on 29 April revealed a 53% uplift in forecast net profit after tax for FY21 to approximately $32 million, driven by an increase in presale contracts.

The positive update lifted the Cedar Woods share price up by 5.5% on the day to $7.45.

The company’s shares have since drifted around 12% lower to yesterday’s closing price.

The post Why the Cedar Woods (ASX:CWP) share price is in focus appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

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• Why the Laybuy (ASX:LBY) share price will be on watch today
• 2 exciting ASX tech shares that could be buys
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• 2 ASX dividend shares with attractive fully franked yields

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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Ask A Fund Manager

The Motley Fool chats with fund managers so that you can get an insight into how the professionals think. In part 1 of our interview, 1851 Capital portfolio manager Martin Hickson tells us the telecommunications company that gets paid to build its products, then milks 40 years of recurring revenue out of it.

Investment style

The Motley Fool: Why is your fund called 1851?

Martin Hickson: Good question. 1851 was a pivotal year in Australian history. The gold rush had kicked off. Over the next decade, the population doubled. 

It was a year that things started growing, and Australia became the country that it is today, with those gold rushes. We wanted a number in the name, and it seemed as good as any number to pick.

MF: What’s the fund’s investment strategy?

MH: We’re a small micro-cap focused fund manager. So, ex-[ASX] 100 universe, we’ll invest all the way down to $50 million market cap. 

In that range, there are around 900 stocks on the ASX. We don’t invest in resource companies — it’s not our expertise or area of focus. And again, we don’t really invest in the biotech space. Given we’re not doctors, it’s hard to work out whether a phase 2 or 3 trial result will be positive or negative. It’s a binary outcome. 

So we focus on those industrial style companies. So if you strip out resources and biotechs, there are about 650 stocks in our investable universe. 

To describe our philosophy in a sentence, we’re growth investors with a value overlay. What does that mean? It means we’re looking for companies with strong earnings growth, but that are trading on attractive valuations. So to put some numbers around that, our current portfolio is trading at a 10% cheaper valuation versus the index — around 19 times price-to-earnings ratio versus the index at 21 times.

However, it has 4 times the level of earnings growth compared to the index. So that shows that we’re finding those cheap companies that are growing strongly, with an event that’s going to re-rate the share price. 

That’s us in a nutshell. We are restricting the size of the fund. It’s our belief that, particularly in the smaller micro-cap end of the market, the bigger you get, the harder it is to outperform. So we’ve said numerous times now that, once we reach $300 million, which we expect to occur imminently, we’ll put out a final call to investors, before soft-closing the fund.

MF: How concentrated is the portfolio?

MH: We’re pretty diversified. We’ll hold between 30 and 80 stocks. 

At the moment we’re at the upper end of that range, so around 75 stocks. We like having a diversified portfolio for 2 reasons. One, it helps with liquidity. So by having the funds, the remainder of the equity spread over a number of companies, means that liquidity is improved. It’s easy to get into and out of them, as opposed to having a very concentrated portfolio. 

And also just for risk metrics, it helps us sleep at night, knowing that we haven’t got 10% or 15% of the fund within one stock. The largest holding in the fund at the moment is Uniti Group Ltd (ASX: UWL) — that represents 5% of the portfolio. And the top 5 stocks at the moment are 18% or 19% of the funds under management. 

MF: To give our readers an idea, what are your two biggest holdings?

MH: Uniti, as I mentioned, is the largest position in the fund. It operates in the telecommunication space, run by [chief executive] Mick Simmons and [executive director] Vaughan Bowen, both ex M2 Telecommunications. They built up that business over a number of years. Mick was also at TPG in the older days — so both proven operators. 

Uniti, what do they do effectively? They’re a competitor to the NBN, focused on new broad-acre housing estates. In the growth corridors of Sydney — Oran Park as an example — what they do is, they will help the developer. When the developer might have a new housing estate, where they’re rolling out 5,000 new homes over a 5 to 10 year period, Uniti will lay the dark fibre to allow those homes to connect to the internet. 

They get paid by the developer to install that fibre, and then once someone moves into the home, they then sell access to that fibre to an ISP or an internet service provider, like Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) or iiNet. 

Effectively, they are building a recurring revenue stream, with an infrastructure-style earning stream, which will generate income for the next 30 or 40 years by selling access to that fibre. But they’re also being paid by the developer to install it. So they’re building long-term assets and someone else’s funding that build-up for them. 

That’s why we like it… We also think that there’s a potential for earnings upgrades over the next couple of years, as they prove out that model. 

Definitely over time too, there’s potential for Uniti to become a takeover candidate themselves. They acquired OptiComm Ltd last year — that was a competitive process. There was a large super fund, Aware Super, also vying for control of OptiComm. Uniti won out.

More recently, we’ve seen Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC) get taken over by Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG). So we get that there is corporate appeal in this space. 90% of [Uniti’s] earnings are recurring — so high-quality renewable stream — and that’s why it’s recently into the ASX 200 as well. 

MF: What’s the second-biggest holding?

MH: Second largest is Capitol Health Ltd (ASX: CAJ). They’re a radiology company, Victorian-focused — 80% of their revenue comes from Victoria. 

New CEO, Justin Walters, joined around 18 months ago. He’s taken costs out of the business, made the business more efficient. We’re also going through a period where they’ve delivered strong revenue growth despite the lockdown in Victoria. So they’ve got positive draws, costs have come down, revenue’s gone up, that’s led to a large increase in their profit margins… They’ve got a very strong balance sheet and a very minimal amount of debt. So that provides them with a capacity to make creative acquisitions. 

The company trades on EV-to-EBITDA multiple of 9 times. The largest peer, which is Integral Diagnostics Ltd (ASX: IDX), trades on 11 times. And then there’s been private takeovers or transactions done at 13 times. Capitol is trading at a significant discount to those private transactions on IDX. 

So we think it’s very, very cheap. Again, we think that over time it could become a potential candidate for one of these private companies, given that it’s trading on such a depressed multiple. 

Do these shares tempt you? 

MF: These are the 5 most-searched shares at the moment. Would you buy or ignore each of these? MoneyMe Ltd (ASX: MME), Cettire Ltd (ASX: CTT), Nuix Limited (ASX: NXL), iSentia Group Ltd (ASX: ISD), Patrys Limited (ASX: PAB)?

MH: To be honest, we don’t own any of them… We would ignore [all five]. 

I mean, putting them all in the one basket, all of those stocks trade on quite high multiples. Some of them don’t make earnings at all. And those that do, are trading on significant revenue multiples. So, none of them meet our investment criteria. 

iSentia obviously received a takeover a bit earlier in the week. We don’t own it. We wouldn’t buy it… It’s not part of our investment philosophy. We don’t do takeover arbitrages.

Basically, we like investing in companies that are profitable, or have a very clear path to being profitable in the short term.

Tomorrow in part 2 of our interview, Hickson reveals the ASX shares that revved up his portfolio after the COVID-19 crash.

The post Why we avoid mining and biotech ASX shares: fund manager appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Nuix (ASX:NXL) share price falls as ASIC is put on blast in Parliament

Tony Yoo owns shares of Macquarie Group Limited, Cettire Limited, and Nuix Pty Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Cettire Limited. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended Nuix Pty Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie Group Limited and Telstra Corporation Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Cettire Limited, Integral Diagnostics Ltd, and Nuix Pty Ltd. 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 Laybuy Holdings Ltd (ASX: LBY) share price will be one to watch when trading opens up this morning. This comes after the buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider announced an update to its recent capital raising efforts.

At close of trade on Monday, Laybuy shares finished the day at 51 cents – up 0.99%. The All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) closed the trading day at 7,485 points – down 1.8%.

Let’s take a closer look at what the company released in yesterday’s late market news.

What did Laybuy announce?

Laybuy shares could be on the move today following the announcement of a successfully completed share purchase plan (SPP).

In a statement to the ASX, Laybuy advised it has raised $5 million to accelerate its growth strategy in the United Kingdom.

The non-underwritten SPP received overwhelming support from eligible shareholders, totalling $14.4 million in valid applications. This almost tripled the size of the tabled offer put towards retail investors, with over 1,000 shareholders participating in the SPP.

As a result, Laybuy will scale back the applications based on the shareholding balances of applicants at the record date. All eligible applicants, however, will be allocated a minimum quantity of $1,000 in Laybuy shares. The average participation amount for each application was $14,025.

In total, almost 10 million new ordinary shares will be issued under the SPP after rounding and scale back is applied. The offer price was listed at 50 cents apiece.

The SPP shares are expected to be issued on 25 June, and be available for trading from 28 June 2021.

Laybuy’s capital raising efforts, including the $35 million two-tranche placement completed last week, provide additional firepower on its balance sheet.

The company’s managing director, Gary Rohloff, commented:

We are very pleased with the demonstration of support by our shareholders shown in this SPP. The capital raising will allow us to focus on our strategic priorities, including investment in our people, our platform and accelerated growth in the UK.

Laybuy share price summary

The Laybuy share price is down more than 75% since its 52-week high of $2.30 reached in September 2020. The company’s shares are also down more than 60% year to date.

On valuation grounds, Laybuy has a market capitalisation of around $125 million, with approximately 244 million shares outstanding.

The post Why the Laybuy (ASX:LBY) share price will be on watch today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras 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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ASX tech shares could be a way for investors to get exposure to exciting businesses.

Technology companies are often the ones that are producing the quickest growth because of the nature of software which is easy to replicate for clients and customers.

Here are two ASX tech share ideas to consider:

Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ)

This is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that is invested in 100 of the biggest businesses that are listed on the NASDAQ.

It’s one of the investment products on the ASX that provides the largest exposure to the FAANG shares. That stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (Alphabet).

These are global businesses that have huge worldwide userbases.

But there are plenty more names in the portfolio beyond just the ones I mentioned.

Other tech shares include: Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, PayPal, Adobe, Cisco Systems, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Intuit. Many of the holdings in this ETF are either directly or indirectly changing the way we live our lives.

The annual management fee is 0.48%.  

Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Since inception in mid-2015, the net returns of the ETF have been 20.9% per annum.

There are some other holdings in there that aren’t technology businesses such as PepsiCo, Costco, Moderna, Mondelez and Starbucks.

Bailador Technology Investments Ltd (ASX: BTI)

Bailador is an investment business that focuses on information technology and media sectors.

The company picks businesses that are seeking growth stage investment.

There are a few different factors that Bailador looks for when it invests in something.

The ASX tech share looks for companies that have been typically running for two to six years, that are run by the founders, have a proven business model with attractive KPIs, have the ability to generate repeat revenue, generate international revenue, have a “huge” market opportunity and require capital to grasp that opportunity.

The typical investment size is between $2 million to $10 million of equity.

It currently has a portfolio of different names.

Siteminder is described as the world leader in hotel channel management and distribution solutions for online accommodation bookings.

Bailador says Instaclustr is an open source data platform for cloud-based solutions that require immense scale, providing enterprise support and managed solutions for technologies such as Apache Cassandra.

Stackla is a social marketing platform that aggregates user-generated content that curates its display and integrates at various touch points within the marketing stack.

Straker Translations provides a cloud-based ‘hybrid’ translation platform that uses a combination of both machine translation and human refinement to rapidly speed up language translation.

Other investments in the ASX tech share’s portfolio include Rezdy, Brosa and Standard Media Index.

At the end of May 2021, its pre-tax net tangible assets (NTA) per share was $1.53. That compares to the current share price of $1.37.

The post 2 exciting ASX tech shares that could be buys appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended BETANASDAQ ETF UNITS and Bailador Technology Investments Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended BETANASDAQ ETF UNITS. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Bailador Technology Investments 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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If you’re looking to add some growth shares to your portfolio, then you might want to take a look at these shares listed below.

All three of these ASX growth shares have been tipped as buys recently. Here’s what you need to know about them:

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

This buy now pay later (BNPL) focused payments company could be a growth share to consider buying. It has been growing at a rapid rate in recent years thanks to the increasing popularity of BNPL with consumers and merchants, the demise of credit cards, and its global expansion. Positively, due to its international expansion, it still has a long runway for growth over the 2020s. In addition to this, it is planning to expand its offering beyond BNPL in the near future.

Morgan Stanley is a fan of the company. It currently has an overweight rating and $145.00 price target on Afterpay’s shares.

Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)

Breville is one of the world’s leading appliance manufacturers. It has been growing its sales and profits at a strong rate over the last few years. This is being underpinned by its international expansion and its investment in research and development. The latter is ensuring that Breville has a strong and innovative product portfolio.

UBS is positive on its growth outlook. Its analysts currently have a buy rating and $35.70 price target on its shares.

Hipages Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: HPG)

Hipages is a leading Australian-based online platform and software as a service (SaaS) provider. The company’s platform connects tradies with residential and commercial consumers, providing job leads from homeowners and organisations looking for qualified professionals.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are very positive on the company’s future and see a huge growth runway ahead of it. The broker has a buy rating and $3.40 price target on its shares.

The post 3 excellent ASX growth shares rated as buys appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Tuesday
• Why are blue-chip ASX 200 shares selling off today?
• Zip (ASX:Z1P) and Afterpay (ASX:APT) shares withstand market selloff
• Selling some ASX shares before tax time? Here’s what you should know
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX makes it 5 out of 5

James Mickleboro does not own any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO and Hipages Group Holdings Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. 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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If you’re interested in boosting your portfolio with some dividend shares, then the two listed below could be worth considering.

Here’s what you need to know about these ASX dividend shares:

BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP)

This mining giant could be a dividend share to consider. This is because with commodity prices improving significantly over the last 12 months, particularly the iron ore price, BHP is well-positioned to deliver an exceptionally strong result in FY 2021.

And thanks to its strong balance sheet and favourable dividend policy, this is likely to lead to bumper dividends for investors in the near term.

Macquarie certainly expects this to be the case. Yesterday the broker retained its outperform rating and lifted its price target on the company’s shares to $63.00. It also increased its dividend forecasts to ~$4.05 per share and ~$3.68 per share for FY 2021 and FY 2022, respectively.

Based on the current BHP share price of $45.61, this will mean fully franked yields of 8.9% and 8% over the next two years.

Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES)

Another dividend share to look at is Wesfarmers. It is the conglomerate behind several popular retail brands such as Bunnings and Kmart, and the owner of diverse portfolio of industrial businesses. The latter includes chemicals companies and lithium miners.

Wesfarmers has been on form again this year and has been tipped to build on this next year, leading to increasing dividends for investors.

For example, analysts at Macquarie are forecasting fully franked dividends of $1.74 per share in FY 2021 and then $1.76 per share in FY 2022. Based on the latest Wesfarmers share price of $57.54, this represents attractive yields of 3% and 3.1%, respectively. Macquarie has an outperform rating and $58.12 price target on its shares.

The post 2 ASX dividend shares with attractive fully franked yields appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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James Mickleboro does not own any shares 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 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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On Monday the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) started the week with a day to forget. The benchmark index crashed 1.8% to 7,235.3 points.

Will the market be able to bounce back from this on Tuesday? Here are five things to watch:

ASX 200 expected to rebound

The Australian share market looks set to rebound strongly from yesterday’s sell off thanks to a very positive start to the week on Wall Street. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 96 points or 1.35% higher this morning. Wall Street had its best day since March, with the Dow Jones rising 1.75%, the S&P 500 jumping 1.4%, and the Nasdaq pushing 0.8% higher.

Oil prices storm higher

Energy producers such as Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) could be on the rise today after oil prices stormed higher. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 2.65% to US$73.54 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price has risen 1.9% to US$74.90 a barrel. Oil prices rose amid a softening US dollar and Iranian supply uncertainty.

Tech shares on watch

Tech shares such as Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) could be on the charge today. This follows a strong night of trade on the Nasdaq index. The buying drove the tech-heavy Nasdaq index 0.8% higher. This left the famous index trading within sight of its record high.

Gold price rises

Gold miners Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) could be on the rise today after the gold price pushed higher. According to CNBC, the spot gold price is up 0.8% to US$1,783.20 an ounce. The gold price rose after the US dollar softened and traders bought the dip.

Metcash rated as a buy

The Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) share price could be good value right now. According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, its team have retained their buy rating and $3.95 price target on the wholesale distributor’s shares ahead of its results next week. Goldman is expecting Metcash to report a 24.5% increase in EBITDA to $606.6 million.

The post 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Tuesday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Zip (ASX:Z1P) and Afterpay (ASX:APT) shares withstand market selloff

James Mickleboro does not own any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO and Xero. 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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Shares in Actinogen Medical Ltd (ASX: ACW) soared today after the company released news on the upcoming study of its drug designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

At market close, the Actinogen share price was trading at 16 cents – 19.23% higher than its previous close.

Let’s take a closer look at today’s news from the biotech company.

XanaMIA study

Today, Actinogen announced it has made deals with several companies to run the XanaMIA Part A dose-ranging study.

The dose-ranging study is the company’s first step towards testing whether XanaMIA can treat cognitive ability in volunteers and patients with mild cognitive impairment, the first clinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

The study will enrol 105 healthy volunteers aged 50 or older, starting next month. The volunteers will be given either 5 milligrams or 10 milligrams of XanaMIA to determine the minimum effective dose.

Actinogen also advised today that research organisation Avance Clinical will manage the XanaMIA study. Avance will charge Actinogen around $1.25 million for the service.

Additionally, Actinogen has employed Paratus Clinical to recruit the dose-ranging study’s subjects, for which Actinogen will provide a budget of around $850,000.

Paratus will also provide the 4 Australian clinical-trial sites that will house the study.

Finally, Actinogen has made an agreement with CogState Limited (ASX: CGS) to use the neuroscience technology company’s Neuropsychological Test Battery in the dose-ranging study.

CogState’s Neuropsychological Test Battery is a platform that delivers highly sensitive cognition tests.

Actinogen will pay CogState around US$300,000 for access to the platform.

Today’s news comes nearly 3 weeks after Actinogen announced the XanaMIA study received approval from the Bellberry Human Research Ethics Committee.

Following the XanaMIA Part A dose ranging study, Actinogen will begin its XanaMIA Part B study.

The Part B study will see people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease treated with XanaMIA. It will try and find if the drug can treat mild cognitive impairment.

Actinogen share price snapshot

The Actinogen share price has performed exceptionally well on the ASX this year.

Currently, the Actinogen share price is a whopping 675% higher than it was at the start of 2021.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $215 million, with approximately 1.6 billion shares outstanding.

The post Here’s why the Actinogen Medical (ASX: ACW) share price is up 20% appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• These 5 ASX shares are delivering the biggest gains in 2021
• Why is the Actinogen (ASX:ACW) share price up 414% in 3 months?
• 4 ASX shares to gain exposure to international market growth: fund manager
• Why Cogstate, Contact Energy, EML, & OM Holdings are pushing higher
• Why the Cogstate (ASX:CGS) share price is rocketing 73% higher

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 Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1) share price closed today at an all-time high.

Earlier in the day, Megaport shares touched a record high of $18.27 before settling to close at $18, up 2.27%.

What’s helped drive Megaport’s growth?

The company describes itself as a “global leading provider of elastic interconnection services”.

In a nutshell, Megaport allows its customers to connect their networks to other services across its platform. The company connects more than 2,100 customers in some 740 enabled data centres around the globe, with its customer base including some of the biggest players in the industry.

While many factors have helped push the Megaport share price to a new record high, the company has clearly benefitted from the rapid growth of cloud computing. That’s where your data is stored offsite in a data centre, rather than on your own facility’s servers.

Cloud computing demand has been growing steadily since the turn of the century. But the work, shop, and play from home trend spurred by COVID-19 mitigation efforts has accelerated the trend.

A recent Australian Bureau of Statistics report revealed that 55% of Australian businesses are now leveraging paid cloud computing, up from 31% in 2015–2016.

Megaport share price snapshot

Megaport shares have gained around 40% over the past 12 months, compared to a lift of 21.75% on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).

Year to date, the Megaport share price has continued to outperform, up 26.32% so far in 2021.

The post ASX tech company Megaport (ASX:MP1) share price hits all-time high appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX 200 sinks 1.9%: BOQ’s ME Bank acquisition approved, CBA divests insurance business
• These are the 10 most shorted shares on the ASX
• These are the 10 most shorted shares on the ASX
• How Microsoft’s new Xbox could spur ASX data centre shares
• 3 exciting ASX growth shares rated as buys

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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