The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up today by 1% to 7,115 points. 

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX today:

TechnologyOne Ltd (ASX: TNE)

The TechnologyOne share price rose more than 1% today after releasing its FY21 half-year result.

TechnologyOne reported that net profit after tax jumped 48% to $28.2 million. This was driven by total revenue increasing 5% to $144.3 million, whilst total expenses declined by 5% to $107.4 million.

Revenue from the ASX 200 share’s software as a service (SaaS) and continuing business increased by 7% to $140.6 million. The SaaS annual recurring revenue (ARR) figure rose by 41% to $155.8 million.

It ended the half-year period to 31 March 2021 with $100.2 million of cash on the balance sheet, an increase of 20%. The board decided to increase the interim dividend by 10% to 3.82 cents per share.

TechnologyOne CEO Edward Chung said:

Our global SaaS enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the future of enterprise software. It provides our enterprise customers a mission critical solution to run their entire business on any device, anywhere at anytime. It also allows them to innovate and meet the challenges ahead with greater agility and speed, without having to worry about underlying technologies.

We had many significant wins in the first half. Momentum in the Federal Government sector continues with our global SaaS ERP, chosen by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment to streamline and modernise their business. This was a significant win against SAP.

The ASX 200 share sees its total ARR increasing to more than $500 million by FY26, from the current base of $233 million.  

Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART)

The Airtasker share price rose around 12% after it came back to trade following its capital raising.

The business said that it has successfully completed its $20.7 million raising from investors.

The issue price of $1 per share represented a discount of 7.4% to the previous closing price.

Proceeds from the placement will be used to fund the acquisition of the assets of Zaarly, a US-based local services marketplace, expansion into key city markets in the US and UK, and the costs of the offer.

Airtasker revealed that the placement was strongly supported by existing and new domestic institutional, sophisticated and professional investors. Allocations were heavily weighted in favour of existing investors.

Doctor Care Anywhere Group PLC (ASX: DOC)

The Doctor Care Anywhere share price rose by around 15% today.

The ASX share said that it has signed a head of terms with Nuffield Health, one of the UK’s largest private healthcare organisations, to develop a digitally integrated virtual and in-person primary care service. Pre-marketing to Nuffield Health’s network of 1,600 corporate clients will commence immediately.

Launching in the fourth quarter of 2021, this partnership will allow patients to access Doctor Care Anywhere’s virtual GP service and Nuffield Health’s nationwide network of face to face GPs, through one digital platform and represents the first nationally integrated primary care proposition in the UK.

Medical director at Nuffield Health, Dr Davina Deniszczyc said:

We are delighted to be strengthening our partnership with Doctor Care Anywhere to offer customers access to a national network of virtual and face to face GPs. The pandemic has demonstrated the need for accessible health services and through this partnership we are now able to offer everyone the choice of how they access their GP, whenever they need to.

More reading

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• ASX 200 up 0.6%: TechnologyOne results, BHP & Rio Tinto rise
• Why the Doctor Care Anywhere (ASX:DOC) share price is surging 11% today
• An ASX investor’s guide to ESG-focused ETFs

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The Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART) share price was a particularly positive performer on Tuesday.

The online marketplace for local services returned from its trading halt and jumped as much as 21% to $1.31 at one stage.

The Airtasker share price eased back as the day went on, ultimately ending the session with a 12% gain to $1.21.

Why did the Airtasker share price jump 21%?

Investors were bidding the Airtasker share price higher today after it announced the successful completion of a private placement.

According to the release, Airtasker was able to raise $20.7 million via a fully underwritten share placement to institutional, sophisticated, and professional investors at $1.00 per share. This was a 7.4% discount to its last close price.

Why is the company raising funds?

The placement proceeds will be used to fund its acquisition of US-based local services marketplace Zaarly and expand into key city markets in the US and UK.

Last week Airtasker announced an agreement to acquire Zaarly for ~$3.4 million. This acquisition provides the company with more than 597,000 registered users and 900+ verified service providers. It believes this will help to jump start expansion in the lucrative market.

The company will also bring Zaarly’s highly experienced team of marketplace product, engineering and operations executives on board. They will be led by CEO Bo Fishback, who joins Airtasker to lead its US market expansion.

What are its market opportunities?

Given that the company estimates that it has a $52 billion opportunity in the Australian market, it will come as no surprise to learn that the UK and US markets offer significant greater potential.

For example, management estimates that the US market is worth half a trillion dollars. This gives the Zaarly business a huge runway for growth in the future.

This may go some way to explaining why the Airtasker share price was in such fine form on Tuesday.

More reading

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• ASX 200 rises, Kogan sinks, EML soars
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The Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) share price was one of those ASX shares that seemed to be a decisive ‘pandemic winner’. As lockdowns forced us all inside last year, Kogan’s e-commerce marketplace boomed. This resulted in Kogan shares rising from around $4 each in March 2020 to a new all-time high of $25.57 by August. 

However, the more recent months haven’t been so kind. On today’s share price, Kogan is now down around 60% from those highs. And that’s despite Kogan being up a healthy 3.11% today to $10.29 a share at the time of writing. Even so, Kogan has been resurgent this week.

The company dropped to a new 52-week low of $8.70 just yesterday. That means that Kogan is now up more than 20% since market open yesterday. Talk about volatility! Clearly, there are large numbers of investors who saw these share price lows as a bargain opportunity.

But perhaps there is now more pressure on Kogan to perform than ever before. Well, for Kogan co-founders David Shafer and Ruslan Kogan, that is. According to a report in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) yesterday, Mr Shafer and Mr Kogan were issued 6 million options for Kogan last year, as part of their shareholder-approved remuneration packages.

At the time, these options were worth a collective $100 million. Their only condition was that Messrs Kogan and Shafer couldn’t resign before their redemption. These options are exercisable in 2023 at a price of $5.29. But due to the falling value of Kogan shares over the past 10 months, they are now estimated to be worth almost half that amount. Perhaps a little more with today’s share price moves.

The Kogan share price and optionality

These options give Kogan’s co-founders the right to acquire more shares at the strike price on the expiration date. As such, if the Kogan share price rises above the option strike price, the options grow in value.

This gives the co-founders a powerful incentive to grow the Kogan share price over the next 2 years – part of the reason why options are a popular component of executive pay packets these days.

The AFR quoted Ron Shamgar, head of Australian Equities at TAMIM Asset Management, on this matter. He said the following:

You’d argue that management is now more than ever incentivised to make money on these options in a couple of years from now… They have to now work for it to make money on it, whereas last year it looked like they didn’t need to do anything for it… Ironically I think it’s going to work for the benefit of shareholders, considering the current issues… We still think they have to deliver to get value out of their options.

On the current Kogan share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 25.6 and a trailing dividend yield of 2.83%.

More reading

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A Victorian royal commission into Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) is said to have heard the company’s issues with money laundering are likely worse than previously thought.

The Crown Resorts share price was gaining earlier today but has since slipped into the red, trading at $12.87, down 0.23% at the time of writing.

A report published today by The Australian said the royal commission may have hinted that Victoria will potentially follow NSW’s example by placing the future of Crown Melbourne in the hands of regulators.

Further, it reported counsel assisting the commission Meg O’Sullivan suggested to the commission that Crown “misled” the NSW Bergin inquiry about the “depth of an external review of company bank accounts”.

Royal commission recap

The Bergin inquiry was released in February of this year. It found Crown was unsuitable to run Crown Sydney due to its casino turning a blind eye to money laundering and company links to criminal syndicates. Many of the Bergin inquiry’s findings related to happenings at Crown Melbourne.

The Victorian royal commission, headed by Ray Finkelstein QC, will now decide if Crown is suitable to run its Melbourne casino. Finkelstein gave his opening statement to the commission yesterday.

Doubt over Crown licences

Today, The Australian reported that O’Sullivan told the commission money laundering at Crown’s casinos was likely to have been more common than previously thought, casting doubts on the entertainment company’s future suitability to hold a Victorian casino license.

In his opening statement to the royal commission, Finkelstein said Crown Melbourne believed it was suitable to run the Southbank casino as the company had committed to a “substantial reform program”.

Finkelstein told the commission the reform program seemed to be an overhaul of its risk management and the governance of Crown companies. He said:

The outcome of this inquiry may well depend on the effectiveness of that program. This is not to suggest, however, that other areas will not be looked at carefully. They will.

O’Sullivan was quoted by The Australian as having later told the commission:

It’s open to conclude that Crown’s first steps on its reform pathway are simply a knee-jerk reaction to the revelations of the Bergin inquiry.

According to The Australian, O’Sullivan told the commission it was unlikely Crown had removed money laundering from its business yet, particularly as some of Crown’s bank accounts appeared still to be engaged in money laundering ­as of February this year.

Royal commission’s focus

Finkelstein’s opening statement clarified that the royal commission won’t dig into the findings of the Bergin inquiry. Instead, the commission will focus on 4 new subjects:

• Whether money laundering is still happening at Melbourne Casino.
• If Crown Melbourne has gone against any other legislation or regulations restricting its casino operations.
• If Crown Melbourne has broken any of its obligations under agreements with the state.
• And finally, the process by which the company deals with gambling addictions.

Speaking to the commission, Finkelstein said:

I believe that avoiding a second inquiry into the same subject matter but instead, adopting where appropriate, the views of Commissioner Bergin is not unfair, either to the Crown companies or to Mr Packer.

According to Finkelstein, he has written two letters to Crown Melbourne. The first asking if the company accepts the findings of the Bergin inquiry ­– including the finding the company was unsuitable to run Crown Sydney. The second asked if has breached any of its statute, regulation, or contractual obligations.  

Finkelstein told the commission he has only received a response to his first letter. He said Crown’s response was “equivocal”, stating the company didn’t deliberately engage in the conduct publicised in the Bergin inquiry but accepted it was reasonable the company was found unfit to run Crown Sydney.

Crown Resorts share price snapshot

Despite spending much of this year in the news headlines, the Crown Resorts share price is performing well on the ASX.

Currently, the Crown Resorts share price is up 31% year to date. It’s also gained 34% over the last 12 months.

The entertainment company has a market capitalisation of around $8 billion, with approximately 677 million shares outstanding.

More reading

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• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy next week

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Shares in Venturex Resources Ltd (ASX:VXR) are flying out the door today on news of increased mineral resources at the Whim Creek Copper-Zinc joint venture project. At the time of writing, the Venturex share price is up 8.16%, with shares in the mining company swapping hands for 80 cents.

The resource update comes from the project’s Whim Creek deposit, which has been found to house 37% more copper than previously estimated.

Whim Creek is a joint venture between Anax Metals Ltd (ASX: ANX) and Venturex. Anax holds 80% of the project, while Venturex has a 20% holding.

As part of the joint venture agreement, Anax will pay for Venturex’s interest in the project through to when a decision is made to start mining.

Anax’s share price is falling on the news. It’s currently down by 9% and its shares are trading for 10 cents.

Let’s take a closer look at the news driving the Venturex share price today.

New mineral resources

According to a statement from Venturex, the new mineral resource was discovered through an audit of historical data and a single diamond drill hole.

Both the recording of the data and the drilling were completed by Anax in 2020.

The drill hole’s results included 5 metres at 2.43% copper and 1.02% zinc from 52 meters, and 7 metres at 1.19% copper from 60 metres.

Anax now plans to complete field reconnaissance and a review of historical data to find future drilling targets. It states there’s an area west of the pit that’s a prospect for strike extensions.

Anax is working on feasibility workstreams and hopes to submit a mining proposal for Whim Creek in the third quarter of this year.

Venturex share price snapshot

2021 has been bumper year on the ASX for the Venturex share price.

Currently, the Venturex share price is up 627% year to date. It’s also gained a whopping 1,233% since this time last year.

The miner has a market capitalisation of around $331 million, with approximately 425 million shares outstanding.

More reading

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In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to record a strong gain. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is up 0.7% to 7,095.9 points.

Four ASX shares that have failed to follow the market higher today are listed below. Here’s why they are tumbling:

Carbon Revolution Ltd (ASX: CBR)

The Carbon Revolution share price is down 13% to $1.34. Investors have been selling the carbon fibre wheels manufacturer’s shares after it revealed that one of its major customers has suspended vehicle production due to the shortage of computer chips. As a result, Carbon Revolution believes it will sell around 1,800 fewer wheels in FY 2021 compared to FY 2020.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corp Ltd (ASX: FPH)

The Fisher & Paykel Healthcare share price is down 4% to $30.45. This is despite there being no news out of the medical device company. However, with its full year results due to be released in a couple of days, some investors may be nervous. Especially given the high multiples that its shares trade on and the market’s high expectations.

Nuix Ltd (ASX: NXL)

The Nuix share price has fallen 6% to $3.42. Investors may be selling the investigative analytics company’s shares amid reports that a class action could be filed against it. According to the AFR, a number of class action firms have confirmed their interest in taking the company to court.

Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: PAR)

The Paradigm share price has sunk 8% to $2.14. This morning the biopharmaceutical company provided the market with an update on its dealings with the US FDA. The release advised that Paradigm has received written feedback regarding the investigational new drug submission for its pivotal study evaluating PPS in knee osteoarthritis. The agency provided its suggested mitigation strategies to address its positions and questions, which include further detailed clinical monitoring.

 

More reading

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• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to sell next week

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The share price of Australian residential developer Devine Limited (ASX: DVN) has skyrocketed on a takeover bid from CIMIC Group Ltd (ASX: CIM) this morning.

At the time of writing, the Devine share price is 98.8% higher to 23.5 cents a share. However, shares had been trading as high as 25 cents per share earlier in the day.

CIMIC acquisition dazzles Devine share price

Investors have been gobbling up shares in Devine after the residential community and apartment construction company received a takeover bid from construction giant CIMIC.

According to the release, CIMIC already held a 59.11% interest in the company. However, today’s offer is to acquire all the remaining shares for 24 cents per share.

Based on the current number of issued shares, the total outlay will amount to $15.6 million. This amount will be funded through the construction group’s available cash on hand or existing debt facilities.

CIMIC Group announces that it intends to make an offer to acquire all of the shares in Devine that it does not already own pursuant to an off‐market takeover at a price of $0.24 cash per share. Find out more here: https://t.co/BfCDIJZSCw pic.twitter.com/8OiOzvnNYT

— CIMIC Group (@CIMICGroup) May 24, 2021

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The offer, made through CIMIC Residential Investments (CRI), is at a 100% premium to yesterday’s closing price.

Additionally, the offer remains conditional on CRI receiving a minimum of 75% of valid acceptances for the non-associated shares. Secondly, CRI must be holding at least a 90% relevant interest by the end of the offer period.

Devine’s next steps on skyrocketing share

The Devine directors will evaluate the proposed offer and will provide additional details in due course.

Firstly, the Australian residential construction company will engage an independent expert to determine whether the off-market transaction would be in the best interest of shareholders.

Meanwhile, the recommendation from Devine directors is for shareholders to take no action.

CIMIC and Devine recap

Interestingly, the Devine share price had been outperforming CIMIC even prior to today’s announcement. The small-cap had returned a gain of 33% in the last 12 months prior to today. In contrast, CIMIC shareholders have been nursing a 10% loss over the same period. 

Although, there may not be any correlation — the takeover bid comes only a day after CIMIC was awarded a design and construct contract to build the M6 Motorway in Sydney. That announcement failed to inspire the CIMIC share price, with it falling 1.3% for the day.

More reading

• Why is the Cimic share price (ASX:CIM) edging lower today?
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Australia’s leading investment platform provider CommSec has released data on the most traded ASX shares on its platform from last week.

Here’s the data:

EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML)

This payments company’s shares were the most traded on CommSec last week, accounting for 2.1% of total trades. And despite the EML share price losing 35% of its value, approximately two-thirds of the volume came from buyers. They may have swooped in after the company’s shares crashed lower amid concerns over Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing compliance for its European business.

Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P)

This ever-popular buy now pay later provider’s shares were heavily traded last week and were attributable to 2% of trades on the platform. Just over half of the volume came from the buy side, which helped drive the Zip share price 3.1% higher for the week.

Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ)

Once gain, the Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF was popular with investors and attributable to 1.7% of trades on CommSec. A total of 81% of the volume came from buyers, who will have been pleased to see the ETF gain 2.1% over the five days. A rebound in tech stocks helped to drive the famous Nasdaq 100 index higher last week.

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

This payments company’s shares were responsible for 1.5% of trades on the platform, with just over half coming from buyers. Despite the broadly even split, the Afterpay share price jumped almost 8% last week. A broker upgrade by Macquarie appears to have been the catalyst for this strong gain.

A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M)

This infant formula company’s shares finally found favour with investors last week, with 1.5% of trades on CommSec involving the former market darling. Just under two-thirds of the volume was attributable to buyers, which helped to snap the company’s four-week losing streak with a modest gain.

More reading

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Shares in Variscan Mines Ltd (ASX: VAR) are on fire today as the market reacts to news of discoveries at the company’s San Jose Mine. At the time of writing, the resource company’s share price has rocketed 91.89%, trading for 7.1 cents.

The San Jose mine is located within Variscan’s Spanish Novales-Udias Project. There, drilling has brought new zinc-rich mineralisation to light.

Let’s take a closer look at the news driving the Variscan share price today.

Positive assay results

According to Variscan, the new discoveries include high-grade zinc and lead lenses at San Jose. Furthermore, assay results from central mineralisation include:

•  16.9 metres at 12.5% zinc and 2.0% lead.
•  15.6 metres at 3.2% zinc and 0.3% lead.

More drilling at a southward extent is now finished, with the results received so far showing visual zinc mineralisation in the majority of holes.

The results from a further 20 drillholes are expected to be received by Variscan shortly. Variscan stated it’s also focused on mapping and sampling at its other Spainish project, Guajaraz.

Commentary from management

Variscan’s managing director and CEO Stewart Dickson commented on the findings, saying:

The discovery of new high-grade mineralised lenses below the main gallery is a major development for Variscan. It suggests significant potential for discovering additional lenses throughout the San Jose Mine… that could provide considerable scale and tonnage potential. Additionally, it reinforces the conceptual model of San Jose as a multi-layered orebody, consisting of multiple vertically stacked, sub-horizontal high-grade mineralised lenses of variable thickness and geometry, separated by intervals of dolostone…

We will be following up these excellent drill results with further assays from drilling over the southward extent of the lower lens below the La Caseta Trend promptly.

Variscan Mines share price snapshot

If the Variscan share prices’ gains hold until close today, it will be its highest closing price since 2018.

Presently, the Variscan share price is up 163% year to date. It’s also gained 295% since this time last year.

The resource company has a market capitalisation of around $7 million, with approximately 212 million shares outstanding.

More reading

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Is the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price worth looking at with June 2021 in mind?

It wasn’t too long ago that the big four ASX bank released its FY21 half-year result to the market.

Was the HY21 report solid?

In the first half of FY21, ANZ reported that its statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) of $2.94 billion was 45% higher compared to the second half of FY20.

Continuing operations cash profit was up 28% to $2.99 billion. However, continuing cash profit before credit impairments and tax was down 10% to $3.94 billion.

ANZ explained that the headline profit figures were materially up because the total provision in the first half was a net release of $491 million.

Despite the ongoing uncertainty, the credit provision release was a result of the improving economic outlook over the course of the half, as well as some loan volume reductions. Home loan and small business customers have behaved prudently by building savings buffers through the half, according to ANZ.

That net release of $491 million was comprised of a collective provision release of $678 million, combined with an individually assessed provision charge of $187 million. The big bank explained that the low individually assessed provision reflected the continued impact of government and bank support packages through COVID-19, as well as its long-term strategy and disciplined focus on customer selection in ‘institutional’.

At 31 March 2021, the collective provision balance was around $4.3 billion, representing additional reserves of $909 million compared with pre-COVID levels at 30 September 2019.

Despite a volatile environment with significant demand from customers, the bank was able to reduce the cost of operations thanks to streamlining and automation, while processing record volumes.

At the time of the ANZ result, the CEO Shayne Elliot said:

ANZ is in a strong position both financially and operationally. We are well capitalised and our disciplined approach to costs over many years has us well placed to invest in opportunities to grow our business in targeted segments. The work to digitise core processes and platforms continues at pace and this will be more visible to customers towards the end of the year.

Is the ANZ share price an attractive opportunity?

One of the latest brokers to have their say is Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG). It pointed out that core earnings, excluding the provisions, continues to decline. The broker believes that banks are looking at costs so much because growing revenue is hard.

For Macquarie, its target for the ANZ share price over the next 12 months is $30.50, which suggests a possible capital return of just under 10%.

However, the broker is expecting that the ANZ dividend will recover to $1.40 per share in FY21. That translates to a grossed-up dividend yield of 7%.

At the current ANZ share price, Macquarie thinks the bank is valued at around 15x FY21’s estimated earnings.

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• Is there more upside to the CBA (ASX:CBA) share price following recent results?

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