On Tuesday the Reserve Bank will meet to discuss the cash rate once again. According to the latest cash rate futures, the market is pricing in a 69% probability of a rate cut to zero.

Whether this transpires or not, time will tell. But one thing that is for sure, is that it will be a long time before interest rates return to normal levels again.

In light of this, the share market looks like it will remain the best place to earn a passive income for a while yet.

Fortunately, there are plenty of dividend shares out there with generous yields. One to consider buying is as follows:

Accent Group Ltd (ASX: AX1)

Accent is the leading leisure footwear retailer behind retail brands such as HYPEDC, The Athlete’s Foot, and Platypus brands.

Last week it released its half year results and revealed solid increases in sales and profits. Accent reported a 6.6% increase in total sales to $541.3 million and 57.3% lift in net profit after tax to $52.8 million. The latter was its seventh consecutive half year of record profit. It was driven by strong like for like and online sales growth and the opening of new stores.

This positive form allowed the Accent board to increase its interim dividend by 52% to 8 cents per share.

Looking ahead, analysts at Morgans expect the company to declare a final dividend of 4 cents per share in August. This will bring its full year dividend to a fully franked 12 cents per share. Based on the Accent share price, this will mean a 5.5% yield.

While Morgans only has a hold rating on its shares, its price target of $2.60 is 20% higher than the current Accent share price of $2.16. This could potentially mean an upgrade on valuation grounds isn’t far away.

In the meantime, Citi is positive on the company. It has a buy rating and the same price target of $2.60 on its shares. Citi is currently forecasting an 11 cents per share dividend in FY 2021.

More reading

• Accent (ASX:AX1) share price on watch following earnings release
• 2 buy-rated ASX dividend shares for your income portfolio
• ASX retail shares in focus as Aussies spend big in January
• 2 ASX dividend shares to boost your income
• 2 high quality ASX dividend shares you can buy right now

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Accent Group. 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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Rising bond yields spooked global markets last week and led to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) sinking notably lower. The benchmark index lost 1.8% of its value to end at 6,673.3 points.

Fortunately, not all ASX 200 shares dropped with the market, with some even recording strong gains. Here’s why these were the best performers last week:

Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR)

The Sandfire share price was the best performer on the ASX 200 last week with an 18% gain. Investors were fighting to buy shares after the copper producer posted a big increase in its first half profits. For the six months ended 31 December, Sandire almost doubled its net profit to $60.8 million. This allowed its board to lift its interim dividend to 8 cents per share from 5 cents per a year earlier. A strong rise in the copper price was the key driver of its growth and offset a slight reduction in production.

Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD)

The Corporate Travel Management share price wasn’t far behind with a gain of 15.9%. The rollout of vaccines across Australia and a positive reaction to its half year results from a week earlier appear to have been behind this gain. One broker that was pleased with its performance was UBS. At the end of last week, it retained its buy rating and increased its price target to $21.10. The broker suspects the company could win market share when trading conditions return to normal.

Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT)

The Flight Centre share price was on form and charged 14.2% higher over the five days. Investors were buying the travel agent giant’s shares following the release of its half year results. For the six months ended 31 December, Flight Centre reported a material drop in revenue to $160 million. This compares to the revenue of $1,546 million it achieved in the prior corresponding period. And while this led to Flight Centre recording an underlying loss of $247 million for the half, it has more than enough liquidity to weather this storm. At the end of the period, the company had a cash balance of $1,670 million.

Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC)

The Costa share price was a strong performer and recorded a gain of 13.7% last week. The catalyst for this was the horticulture company’s stronger than expected full year result. For the 12 months ended 27 December, Costa reported an 11.2% increase in revenue to $1,164 million and an impressive 108.4% jump in net profit to $59.4 million. Morgans, for example, was forecasting a profit of $52.2 million. Strong demand and pricing were key drivers of its growth. In response to the result, Goldman Sachs upgraded its shares to a buy rating with a $5.35 price target.

More reading

• These were the worst performing ASX 200 shares last week
• Forget the ASX 200! Another market crashed this week
• ASX 200 sinks 2.4%, Afterpay plunges, AMP jumps
• Here are 3 ASX 200 diamonds in the spotlight while the market sank today
• The big themes from ASX reporting season

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Corporate Travel Management Limited and COSTA GRP FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was well and truly out of form last week after rising bond yields spooked global markets. This led to the benchmark index losing 1.8% over the five days to end at 6,673.3 points.

While a large number of ASX 200 shares dropped with the market, some fell more than most. Here’s why these were the worst performers last week:

Service Stream Limited (ASX: SSM)

The Service Stream share price was the worst performer on the ASX 200 last week with a 32.5% decline. Investors were heading to the exits in their droves last week following the release of a disappointing half year result. In the first half the essential network services provider reported a 17.7% reduction in revenue to $409.9 million and a 40.5% decline net profit after tax to $16.2 million. Unfortunately, management was expecting a much stronger second half, but warned that this is unlikely now due partly to COVID-19 related and client-initiated delays to work programs.

Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)

The Appen share price was out of form last week and recorded a decline of 22.7%. The catalyst for this decline was the artificial intelligence services company’s full year results. For the 12 months ended 31 December, Appen posted a 12% increase in revenue to $599.9 million and an 8% lift in EBITDA to $108.6 million. Looking ahead, Appen is forecasting EBITDA growth of 18% to 28% in FY 2021. While this doesn’t look bad on paper in the current environment, it fell well short of the market’s expectations. Analysts now appear concerned that increasing competition could put pressure on pricing and weigh on its growth.

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

The Afterpay share price was an uncharacteristically poor performer and sank 21.3% over the five days. A selloff in the tech sector due to rising bond yields was largely to blame for this share price weakness. But also impacting the payments company’s shares was its upsized convertible notes offering. Afterpay raised a total of $1.5 billion from investors via the issue of convertible notes with a due date of 2026 and an initial conversion price of $194.82. In addition to this, the company revealed that its Co-CEOs have each sold ~$60 million worth of shares. The funds from its offering will be used to increase its interest in its US business and support its growth.

Perenti Global Ltd (ASX: PRN)

The Perenti share price had a disappointing week and dropped 17.4% over the period. The catalyst for this was the release of the mining services company’s half year results. Although Perenti posted a 4.8% increase in revenue to $1,056.2 million, it wasn’t able to grow its earnings. The company reported a 25.8% reduction in underlying net profit to $44.6 million. Furthermore, on a statutory basis, things were even worse. Perenti recorded a statutory net loss after tax of $63.8 million.

More reading

• Forget the ASX 200! Another market crashed this week
• ASX 200 sinks 2.4%, Afterpay plunges, AMP jumps
• Here are 3 ASX 200 diamonds in the spotlight while the market sank today
• The big themes from ASX reporting season
• Why this ASX tech ETF is in the buy zone

James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Appen Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Service Stream Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) did not have a great week this week. From Monday to Friday, the ASX 200 went backwards by roughly 1.5%.

That was pretty much caused by more than a 2% loss on Friday alone as investors responded to a sharp sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday night (our time). The ASX 200 has now wiped out all of its year-to-date gains at these levels, and then some.

But another market had an even worse week than the Aussie share market. And it might have more of an impact on the world of investing that you may realise.

According to reporting in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) last week, the bond markets had “a bloodbath”. The report called it “one of the worst bloodbaths long-duration bond lovers have endured since the great crash of 1994”.

Now, if that sounds like boring gobbledygook to you, let me explain before you leave.

Bonds and ASX shares

Yes, bonds don’t have the kind of heart-stopping drama that the share market gives us in spades. But it is still a very important market to watch if you own ASX shares.

The global bond market is actually orders of magnitude bigger than the global share market. That has been helped in recent years (and over the past year in particular) by the record amount of government deficits and money printing/quantitative easing (QE) programs that have proliferated in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

So what has triggered this ‘bloodbath’? Well, the report states that it’s a “massive jump in 10-year Australian interest rates, which have more than doubled since November [and] hammered the price of fixed-rate… bonds”.

The government issues bonds to fund government spending. Think of a bond as essentially a loan to a government.

That loan comes with interest, of course. These bonds are sold on the ‘bond market’, which operates in a very similar manner to the share market. Buyers and sellers work together to determine the price of bonds. Well, that’s what used to happen, anyway.

These days, the bond market is rife with government intervention. Our own Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has an official policy to keep government bond yields at around 0.1%. To do this, it buys bonds when the yield gets too high.

Earlier this month, the RBA announced another $100 billion in bond purchases, which means the RBA will be buying about $5 billion worth of government bonds every week until at least April.

This is supposed to help the economy by keeping other interest rates around the economy (like those on mortgages and business loans) very low.

So why are yields rising?

Despite the RBA efforts, the AFR report tells us that long-term interest rates have doubled since November. And that’s because investors are starting to look ahead of the pandemic to possible inflation.

Over in the United States, Congress is currently debating whether to pass a mammoth near-US$2 trillion stimulus package. That equates to around 15% of the USA’s annual gross domestic product (GDP), which could easily result in inflation if the US economy responds to the stimulus more enthusiastically than expected. That could, in turn, spill over into the Australian economy.

The AFR also asserts that Australia’s better than average handling of the pandemic, together with our late-to-the-show embrace of QE, is also partly to blame for the rise in bond yields.

But how does this affect ASX share market investors?

Well, government bonds are considered a ‘risk-free’ asset. Since a government can’t really go bankrupt, a bondholder is virtually guaranteed to get their money back when the bond expires.

But the price of the 10-year government bond, as a risk-free asset, is what’s normally used to judge the valuation of risk-on assets. Like ASX shares.

Put simply, it’s usually the case that when Australian government bond yields rise, the value of ASX shares fall. Generally speaking, of course.

So this rise in Australian government bond yields over the past few months or so could well be partly to blame for the ASX 200’s rather lacklustre start to the year.

So, as boring as it may be for some, this is a market worth keeping an eye on over the next few weeks and months!

More reading

• These were the worst performing ASX 200 shares last week
• ASX 200 sinks 2.4%, Afterpay plunges, AMP jumps
• Here are 3 ASX 200 diamonds in the spotlight while the market sank today
• The big themes from ASX reporting season
• Why this ASX tech ETF is in the buy zone

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen 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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There are some ASX growth shares that are being sold off, but could be worth thinking about because of their long-term growth potential.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) dropped by 2.4% on Friday, but some businesses (which are generating high levels of growth) fell much harder than that.

Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN)

The Kogan.com share price fell 10.4% on Friday to $14.

Kogan.com reported its FY21 half-year result to investors which included a lot of growth metrics.

It revealed that the gross sales went up 97.4% to $638.2 million, gross profit went up 126.2% to $112.9 million, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 184.4% to $51.7 million and adjusted net profit after tax (NPAT) increased by 250.2% to $36.5 million.

Reported NPAT came in at $23.6 million, with adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.35, up 211.7% to $0.35. The Kogan board decided to increase the dividend by 113.3% to $0.16 per share.

The number of active customers continued to climb for the ASX growth share, it went up 76.8% to 3 million. It also had 719,000 active customers at Mighty Ape, which is a newly-acquired New Zealand e-commerce business.

Kogan.com continues to see growth across the business, particularly with its marketplace business which saw gross sales growth of 194.3%. This growth doesn’t require a corresponding increase of investment in inventory and helps margins.

One thing that Kogan wanted to point out to investors was its improving operating leverage. Compared to the prior corresponding period, the gross margin improved 460 basis points to 27.3% and the delivered margin (after all logistics costs) grew 510 basis points to 22.9%. Despite the increasing the percentage of market costs to revenue from 4% last year to 7.4% in this half-year, the EBITDA margin grew by 180 basis points to 9.4%.

According to Commsec, the Kogan.com share price is trading at 19x FY23’s estimated earnings.

Redbubble Ltd (ASX: RBL)

Redbubble is an e-commerce business. It sells artist-designed products on the websites that it owns called Redbubble.com and TeePublic.com.

The ASX growth share sells various everyday products like apparel, stationery, housewares, bags, wall art and so on.

Redbubble is another business that is seeing strengthening operating leverage as it gets bigger. In the FY21 half-year result, the gross profit margin increased by 4.1 percentage points to 40.8%.

The marketplace revenue rose by 96% to $353 million, the gross profit went up 118% to $144 million and operating cashflow grew 95% to $80 million. It generated $42 million of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in that half-year result.

This growth was achieved despite mask demand falling to 7% of the overall mix for the second quarter and higher shipping charges resulting in lower margins for the month of December. Foreign currency also acted as a drag on the earnings.

The ASX growth share revealed that healthy demand continued into January, with marketplace revenue growth of 66% (or 82% in constant currency terms).

The CEO of Redbubble, Michael Ilczynski, said at the time of the half-year result: “The strategic priority for the group now is to ensure we extend the market leadership we have established. We intend to invest in both the artist and customer experiences, to improve loyalty and retention and to ensure long-term growth.”

More reading

• Why Afterpay, Kogan, Orica, & Service Stream shares are crashing lower
• Growth outlook fails to save the Aristocrat share price today
• ASX 200 down 2.3%: Afterpay & Kogan sold off, Orica smashed, AMP pushes higher
• Kogan.com (ASX:KGN) share price sinks 9% following half year results
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday

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 Kogan.com ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Kogan.com 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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With the market sell-off on Friday, there are a number of ASX dividend shares that could be worth considering for March.

When a dividend stock is sold down, it increases the yield on offer, assuming that dividend isn’t cut.

The two ASX dividend shares below all have relatively high dividend yields and may be able to boost income for investors:

Pacific Current Group Ltd (ASX: PAC)

This business is an investor in global fund managers. It tries to help them grow with capital and expertise. Pacific Current then benefits from the increase in funds under management (FUM) and management fees of the manager.

Broker Ord Minnett likes the business and has a share price target of $7.60.

It just reported its FY21 half-year result which showed that its FUM increased from $93 billion at June 2020 to $113 billion at December 2020.

Pacific said that there was strong investment performance, particularly among active equity managers. Whilst GQG attracted most of the inflows, the ASX dividend share said there was FUM growth across the portfolio.

Management fees increased 10%, or 16% in US dollar terms and expenses were lower by around 24%. However underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) declined 13.4% to $11.6 million because of lower performance fees and the strengthening of the Australian dollar compared to the US dollar. Had the exchange rate stayed the same, underlying net profit before tax would have been A$0.9 million higher than it was.

During the period it announced the investment into Astarte Capital Partners, which is a London-based alternative investment manager focused on private markets real asset strategies. Astarte’s model is that it provides anchor/seed capital, working capital and strategic support to operating experts and emerging investment managers to support growth. Pacific Partners will receive approximately 40% of the net income.

In terms of the dividend, Pacific Current declared an interim dividend of $0.10 per share, the same as last year, which represents a 44% dividend payout ratio. The ASX dividend share is still targeting a dividend payout ratio of 60% to 80% of earnings.

Ord Minnett thinks that Pacific could pay a FY21 dividend of $0.40 per share, which translates to a forward grossed-up dividend yield of almost 11% at the current Pacific Current share price.

Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF)

Rural Funds is an agricultural landlord that owns a variety of different farm types including almonds, macadamias, vineyards, cattle and cropping (sugar and cotton).

The real estate investment trust (REIT) has a goal of growing the distribution by 4% per annum for investors.

It achieves this goal through two methods. The first is that it has built-in rental increases in its contracts, linked to either CPI or a fixed 2.5% annual increase, plus market reviews. The other way it grows is through productivity improvement investing at its farms, such as improved irrigation for crops or better water access for the cattle.

The ASX dividend share has a number of high quality, listed tenants such as Olam, JBS, Select Harvests Limited (ASX: SHV), Treasury wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) and Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (ASX: AAC).  

Rural Funds recently gave guidance of another 4% increase in the distribution for FY22. Based on that estimated payout of 11.73 cents per share, it has a FY22 distribution yield of 5% at the current Rural Funds share price.

More reading

• Pacific Current (ASX:PAC) share price down despite FUM growth of 24%
• Select Harvests (ASX:SHV) share price on watch after asset sale and restructure plans
• 2 quality ASX dividend shares to buy this week
• 3 ASX shares that keep growing the dividend every year
• 3 little-known ASX dividend shares offering big income

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison owns shares of PACCURRENT FPO and RURALFUNDS STAPLED. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended RURALFUNDS STAPLED and Treasury Wine Estates 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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It was a painful day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) as it fell around 2.4% to 6,673 points.

Reporting season has now finished for another six months, though there will be a few more over the next few weeks with businesses that don’t have December 2020 end dates for their reports.

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price

The Afterpay share price fell by 11% today, it was one of the worst falls, but not the biggest.

Most of the ASX went into the red today, but Afterpay suffered heavily after returning to trade from its trading halt for its notes offering and the release of its FY21 half-year result.

Indeed, most of the buy now, pay later sector saw heavy declines today. The Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price fell by another 5%.

The Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) share price finished 2.9% lower after reporting, though it had been down more than 10%. Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) also reported today, it saw a share price fall of 3.8%.

AMP Limited (ASX: AMP)

The best performer in the ASX 200 was AMP.

It announced that AMP and Ares Management intend to pursue a joint venture partnership for AMP Capital’s private markets businesses of infrastructure equity and infrastructure debt, real estate and other minority investments.

In the proposed transaction, Ares would acquire 60% of private markets and assume management control, with AMP retaining 40%. The two businesses are going to enter into a 30-day period of exclusivity, to work towards a binding transaction.

Ares will be acquiring its stake for $1.35 billion, valuing the whole private markets joint venture business at $2.25 billion. This values AMP Capital’s entire private markets business at up to $3.15 billion.

Orica Ltd (ASX: ORI)

The Orica share price has fallen 18% today, it was the worst performer in the ASX 200.

Today, the company announced that CEO and managing director Alberto Calderon will step down from his position after almost six years in the role. The new person in charge will be Sanjeev Gandhi, who is currently group executive and President of Australian Pacific Asia.

The company also gave a market update.

It said that a number of factors were going to reduce earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in the first half of FY21.

Mining activity earnings is going to be reduced by between $70 million to $80 million because of the trade tension between Australia and China which is impacting demand for its higher margin Australian thermal coal market.

In the first half of FY21, demand for Orica’s products and services from affected mines is expected to be approximately 60 thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate lower than the prior corresponding period.

COVID-19 is also causing difficulties with mine disruptions and closures in Colombia, Europe, Africa, Mexico and Indonesia.

Foreign exchange impacts are being observed by the strengthening Australian dollar, hurting earnings to the tune of $20 million to $25 million.

There are also additional items amounting to $15 million to $20 million because of further arbitration costs relating to the Barrup plant and additional SAP system stabilisation costs in the first half.

More reading

• Here are 3 ASX 200 diamonds in the spotlight while the market sank today
• The big themes from ASX reporting season
• Why this ASX tech ETF is in the buy zone
• The Zip (ASX:Z1P) share price has slumped 26% in 8 days
• Brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy right now

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 ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Sezzle Inc. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Sezzle Inc. 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 PainChek Ltd (ASX: PCK) share price was among the few ASX shares that stayed in the green today, closing up 2.56% at 8 cents.

The share price increase came off the back of the company half-year report announced to the market yesterday. Let’s take a look.

Why did the Painchek share price rise today?

Shares in the small-cap rose as revenue jumped 40% to $2.08 million for the half-year ending 30 December 2020.

However, this does not fully represent how the company performed in the period. Looking deeper into the results, we can see that revenue from continuing operations fell 30% to $127,000. The majority of the group’s revenue was made up of research and development (R&D) and government grants.

As such, the company reported a net loss from operations for the half-year of $1.35 million.

PainChek continued to deliver sales growth in Australian residential aged care (RAC). Sales growth in the period resulted in total global licenses covering 71,318 beds, a 123% growth year on year (YoY). Furthermore, domestic sales reflected more than 30% of the Australian RAC.

Moreover, the company now has 884 aged care clients, growing 133% on the previous corresponding period. Forward-looking revenue equates to more than $3 million in annualised recurring revenue.

Looking ahead

PainChek aims to further develop its platform for use in new and larger healthcare market segments. The company said this was core to its business growth over the next 12 months.

In addition, the company has a number of products pending regulatory clearance. PainChek’s business strategy includes the release of an app for assessing pain in young children.

Having recently completed the app development and clinical validation work, the company is projecting Australian (TGA) and European (CE) mark regulatory clearances in the second quarter of the calendar year 2021.

Promisingly, its children’s app serves a potentially larger market than the adult app with a large hospital market and home care market opportunity.

More reading

• Here are 3 ASX 200 diamonds in the spotlight while the market sank today
• The Santos (ASX:STO) share price dips on stable credit rating
• Genworth Mortgage (ASX:GMA) share price slumps on $107 million loss
• Why the WhiteHawk (ASX:WHK) share price is crashing 8% lower
• Why the Immuron (ASX:IMC) share price fell today

Motley Fool contributor Daniel Ewing 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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It was a sea of red on the US markets last night, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX: .DJI) and Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) fell 1.75% and 3.52% respectively.

The catalyst for this selloff has been a swift rise in bond yields, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

10-year Treasury notes broke into a 52-week high, creating pressure on equities. As often happens, the Australian market followed suit with its own selloff.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) plummeted 2.32% today, its biggest fall in 5 months.

3 ASX 200 shares shining today

Out of the ASX’s top 200 shares, only 36 of them finished in the green today. On days like today, it’s worth having a closer look at the performers and what might have given them that extra sparkle.

Eagers Automotive Ltd (ASX: APE)

Eagers Automotive was a green needle in the red ASX200 haystack today. The automotive retailer gained 2.47% today, amounting to a 56% return in 12 months.

It’s no secret that car sales have been going gangbusters since the COVID-19 low last year. This was reflected in the company’s recent FY20 results, with statutory revenue increasing by 50.4% to $8,749.7 million. Despite the result, shares sold off 7.3% on the announcement.

However, today tells a different story as investors push the price higher. As excitement wanes in ASX 200 tech shares, bricks-and-mortar is catching some of the outflows.

Eagers is eager to drive an even stronger bricks-and-mortar approach in the future after the company announced its plan to start popping up in shopping centres near you.

Austal Limited (ASX: ASB)

The Australian shipbuilder and global defence contractor, Austal, propelled 3.04% higher today. Although, it hasn’t been all smooth sailings for this ASX 200 participant. Over the last year, Austal has sunk 38%.

A combination of mismanagement allegations and impacted revenues have circled the company in recent months.

The ship lost its captain when Austal’s US president resigned following the commissioning of an investigation. The investigations pertain to the write-back of work in progress (WIP) from a past program.

With all the panic of overvaluations today, investors may have found comfort in Austal’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 8.9. Compared to the broader ASX 200, this is a relatively low multiple, potentially indicating that the company is ‘cheap’.

Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC)

The Lynas Rare Earths’ share price gained 5.65% today. Lynas is a rare earth resource producer with operations in Malaysia. Today’s gain puts the ASX 200 member at a return of 219% in the last year.

So why all the exuberance today? The answer is mind-blowing first-half results. Revenue from operations increased by 12.4% to $202 million. But the truly bonkers metric is the company’s 944% growth in net profit – taking it $40.6 million.

Continued tensions with China have facilitated a favourable market for rare earths that can be sourced from elsewhere. Lynas also reinforced its ‘Lynas 2025 project’ in the results today. Using the $425 million raised during the half, the company expects to construct a new facility at Kalgoorlie.

More reading

• The big themes from ASX reporting season
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The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price slipped lower today despite the gas company providing an update on its credit rating. The Santos share price finished the day slightly in the red, down 1.3% to $7.23.

Let’s take a closer look at what Santos announced to the ASX market.

What did Santos announce?

The Santos share price ended the day mostly unscathed from the wider ASX market plunge that took hold today.

In its release, Santos advised that S&P Global Ratings (S&P) reaffirmed its BBB-credit rating with a stable outlook.

The report stated that S&P recognised Santos’ successful strategy in improving its portfolio resilience and diversifying its assets. This included the company determination in lowering unit production costs across its different class of assets.

In addition, the broker said that Santos increased its exposure to fixed-price gas volumes within the Australian market.

Santos took this measure to protect its balance sheet and shore up positive cash flows to fund its Barossa Project. The ratings agency expects the company to maintain its well-controlled operating model over the next 12 to 24 months.

Head of management comments

Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher commented on the company’s progress in overcoming volatile trading conditions. He said:

The confirmation from S&P of Santos’ BBB- (stable) rating is an outcome of the disciplined operating model we have implemented over the past five years, combined with our diversified asset portfolio making us more resilient through the oil price cycle.

About the Santos share price

In the past 12 months, the Santos share price fared relatively well despite being hit by COVID-19 woes. The company’s shares are up just above 3% from this time last year.

In the March 2020 market sell-off, its shares hit a multi-year low of $2.73 before rebounding in the later months.

At the current share price, Santos commands a market capitalisation of more than $15.1 billion.

More reading

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• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras 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.

The post The Santos (ASX:STO) share price dips on stable credit rating appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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