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In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to record a solid gain. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is up 0.3% to 7,480.9 points.

Four ASX shares that are climbing more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are storming higher:

Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC)

The Charter Hall share price is up 6% to $18.31 following the release of its full year results. For the 12 months ended 30 June, the property company reported a 15.1% decline in EBITDA to $204.4 million. However, the prior corresponding period included a $98 million performance fee. Excluding this, EBITDA would have been up strongly year on year. Looking ahead, management expects post-tax operating earnings per share growth of no less than 23% to 75 cents in FY 2022.

IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO)

The IGO share price is up 5% to $9.28. This morning the battery materials producer revealed that its Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery has produced its first lithium hydroxide chemical product. IGO owns a 49% interest in Kwinana through a joint venture with Tianqi Lithium Corporation. Looking ahead, IGO expects saleable product will be produced by the back end of 2021.

Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX: VUL)

The Vulcan share price has surged 13% higher to $13.69. This morning the lithium developer announced the appointment of BNP Paribas as its financial advisor. The two parties will work together on a bankability review in the lead up to the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). And upon its completion, they will work together on the structuring and execution of the financing of the Zero Carbon Lithium Project. BNP Paribas has a strong track-record in advisory and financing of battery and renewable projects.

Z Energy Ltd (ASX: ZEL)

The Z Energy share price has jumped 15% to $3.32 after receiving a takeover approach from Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD). The latter has tabled an offer price of NZ$3.78 cash per share. This represents a 35% premium to its close price on 26 July 2021. This was the day prior to the first media speculation in relation to corporate activity involving Z Energy. Ampol’s offer values Z Energy’s equity at NZ$2 billion.

The post Why Charter Hall, IGO, Vulcan, & Z Energy shares are storming higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) share price surges 6% on $477 million FY21 profit
• Which ASX companies are the top movers in the ASX 300 today?
• Z Energy (ASX:ZEL) share price surges 15% on acquisition news
• ASX 200 midday update: NIB sinks and Sonic falls on full year results
• IGO (ASX:IGO) share price climbs on lithium production update

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is off to a positive start this week. As the buy now, pay later provider nears its FY21 full-year results release on Wednesday, investors are paying extra attention to this company.

At the time of writing, shares in Afterpay have strengthened 2.54% to $132.80. This upwards move is closely aligned with potential acquirer, Square Inc (NYSE: SQ), and its 2.2% share price gain during Friday trade in the United States.

Before results drop, let’s run through the latest at Afterpay.

Afterpay Day and a speedy ambassador

While Afterpay released its FY21 trading update 3 weeks ago, there’s one big event that could have investors excited – Afterpay Day.

The biannual discounted shopping event entails a shopping frenzy across a range of retailers through the Afterpay payment platform. This 4-day sale event concluded at midnight last night after commencing on 19 August.

In the past, Afterpay day has been a major driver of sales and new active customers. For example, the event held earlier in the year delivered an increase of 117% in underlying sales compared to the same period a year ago. On top of that, the March sale resulted in a 40% increase in new active customers globally.

Although it’s not confirmed, investors might be treated to some details on the August sale event in Wednesday’s full-year results.

Adding to the excitement, Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar revealed the company’s latest local ambassador addition. Suitably, Afterpay paired up with someone that moves fast – just like the Afterpay share price in recent years. The new addition is none other than Aussie Formula One racing champion Daniel Ricciardo.

The partnership kicked off Afterpay Day with Ricciardo selling his own limited edition signature 2021 mini helmet on the platform.

Commenting on becoming an ambassador for Afterpay, Ricciardo said:

Seeing another Australian brand with similar values and goals as mine, succeeding in such a competitive field, really does put a smile on my face. Beyond that, I’m pumped to help educate a new audience on what Afterpay is, the in-built controls they have, all focused on helping customers achieve financial freedom.

What else could weigh on the Afterpay share price?

Investors and analysts alike will hope to get any more details around the proposed Afterpay–Square transaction. Since the original announcement of the nearly $40 billion deal, things have been fairly quiet.

The scheme of arrangement transaction had been agreed to, though there was speculation over whether a counter offer from another big US-based payments company would eventuate. At this stage, there have been no other proposals for the Aussie BNPL provider.

At the minimum, the market will be looking for an update to see how the Square deal is progressing. Currently, the transaction is likely to close in Q1 of the 2022 calendar year.

The post Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price rallies 3% ahead of this week’s earnings appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: Miners drag ASX back to earth
• August has been a great month so far for the Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price
• Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price edges higher as ‘Afterpay Day’ kicks off
• The Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price is up 35% this month. Here’s why
• 7 traps to avoid right now when buying ASX shares

Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO and Square. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Small and mid-cap ASX shares have belied the lockdown paralysing much of Australia to enjoy an excellent reporting season.

That’s the view of Wilson Asset Management portfolio managers Catriona Burns, Matthew Haupt and Oscar Oberg, who noted company forecasts were generally “cautious” because of the current COVID-19 delta outbreak.

“While outlook statements for Australian small-to-mid cap companies remain tempered as the Delta variant grips NSW and Victoria, we expect economic growth and company earnings to bounce back strongly with inoculation rates demonstrating solid progress,” they said in a memo to clients.

“We believe some of the most compelling opportunities continue to exist in sectors benefiting from global reopening, such as tourism and entertainment, and those exposed to local infrastructure projects such as mining services.”

Having said this, the trio singled out Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP) and Carsales.Com Ltd (ASX: CAR) as ones to watch right now.

Who wants pizza? Everyone, apparently

The Wilson fund managers were impressed with Domino’s 14.6% annual growth in network sales and its 27.2% boost in underlying earnings. It also entered its 10th consumer market when it opened its first store in Taiwan in June.

This all led to a 62% increase in the final dividend from the pizza chain. 

“The strong result was underpinned by a record number of new store openings and strong same-store sales growth,” the Wilson team said.

“The company also upgraded its medium-term outlook targets, lifting the roll-out of new stores to 9-12% per annum, up from 6-9%, and now expects to be operating 6,650 stores by 2023, suggesting a more than doubling of the network.”

Wilson Asset Management holds Domino’s shares in multiple funds and remains upbeat on its prospects.

“We remain positive on Domino’s Pizza, with key growth markets such as Japan, Germany and France reaching an inflection point underpinning a robust organic growth profile, while latent capacity remains for further earnings accretive acquisitions.”

Who wants cars? Everyone, apparently

With people all around the globe shying away from public transport in the coronavirus era, ASX shares involved in selling private vehicles are going gangbusters.

And Australia’s carsales.com was no different, said the Wilson fund managers.

“Online automotive marketplace carsales.com delivered the highest annual net profit growth in 7 years and strong earnings growth with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 10%, driven by ongoing pricing and yield optimisation domestically and strong results in international markets, particularly South Korea and Brazil.”

Haupt, Burns and Oberg were positive about carsales.com’s acquisition of US company Trader Interactive.

“A US vehicle marketplace business [provides] carsales.com with exposure to the US market and a strong platform for additional offshore growth,” they said.

“We believe the accelerated digitisation of the automotive retail industry has the potential to create significant medium-term growth opportunities.”

The post 2 ASX shares shining this results season appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to sell next week
• 3 of the best ASX results from week three of reporting season
• Brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to sell today
• Domino’s (ASX:DMP) dividend boosted by 45%

Motley Fool contributor Tony Yoo 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 recommended Dominos Pizza Enterprises Limited and carsales.com 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 Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR) share price is jumping 9% on Monday as the pooled development fund reports its FY21 earnings.

Let’s investigate further.

Strategic Elements share price jumps on strong growth in contract revenue

The company outlined several investment highlights in its report, including:

• Contract revenue growth of 34% year on year to $127 million
• Successful capital raise of $5.1 million through a share purchase plan
• Further $3 million raised via an institutional placement
• Loss for the year of $2.35 million versus $2.55 million the year prior
• $7.9 million in cash on the balance sheet, up from $2.27 million the same time last year.

What happened in FY21 for Strategic Elements?

In a positive for the Strategic Element share price, the company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries exhibited progress in FY21.

For instance, the company’s wholly-owned venture, Stealth Technologies, has developed the first “autonomous security vehicle (ASV)” in the world. The ASV has the designation of automating perimeter security, “reducing human involvement” in patrols.

Strategic is collaborating with the Defence Science Technology Group and the University of WA to conduct a live demonstration to the army. As such, both parties have committed to “providing $500,000 in cash and in kind resources”.

Another venture, Australian Advanced Materials (AAM), is developing a self-charging battery and its “Nanocube printable memory technology” technology at the University of NSW.

The pair have formed a collaboration, and the Nanocube project received funding from the Australian government of $1.069 million over a three year period.

In addition, the company also completed a series of capital raises throughout the year, totalling $8.1 million before costs.

As per Strategic, all of the capital raised “will be used to advance existing 100% owned businesses and fund new potential opportunities”.

What did management say?

Regarding the Nanocube and battery ink technologies, Strategic’s directorship said:

The Nanocube Memory has been continually developed by the Company and the University of New South Wales during the year. A one megabit demonstrator is under development, however the rapid success of the Battery Ink led the Company to divert some resources away from the Nanocube Memory and deploy them to escalate the Battery Ink development.

What’s next for Strategic Elements?

Strategic’s subsidiaries are extending the application of technologies within the company’s portfolio.

To illustrate, Strategic has been collaborating with Honeywell to build ASV’s for the “correctional sector”.

This will continue into 2022, with both parties now actively “negotiating a new agreement” to commercialise the ASV.

In addition, it has extended the ASV’s application to weed identification in food crops. Here Strategic is collaborating with Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative in field testing to advance the ASV sensor’s weed identification capacity.

Aspects of this are expected to be “included into an expanded trial” conducted in November 2021.

The Strategic Elements share price has gained 75% this year to date, extending the previous 12 month’s climb of 422%.

These returns have far outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)’s return of around 25% over the past year.

The post Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price soars on 33% revenue growth appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price rockets 20% higher

The author Zach Bristow has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price is pushing higher in late-afternoon trade. This comes as the coal miner prepares to release its FY21 full-year results on Thursday.

At the time of writing, Whitehaven shares are up 6.1% to $2.26. It’s worth noting that the company’s share price is within reach of breaking its 52-week high of $2.43 achieved on 12 August.

Let’s take a closer look at what could be driving these gains today.

Whitehaven shares on the rise

With no market-sensitive news out of the company since its June quarterly report, it appears investors are reacting to a series of broker notes.

Goldman Sachs remains confident in Whitehaven, raising its 12-month price target by 18% to $2.60.

Its analysts are predicting a soft result for FY21 followed by a bumper performance by December 2021.

The broker highlighted that the company is aiming to halve its net debt to $300 million by the end of the year. To that end, management has doubled down on controlling costs, resulting in savings across the business. In addition, free cash flow is expected to generate more than $500 million from realised coal prices.

As such, Whitehaven is expected to report the following for its FY21 result:

• Total revenue is estimated to be approximately $1,580 million, which is 8.5% below FY20’s $1,725 million.
• Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is projected to stand at $201 million, down 34.3% from the prior corresponding period ($306 million).
• No final dividend to be declared; however, this is assumed to be reinstated in February 2022.

Shaw & Partners raised its outlook by 4% to $2.60 as well. This implies an upside of around 15% based on the current Whitehaven share price.

The last broker to weigh in on Whitehaven shares came from Morgans, adding 15% to $2.65.

Whitehaven share price summary

In the past 12 months, Whitehaven shares have surged almost 80%, with year-to-date gains closing in on 40%.

Whitehaven commands a market capitalisation of roughly $2.34 billion, making it the 182nd largest company on the ASX.

The post Whitehaven (ASX:WHC) share price lifts 6% ahead of earnings this week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• How did the Whitehaven (ASX:WHC) share price respond last earnings season?
• Whitehaven (ASX:WHC) share price leaps 3% amid soaring thermal coal prices
• Here are the best and worst performing ASX 200 energy shares of 2021

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC) share price is soaring today, up 6.09% to $18.30 per share.

This comes after the ASX 200 real estate share released its results for the financial year ending 30 June (FY21).

Charter Hall share price lifts on increased FUM

The company’s earnings highlights include:

• Operating earnings of $284.3 million
• Operating earnings per security (OEPS) post-tax of 61.0 cents per share (cps)
• Statutory profit of $476.8 million, after tax attributable to shareholders
• 5% return on contributed equity
• Declared full year dividend of 37.9 cps

What happened during the reporting period for Charter Hall?

In FY21, Charter Hall’s Property Investment portfolio increased by 18.8% to reach $2.4 billion. The portfolio generated a 15.0% total property investment return.

The portfolio remains well-diversified, with no single asset making up more than 5% of the total. Occupancy was 97.4% with a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 9.1 years, up from 8.7 years in FY20.

The company reported $1.1 billion of development completions during the financial year, with a re-stocked development pipeline growing to $8.8 billion.

Charter Hall’s share price could also be getting a lift after reporting its managed funds increased by 29% over the 12 months, to $52.3 billion. The company credits most of that to $5.9 billion of net acquisitions and positive revaluations of $4.1 billion.

On the funding side, the group has $6.7 billion of available investment capacity and more than $500 million on its balance sheet.

What did management say?

Commenting on the results, Charter Hall CEO David Harrison said:

[W]e have generated record fund inflows, gross transactions and FUM growth of $11.7 billion in FY21, whilst generating sector-leading returns for our investor customers and shareholders… Our success as a business is built upon partnering with our tenant and investor customers to drive mutually beneficial outcomes with a razor-sharp focus on being customer centric.

This partnership approach generated $5.3 billion of gross equity inflows, with all equity sources recording strong inflows. FUM grew 29% as our strategy of securing long-leases with best-in-class tenants continued to drive returns for investors. We transacted on a record $10.1 billion of assets, successfully deploying our investment strategies both on and off-market…

Sale and leaseback transactions represented over 40% of our transaction activity as we continue to partner with tenants and investors to unlock investment opportunities. Our develop-to-core strategy also saw us deliver over $1 billion in development completions.

What’s next for Charter Hall?

Looking ahead, the company offered earnings guidance (provided there are no significant unfavourable changes to current market conditions) indicating a 6% increase in dividend distribution for FY22.

Harrison commented:

As we begin FY22, we are well positioned with $6.7 billion of investment capacity to deploy into our $8.8 billion development pipeline, which will be further advanced with continuing equity inflows.

The Charter Hall share price is up 49% over the past 12 months.

The post Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) share price surges 6% on $477 million FY21 profit appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Leading brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• How do BHP (ASX:BHP) earnings compare to Woodside Petroleum’s?
• Here’s what has been moving the ANZ (ASX:ANZ) share price in August 2021
• NIB (ASX:NHF) dividend up 70%, shares sink regardless
• 2 ASX COVID-19 shares reporting big growth

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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With so many shares to choose from on the ASX, it can be hard to decide which ones to buy. The good news is that brokers across the country are doing a lot of the hard work for you.

Three top ASX shares leading brokers have named as buys this week are listed below. Here’s why they are bullish on them:

Adairs Ltd (ASX: ADH)

According to a note out of Morgans, its analysts have upgraded this furniture and homewares retailer’s shares to an add rating but with a trimmed price target of $4.20. This follows the release of its full year results last week. It was pleased with its performance in FY 2021. And while it has lowered its earnings estimates for the year ahead, the broker still feels that Adairs’ shares are among the cheapest in the sector. The Adair’s share price is fetching $3.64 on Monday.

South32 Ltd (ASX: S32)

A note out of Goldman Sachs reveals that its analysts have retained their conviction buy rating but trimmed their price target on this mining giant’s shares to $3.60. Goldman reduced its price target after revising its earnings estimates lower to reflect higher than expected unit costs. However, this isn’t enough for the broker to become any less bullish. It continues to believe its shares are great value and is forecasting significant free cash flow yields of 17% to 19% in FY 2022 and FY 2023. This is expected to underpin double digit dividend yields in both years. The South32 share price is trading at $2.84 today.

TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG)

Analysts at Morgans have also retained their add rating but trimmed their price target on this telco giant’s shares slightly to $7.11. According to the note, the broker acknowledges that TPG’s cash flows were weak in the first half of FY 2021. However, it puts this down to timing and expects a reversal in the second half. It also notes that management does not expect any significant seasonality in the business, which puts it on track to achieve operating earnings of $1.7 billion in FY 2021. Based on this, it appears to believe its shares good value at the current value. The TPG share price is fetching $6.19 this afternoon.

The post Leading brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Which ASX companies are the top movers in the ASX 300 today?
• TPG (ASX:TPG) share price sinks on broker note
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: Miners drag ASX back to earth
• 2 top ASX dividend shares that just delivered big growth
• After ASX mining shares crashed last week, top brokers are backing this miner

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended ADAIRS FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended ADAIRS FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended TPG Telecom 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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One of the biggest pieces of news in the August reporting season has been BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) earnings. The iron ore giant reported its full-year results last Tuesday ahead of a potential merger with Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX: WPL).

How does the BHP earnings result compare to Woodside’s?

It’s worth noting the key differences between BHP and Woodside at the outset. BHP is an Aussie miner with diversified interests across the energy sector. Woodside is largely an oil and gas producer — Australia’s largest independent dedicated oil and gas company at that.

The BHP earnings result included the highlights below:

• Underlying earnings before, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 69% to US$37.4 billion
• Free cash flow up 140% to US$19.4 billion
• Full-year dividend up 151% to 301 US cents per share

However, iron ore and copper remain the primary revenue drivers for BHP. Of the total US$60.8 billion of revenue, just 6.5% or US$3.9 billion comes from petroleum.

When comparing BHP and Woodside, it’s worth looking at how the petroleum segment performed rather than the overall result. BHP’s Petroleum EBITDA totalled US$2.3 billion with the segment’s EBITDA margin up 3% to 58%.

For its part, Woodside reported a half-year EBITDA of $1,496 million. That included liquids production of 8.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). Woodside generated $311 million in free cash flow

Off the back of the BHP earnings, the two energy giants have entered into a merger agreement. The transaction will combine each entity’s significant oil and gas portfolios via an all-stock merger.

The consolidated entity will create a global top 10 independent energy company by production. It is hoped that combining expertise across the two businesses will create synergies and a high margin oil portfolio. Woodside and BHP are also targeting long life LNG assets as part of the new entity’s strategy.

BHP shareholders would own 48% of the newly combined business with the merger expected to complete in Q2 of calendar year 2022.

Foolish takeaway

BHP’s earnings clearly disappointed investors with shares in the iron ore giant sliding more than 14% in the last 5 days. Investors will be hoping the combined power of BHP and Woodside can deliver large synergies and boost future results in the right direction.

The post How do BHP (ASX:BHP) earnings compare to Woodside Petroleum’s? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) share price bounces back, up 8% on Monday
• What’s moving the ASX 200 Index (ASX:XJO) on Monday?
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: Miners drag ASX back to earth
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday
• Why the Woodside (ASX:WPL) share price is down 11% in a week

Motley Fool contributor Ken Hall has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price has had a rather interesting start to the trading week this Monday. At the time of writing, ANZ shares are currently up 0.07% to $28.33 a share after initially falling in the early hours of today’s trading session.

But let’s check out how the ANZ share price has performed over the month of August so far.

Here’s a share price graph of ANZ since the start of the month to kick things off:

Measuring from the start of the month to today, we can see that ANZ shares have gone from approximately $27.70 a share to $28.35 today. That’s a rise of 2.35%. Not a bad return for 3 weeks or so of waiting.

But the journey is a little more complicated than that. You can see a large swell in ANZ shares earlier in the month that peaked around Friday 13 August (not so unlucky for ANZ it seems). That marked the time ANZ hit its latest 52-week high of $29.64 a share. The bank is still down around 4% from that high today.

What has moved the ANZ share price in August so far?

As my Fool colleague Nikhil covered at the time, this peak coincided with the release of Commonwealth Bank of Australia‘s (ASX: CBA) full-year earnings release. This release, which announced a big dividend bump and a $6 billion share buyback program, seemed to light a rocket under the entire ASX banking sector.

Another factor that may have been assisting ANZ was the appointment of Farhan Faruqui as ANZ’s new chief financial officer earlier in the month. As we covered at the time, the appointment of Faruqi, currently an international executive at the bank, seemed to be well-received by investors.

But the sugar hit from these two events was short lived. As we flagged earlier, ANZ shares have been falling away from their new highs ever since.

Where to now for this ASX banking share?

So now that the ANZ share price has fallen back to earth, where might it go next? Well, one broker who has an idea is investment bank, Goldman Sachs. Goldman currently rates ANZ shares as a buy, with a 12-month share price target of $20.74 a share. That implies a potential 12-month upside of almost 8.5%, not including dividends.

Goldman reckons ANZ shares are being supported by the company’s net interest margins right now. As well as its low valuation compared to its peers. It also sees ANZ benefitting from productivity gains in the years ahead.

At the current ANZ share price, this bank has a market capitalisation of $80.6 billion. It also has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 17.2, and a trailing dividend yield of 3.7%.

The post Here’s what has been moving the ANZ (ASX:ANZ) share price in August 2021 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• What’s moving the ASX 200 Index (ASX:XJO) on Monday?
• CBA (ASX:CBA) share price gaining as bank rolls out vax centres
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: Miners drag ASX back to earth
• Down 8%: Is the CBA (ASX:CBA) share price a buy?
• 2 ASX 200 dividend shares with big yields

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 no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The NIB Holdings Limited (ASX: NHF) dividend received a strong boost following the company’s FY21 full-year results today.

No doubt, investors will be pencilling in the date when the private health insurer pays its final dividend in October.

Below we take a look at NIB’s FY21 scorecard and the details of its upcoming dividend.

How did NIB perform in FY21?

Despite NIB shares dropping throughout the day, the company reported a solid 12 months ending 30 June 2021.

The group recorded total revenue of $2.6 billion, up 2.9% over the prior corresponding period. Sales momentum continued throughout the year, with arhi (Australian Residents Health Insurance) policyholder growth lifting 4.2%. In comparison, the industry average is around 3.1% per annum.

Furthermore, the company expense claim came in at $2 billion, up 2.5% on this time last year. This consisted of 378,900 hospital claims and over 3.9 million dental, optical, and other ancillary claims across the board.

On the bottom line, NIB posted Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) of $160.5 million, up 84.5% against FY20. The sound end result benefited from net investment income of $51.8 million. Return on invested capital (ROIC) of 19.1% was in line with pre-pandemic levels.

In light of the robust performance, the NIB board decided to bump up its fully-franked full-year dividend to 24 cents per share. This makes up a final dividend of 14 cents and the interim dividend of 10 cents declared in February 2021.

Based on the current NIB share price of $7.21 apiece, this gives the company a trailing dividend yield of just over 3.3%. The payout ratio is roughly 68.2% of FY21’s NPAT.

NIB chair, David Gordon commented:

Overall, the NIB group is in very good shape. We continue to grow with increased profitability, we are well capitalised and there is no shortage of opportunity ahead.

NIB dividend key dates

NIB released the distribution amount and payment dates of its final dividend for the 2021 financial year. Here’s a summary of the important dates NIB shareholders will need to know.

Ex-dividend date

The ex-dividend date will be 2 September 2021.

Typically, one day before the record date, the ex-dividend date is when investors must have purchased NIB shares. If the investor does not buy NIB shares before this date, the dividend will go to the seller.

Record date

The record date for NIB’s final dividend is 3 September 2021.

Essentially acting as the cut-off date, this is the date where the company identifies which investors are on its register. Those who are on NIB’s books will be eligible to receive its upcoming dividend.

Payment date

The payment date for NIB’s dividend will be 5 October 2021.

This is when investors can expect to see the final dividend of 14 cents per share land in their accounts.

The post NIB (ASX:NHF) dividend up 70%, shares sink regardless appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras owns shares of NIB Holdings Limited. 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 recommended NIB Holdings 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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