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You may be wondering why the Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price is tumbling 2.84% to $7.78 today.

With the earning seasons wrapped up for most of the companies on the ASX, Whitehaven is now trading ex-dividend.

This comes after the coal producer delivered a robust full-year result last month, reporting a record $1.95 billion profit.

Subsequently, the board opted to declare a mammoth fully franked dividend of 40 cents per share.

Below, we take a closer look at Whitehaven’s latest dividend and when shareholders can expect payment.

Shareholders lock in Whitehaven’s huge final dividend

Following the company’s record performance, investors are selling off Whitehaven shares after securing the final dividend.

If you bought the company’s shares before market close yesterday and held onto them until this morning, you’ll be eligible for the dividend.

On 16 September, you should check your bank account as that’s when Whitehaven will make the dividend payment.

In case you were wondering, there’s no dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) currently being offered.

During the first half of FY 2023, Whitehaven aims to complete the 10% buyback within its previously announced cap of $550 million. The board will seek shareholder approval to increase its share buyback programme at the company’s annual general meeting in October.

The full-year dividends totalling $449 million and the $550 million buy-back represent a total payout ratio of 51% of FY 2022 net profit after tax (NPAT).

Whitehaven share price summary

Since the beginning of 2022, the Whitehaven share price has rocketed 196% on the back of favourable coal prices.

In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) is up 37% over the same timeframe.

Whitehaven shares reached an all-time high of $8.17 on Tuesday before retracing yesterday and today.

Based on today’s price, Whitehaven commands a market capitalisation of approximately $7.61 billion and has a dividend yield of 5.19%.

The post Why is the Whitehaven share price burning lower on Thursday? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• These were the best performers on the ASX 200 in August
• Looking to get your hands on the monster Whitehaven dividend? Read this
• 3 popular ASX 200 shares going ex-dividend tomorrow
• ASX dividend windfall continues but it’s not just Woodside and ASX 200 energy stocks splashing the big cash
• 3 ASX 200 energy shares smashing multi-year highs on Tuesday

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 Scott Phillips.

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The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price ended August in the green — the only major ASX bank share to do so from the close of July trading.

Westpac gained 0.46% to close the month at $21.61 and hit an intra-month high of $22.66. This share price outperformed all other major bank shares over this period, with Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) down 0.3% to $22.83 and National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) down 0.03% to $30.60.

Westpac also beat the performance of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) by a wide margin — CBA shares slumped 3.27% to $100.77 each.

Additionally, Westpac beat the S&P/ASX 200 Banks Index (ASX: XBK), which made a 1.51% loss for the month.

Let’s go over what happened amid the surge in green for the Westpac share price.

How did Westpac outperform the other ASX banking shares?

The banking giant released little price-sensitive news to support the outperformance of the Westpac share price.

The only announcement of note was the bank’s Q3 update, which it posted on August 16. However, it was not well received, and shares dipped 1% that day.

But in better news, brokers have been bullish on the Westpac share price.

Goldman Sachs believed Westpac could hit a new 52-week high over the next year and gave it a price target of $26.55, implying a 25% potential upside on the current price of $21.18.

In their analysis, Goldman Sachs analysts believed Westpac to be undervalued due to its potential for net interest rising, cost reduction initiatives and digital mortgage loans. More broadly, Goldman Sachs also said Westpac’s cheap share price is a major reason it will increase in the future.

The broker said:

On our revised forecasts and target prices, WBC now offers the most upside of the banks over the next 12 months. Beyond this, we note the stock is trading at a 20% discount to peers, versus the historic average 2% discount.

Additionally, the team at Citi is also bullish on the Westpac share price. A recent note revealed that its analysts have a buy rating and $29 price target on its shares.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley stated that it expects Westpac to pay fully franked dividends per share of $1.25 in FY22 and $1.30 in FY23. The company’s current quarterly dividend amount stands at 30 cents per share.

Westpac share price snapshot

The Westpac share price is down almost 1% year to date and 19% over the past 12 months. By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down around 8% and 9%, respectively, over the same timeframes.

It should be noted that NAB is the only one of the big four banks to record gains over those periods, up 4% and 6%, respectively. The ANZ share price is the worst performer, down 18% year to date and 19% in a year.

Westpac has a market capitalisation of $75.66 billion.

The post How did the Westpac share price beat the other ASX 200 banks in August? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• What’s the outlook for ASX 200 bank shares in September?
• AMP share price lifts amid Westpac deal rumours
• What’s the outlook for the Westpac share price in September?
• Are ANZ shares really offering the highest dividend yield of the big four?
• Goldman Sachs names 4 reasons the Westpac share price is cheap

Citigroup is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Motley Fool contributor Matthew Farley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Goldman Sachs. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Westpac Banking Corporation. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price seems impervious to the market sell-off, but after a 30%-plus rally over the past month, can the lithium miner rise further?

Sentiment towards the ASX lithium share is on a high following the August reporting season. That was when the miner posted a 577% uplift in FY22 revenue to around $1.2 billion due to high lithium prices.

That in turn pushed its gross margin up by a stunning 18.5 times to $853.5 million.

The Pilbara Minerals share price continues to outperform

The Pilbara share price continues to bask in the afterglow of the company’s results. It’s gained 14.8% since the miner reported FY22 earnings on 23 August.

The shares are a little down today, losing 0.27% to $3.64 so far. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has slumped nearly 2%, at the time of writing.

A negative lead from Wall Street triggered the drop with nearly all ASX sectors in the red today.

Why ASX lithium shares are in vogue

What is also helping is that Pilbara isn’t the only lithium producer to report strong results. This reinforces confidence that lithium prices could stay higher for longer.

Further, lithium prices haven’t suffered a major correction like many other commodities, such as iron ore and copper.

These commodities have been hit by recession fears, but not lithium. Experts are predicting strong growth in the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and lithium is a key ingredient in EV batteries.

If anything, some experts — as well as Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE) — are forecasting the lithium market to remain in deficit for years to come.

Not all good news

Another bull is the analyst team at Macquarie. The broker has a 12-month target of $5.60 on the Pilbara Minerals share price.

However, you won’t find consensus among the experts. Some believe the lithium price is set for a correction as the market is underestimating the amount of new supply that can come onto the market.

Then there is the threat of new battery technologies, like graphene, that do not require lithium. The technology is reported to be longer lasting and more environmentally friendly than lithium.

Pilbara share price snapshot

It’s anyone’s guess how the Pilbara share price and other ASX lithium shares will trade over the coming months. But as the saying goes about ‘making the trend your friend’, the path of least resistance appears to be up for the sector.

The Pilbara share price has gained 65% over the past year. Allkem jumped 54% and Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) climbed 21%.

In comparison, the ASX 200 is down 9% over the period.

The post The Pilbara Minerals share price surged 30% in August. What now? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• How I’d invest $20,000 in ASX shares today if I had to start from scratch
• These were the best performers on the ASX 200 in August
• Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Wednesday
• Could the Pilbara Minerals share price really offer more than 50% upside in FY23?
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today

Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau has positions in Allkem Limited, and Pilbara Minerals Ltd. 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 Scott Phillips.

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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) is off to a rough start to the new month, down 2.23% at the time of writing.

CommBank is far from the only stock under pressure, though, following another day of selling in US markets. This, as investors fret over stubbornly persistent inflation and the prospect of fast-rising interest rates.

At the time of writing the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 1.79% while the S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index (ASX: XFJ) is down 1.77%.

That’s today’s price action.

So why did the CBA share price go backwards in August?

What headwinds is the ASX 200 bank facing?

From the closing bell on 29 July through to the closing bell on 31 August, the CBA share price fell 3.3%.

That was a stark reversal from the 11.5% gains CommBank posted in July. And it underperforms the 0.8% gain delivered by the ASX 200 in August.

The CBA share price, alongside the other big banks, faced some headwinds as the reality of longer-lasting inflation and likely higher for longer interest rates began to dawn on the markets in August.

Higher interest rates can benefit banks by enabling them to increase their net interest margins (NIMs). However, if rates rise too quickly it could increase the levels of bad debts and decrease interest in new mortgages.

And with CoreLogic reporting that Sydney dwelling prices are down 5.9% quarter-on-quarter over the past 12 months, with Melbourne prices down 3.8%, investors may well be worried about homeowners coming under pressure.

Also sending the CBA share price lower last month, the stock traded ex-dividend on 17 August. CommBank will pay a final fully franked dividend of $2.10 on 29 September. But in order to get your hands on that dividend, you had to own shares on 16 August.

Shares commonly drop on the day a stock trades ex-dividend.

Finally, the CBA share price received a fair bit of analyst coverage over the past month for the relatively high premium it commands. CBA trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 17.8 times, the highest among any of the big banks.

How has the CBA share price performed longer-term?

Down 6% over the past 12 months, the CBA share price is up 25% over the past five years. Longer-term, that edges out the 20% five-year gains posted by the ASX 200.

The post Why did the CBA share price go backwards in August? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• What’s the outlook for ASX 200 bank shares in September?
• What is the highest CBA shares have ever been?
• Are ANZ shares really offering the highest dividend yield of the big four?
• The CBA share price is down 4% in August. What’s going on?
• Own CBA shares? $31b of the bank’s home loans face increasing climate risks

Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben 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 Scott Phillips.

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1) It’s doom and gloom almost everywhere you look…

After a late drop on Wall Street overnight, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) this morning says: “Australian shares are poised to start the month of September sharply lower, amid further selling in New York as investors position for ever higher interest rates.”

According to Mike Wilson, chief United States equity strategist and chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley, US equity investors should be braced for more pain, as indexes haven’t yet hit bottom for the year.

“June probably was the low for the average stock,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Markets, but index directions are “down for at least [the] next quarter or two”.

“September is usually the worst month of the year,” said Wilson.

Right on cue, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is trading almost 2% lower on Thursday.

2) Welcome to the month of September — “usually the worst month of the year” — according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA in New York, as reported by Reuters.

This comes after US markets posted their weakest August performance in seven years. For the month, the S&P 500 lost 4.2% and the NASDAQ fell 4.64%.

By comparison, here in Australia, we had a decent month, with the ASX 200 index gaining 0.6% for the month as rises in resources stocks offset losses in companies like Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP), Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN), and ASX Ltd (ASX: ASX), down 12.3%, 12.2%, and 11.1% respectively in August. 

3) It’s been a decent ASX reporting season, the highlight being the dividend windfalls from mining stocks, with bumper dividends declared by the likes of BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG), and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS). 

But that might be as good as it gets for a while for the mega-cap mining stocks. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported the iron ore price had dropped below $US100 a tonne for the first time in over five weeks on signs that the crisis in China’s steel industry is worsening.

“Output in China’s vast steel sector is already running well behind last year’s pace as the industry reels from a property crisis that shows no signs of abating.”

According to AFR, London-based Liberum Capital has a sell rating on BHP and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) shares. It might be a case of taking the dividends and running.

4) With petrol prices through the roof, the war in Ukraine ongoing, and Woodside having tripled its interim dividend, you’d be thinking the oil price might be riding high.

Not so fast, with Bloomberg reporting oil registered its third straight monthly decline, its longest losing run in more than two years on concern that tighter monetary policy and China’s economic slowdown will impact crude demand.

Add to that Europe is almost certainly careering towards a deep recession, with the best case scenario in the US being a mild recession, and the outlook for oil doesn’t look so rosy. 

Add it all up, and the ASX 200 could be in for a rough few months.

5) A few choppy months will likely pale into insignificance when looked back at in five years’ time.

Even the global financial crisis – the most painful period in recent history for investors – is nothing more than a blip in the long upward progression of the stock market.

And, for those who think they might sell up now and get back into the market later, once the recessionary dust has settled, a few words of caution…

1. The stock market is not the economy. A forward looking beast, it moves in advance of recessions and recoveries. See June this year, when it looked ahead to 2023 the first interest rate cuts, despite the RBA and other central banks currently being slap bang in the middle of a hiking cycle.
2. In order to profit from market timing, you have to get two decisions right — the selling and the buying. It’s hard enough to get one right let alone two.
3. Research from Wells Fargo suggests missing a handful of the best days over longer time periods drastically reduces the average annual return an investor could gain by simply holding on to their equity investments during market sell-offs. Disentangling the best and worst days can be difficult, since they often occur in a very tight time frame, sometimes even on consecutive trading days.

If you are invested in the stock market, you should look at it as a lifelong endeavour, not one to dip in to and out of depending on your mood, the market’s mood, the economy, the government, or inflation.

6) That’s not to say you can’t make changes to your portfolio. In hindsight, like many others, I should have sold out of some of my loss-making tech stocks when it became apparent inflation was not going to be transitory, something that would necessitate central banks to quickly hike interest rates.

Then there are genuine investing mistakes. The very best investors only get six out of every 10 picks right. When your investing thesis turns out to be wrong, sell and move on.

In late June, I thought bombed out initial public offering (IPO) Doctor Care Anywhere Group PLC (ASX: DOC) was a bargain. The company was cashed up with no debt and growing quickly, with remote primary healthcare being on an upward trend. 

All was looking good as the Doctor Care Anywhere share price quickly soared from my 14 cents purchase price to almost double by mid-August. 

Move aside Warren Buffett, I was thinking, there’s a new investing genius in the house!

A few days later, the company revealed it had experienced platform issues, accompanied by a severe shortage of United Kingdom doctors, leading not only to the departure of the CEO but an inevitable profit warning.

Naturally, Doctor Care Anywhere shares sank, and I headed for the exits as fast as I could, thankfully still pocketing a small profit, but only courtesy of a large dose of luck. Today, Doctor Care Anywhere shares trade at just 10.5 cents.

The post Reason for hope as ‘worst month of the year’ starts off badly appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• 3 mining ASX shares ripe for buying now: experts
• When will Fortescue’s hydrogen business produce revenue?
• Why is the BHP share price sinking 8% today?
• Do Woodside shares still have more upside to come from the company’s BHP purchase?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday

Motley Fool contributor Bruce Jackson has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Doctor Care Anywhere Group PLC. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Dominos Pizza Enterprises Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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It’s been a rough time for the Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) share price of late. Back on 22 August, Coles shares were riding high. The ASX 200 grocer had just claimed a new 52-week high of $19.65 a share and all was looking well.

But then Coles released its full-year earnings for FY2022, and investors got something of a reality check. Today, Coles shares are going for $17.85, a good 8% or so off of that all-time high we saw last month. Earlier this week, the company descended as low as $17.27 a share.

It seems investors didn’t exactly like what they saw in Coles’ earnings report.

The sueprmarket operator announced a 2% rise in sales revenue to $3.4 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at $3.4 billion, a rise of 0.2% over the prior year. At the time, Coles CEO Steven Cain warned investors that Coles was facing “the ongoing headwind of rising cost inflation”.

But let’s talk about the Coles dividend.

How to bag the next Coles dividend

So unlike arch-rival Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW), Coles actually gave its investors a dividend pay rise last month. The company declared a final dividend of 30 cents per share, fully franked. That represents a pleasing 17.85% increase over FY21’s final dividend of 28 cents per share.

It also means that Coles will be paying an annual total of 63 cents in dividends per share for FY22, a 3.3% rise over FY21’s 61 cents per share total.

So what do investors need to do to secure this upcoming dividend? Well, they will need to act fast. Coles shares are scheduled to trade ex-dividend for this final dividend payment tomorrow, 2 September.

That means that from tomorrow, no new investors will be eligible to receive this dividend. So if investors want to receive this paycheque, they will need to own Coles shares by the end of this trading day.

So expect a drop in the Coles share price when the company trades ex-dividend tomorrow. This will reflect the value of this dividend payment leaving the Coles share price.

Investors will then receive this dividend payment on 28 September later this month.

If investors wish to participate in Coles’ dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) and receive additional Coles shares instead of a cash payment, they will need to nominate for the DRP before next Tuesday, 6 September.

When this dividend is eventually paid out, it will give Coles shares a dividend yield of 3.54% based on the current pricing.

The post Hoping to bag the boosted Coles dividend? Here’s what you need to do appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here are 5 ASX 200 shares going ex-dividend tomorrow
• 2 ASX 200 dividend shares to buy now according to analysts
• Brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• Broker says Coles share price is ‘offering good value’
• Is the Coles share price a buy following the company’s latest results?

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen 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 positions in and has recommended COLESGROUP DEF SET. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) share price is in negative territory today despite no announcements from the company.

At the time of writing, the artificial intelligence (AI) technology company’s shares are down 3.17% to 91.5 cents.

For context, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is also heading south by 1.97% to 6,849.5 points.

Read below to find out what’s likely dragging down BrainChip shares on Thursday.

What’s happened to BrainChip shares?

Investors are selling off the BrainChip share price following a fall across the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) today.

Currently, the Aussie tech sector is retreating by 1.40% to 2,164 points.

This comes after US markets closed out August with losses as investors braced for the ‘September effect’. As dubbed by investors, the month of September has historically been a terrible month for share market returns.

In addition, US officials have ordered tech giant Nvidia to cease exporting its top two computing chips to China. Subsequently, the chip designer fell 6.56% after hours.

While this doesn’t have any direct consequences for BrainChip, the fall rippled across the NASDAQ-100 (NASDAQ: NDX), which shed 0.57% overnight.

One last reason for weakness across the tech space could be investors weighing up the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation.

The central bank’s chair Jerome Powell made short and sharp comments over the weekend about ramping up interest rates.

Economists are expecting a 0.75% rate hike to come in September.

BrainChip share price snapshot

The BrainChip share price has fallen 16% in the past month on the back of weakened sentiment.

For the majority of the calendar year, the share has traded sideways as the company has kept relatively quiet.

BrainChip shares reached an all-time high of $2.34 in January 2022, before sharply pulling back.

Based on today’s price, BrainChip commands a market capitalisation of around $1.62 billion.

The post Why is the BrainChip share price in the red on Thursday? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• The BrainChip share price has dumped 30% in a month. What’s happening?
• BrainChip share price up on 529% revenue surge
• Why did the BrainChip share price slump today?
• When is ASX tech share BrainChip expected to become profitable?
• Why is the BrainChip share price sinking today?

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 positions in and has recommended Nvidia. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index may be falling nearly 4% today, but one ASX mining share is bucking the trend.

The American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1) share price is soaring 74% today to 23.5 cents.

Let’s take a look at what this mineral explorer reported to the market today.

What did this ASX mining share discover?

Investors are buying up American West shares after drill results showed “spectacular” copper grades with “significant thickness”.

The company reported its first assay results from diamond drilling at the company’s Storm Copper Project. This is located on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Results from drill hole ST22-05 include:

• 41m at 4.18% copper from 38 metres
• 15m at 10.05% copper from 47 meters
• 5m at 24.28% copper from 48 metres

The company said all drill holes at what is known as the 2750N zone have intersected with thick zones of breccia, and, or, massive copper sulphides.

American West is planning further diamond drilling and will provide additional assay results in future days and weeks.

Drilling will focus on expanding the 2750 zone and defining the resource at zones 4100N and 2200. Commenting on the news, managing director Dave O’Neill said:

These results immediately validate the historical high-grade intersections within the 2750N Zone, and highlight the quality of the Storm mineral system.

These kind of grades and thicknesses are exactly what we want to see as we work to define a shallow high-grade copper resource.

The 2750N Zone is currently over 200m long and still open along strike and at depth, with excellent potential for further drilling to significantly expand the high-grade mineralisation

American West share price recap

This ASX mining share has soared 80% in the year to date. In the past month, the American West share price has rocketed 57%.

For perspective, the ASX 200 Materials Index has slid nearly 7% in the past year.

American West has a market capitalisation of about $26 million based on the current share price.

The post Guess which ASX mining share is exploding 74% on a new copper find appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

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• Guess which ASX mining share just exploded 48% on a major copper discovery

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It might be near-unheard of, but ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) share Alpha HPA Ltd (ASX: A4N) is making a splash on the market today.

The Australian mineral exploration and development company has just released exciting news about its high-purity aluminium (HPA) project. The project aims to produce critical HPA products driving decarbonisation.

Right now, the Alpha share price is roaring 15.05% higher to trade at 54 cents. That makes it the top performing All Ords share right now. The index has slumped 1.85% at the time of writing.

So, what could the small-cap mineral stock have revealed to elicit such a reaction from the market? Let’s take a look.

What’s driving the All Ords share higher today?

The Alpha share price is leaping upwards today on an update on the company’s HPA First Project, located in Gladstone, Queensland.

The project has been connected to 100% renewable electricity while the fit-out of the site’s buildings and installation of a security gate is underway. They’re expected to be completed by the middle of this month.

The company’s still working towards the full-scale HPA First Project’s final investment decision.

Also likely moving the All Ords share today is news of a memorandum of understanding signed with Brenntag, the world’s largest chemical distributor.

The deal could see Alpha’s products sold and/or distributed in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and considers potential commercial collaboration in testing or production facilities.

On top of that, the company has received new sales orders. One is from a US lithium-ion battery manufacturer. The order is for an initial tonne of HPA to be delivered in April 2023. The battery maker predicts its demand will scale from 2024.

Alpha has also updated the market on its 5N purity aluminium nitrate. It now has test work underway with numerous parties looking to use the material to coat lithium-ion cathode and anode materials.

And finally, a $45 million grant from the Modern Manufacturing Initiative collaborations stream has proceeded to the negotiation stage.

Alpha share price snapshot

Despite today’s uptick, the Alpha share price is 14% lower than it was at the start of 2022. Though, it has gained 5% since this time last year.

In comparison, the All Ords has dumped 11% year to date and 9% over the last 12 months.

The post This ASX All Ords share you’ve never heard of is flying 15% today. Here’s why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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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 Scott Phillips.

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The DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) share price is on fire today after the company announced a record new order.

This well-timed release comes after the defence contractor’s shares fell almost 20% yesterday to close at a six-month low of 16.5 cents.

At the time of writing, DroneShield shares are trading at 17.5 cents apiece, up 6.06%.

DroneShield locks in $2 million European order

DroneShield released an announcement earlier this morning advising that it had received a record $2 million order for multiple DroneSentry fixed site detect-and-defeat systems.

The package consists of sensors, radars, electronic warfare, electro-optics systems, ID, and tracking.

DroneShield said the order is from a European government customer and is the biggest contract it’s had in the European market.

The bulk of the $2 million order is expected to be made in the current September 2022 quarter, with the remaining amount due when the system is installed. This is anticipated to be finalised by the end of the year.

Commenting on the news that appears to be boosting the DroneShield share price, CEO Oleg Vornik said:

This order continues our progression from developing the tech, to smaller sales, to repeat smaller size, to presently realising larger contracts. There is a substantial near-term sales pipeline in place, and we are pleased to start converting it into contracts.

This contract reinforces our position that to be a global leader in the rapidly growing counterdrone sector, a full suite of products is critical, including handheld, vehicle and fixed site offering, as we are seeing sales with separate customer sets for each of those complementary products.

Other recent updates

Yesterday, DroneShield delivered its half-year results to the market, which disappointed investors, sending its shares significantly lower.

The company reported a fall across key financial metrics despite the highly favourable macro environment.

Nonetheless, DroneShield remains focused on tapping into the US$10 billion counter-drone market.

The company has a $350 million global sales pipeline, including $100 million in projects from here until the end of 2022.

How has the DroneShield share price tracked in 2022?

The DroneShield share price has backtracked 3% in 2022 and is down around 17% over the past 12 months.

The share did reach a 52-week high of 30 cents on 3 May, before pulling back in the following weeks.

Based on today’s price, the company presides a market capitalisation of $71.37 million.

The post DroneShield share price shoots 6% on new record order appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Top ASX shares to buy in September 2022
• Droneshield share price plunges 19% on revenue slump
• DroneShield share price lifts 6% on record government grant

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has positions in DroneShield Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended DroneShield Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended DroneShield Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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