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Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) share price has been on a rollercoaster ride recently.

Shares in the health care company reached a high of $69.49 in November only to fall as low as $58.71 in January. At the time of writing, the Ramsay Health share is trading at $63.66, up 2.22%.

Despite the volatility, it appears that brokers are positive about the future of the company. We take a look at some of the reasons why. 

A major acquisition

Ramsay Health Care announced last month that it was putting a cash offer to acquire the UK-based Spire Group. Spire is an independent hospital group focused on the private patient market and a leading provider of high-acuity care.

The UK acquisition appears to be a logical step for Australia’s largest private hospital provider.

As described in its company literature, Ramsay “provides quality health care through a global network of clinical practice, teaching and research”. The company says its global network extends across 10 countries, with more than eight million admissions/patient visits to its facilities in more than 460 locations.

Which brokers are positive on the company?

Citi Bank yesterday upgraded Ramsay Health Care to a buy.  The broker attributed to rating upgrade to the recent fall in the Ramsay share price and the fact that company has underperformed the ASX 200 by 14% in the last quarter. 

Citi expects an big upside with the Spire acquisition, COVID-19 restrictions being lifted and hospitals getting back to normal.

Analysts at Macquarie are also positive about the healthcare company.  Macquarie has retained its outperform rating and $74.85 price target on Ramsay Health Care.

Macquarie believes that the Spire deal stems well for the Ramsay share price and long term growth in the lucrative UK market.

With the Ramsay share price currently trading around $63, Macquarie’s price target is a whopping 20% upgrade on the current price.

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The post Why brokers give the Ramsay Health (ASX:RHC) share price a thumbs up appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Ramsay Health Care 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 Intega Group Ltd (ASX: ITG) share price is pushing higher today following its recent update.

At the time of writing, the Intega share price is trading hands at 51.5 cents, up 12%.

What’s lifting the Intega share price?

Intega Group is an engineering services provider offering environmental testing, geotechnical engineering, quality assurance, etc.

Investors are buying up Intega’s shares today after the company announced it has commenced a strategic review.

The decision follows increased activity and interest in the sector. Intega’s chairman, Neville Buch said:

“Intega is performing well, and the business is ideally positioned to benefit from the strong pipeline of infrastructure investment in the US and Australia. The business has significant organic and inorganic growth potential, particularly in our core US markets as well as adjacencies. The board however believes that the business is undervalued by recent prices at which Intega shares have traded on the ASX…”

Additionally, the review’s objective is to evaluate options for maximising shareholder value – including exploring ownership options for Intega.

The company’s largest shareholder, Crescent Capital Partners, has supported the decision. Greenhill & Co have been engaged for financial advisory. While Intega has also gone with Gilbert + Tobin for its legal advisory.

Taking a card from Cardno

That interest in the sector that Intega is referring to might be relating to Cardno Limited(ASX: CDD). With a market capitalisation of $340 million, Cardno is the bigger engineering company, which previously owned Intega.

Cardno also announced this morning that it would be conducting a strategic review after receiving numerous approaches from interested parties.

While the Intega share price is rising, the company noted there is no certainty of any particular outcome or transaction.

The post Intega Group (ASX:ITG) share price jumps 13% on latest update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Cardno (ASX:CDD) share price skyrockets 30% on strategic review

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

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

What happened

About a month ago, Colonial Pipeline was attacked with ransomware by a group we now know is called DarkSide. The fuel-supply chain for the Eastern U.S. faced disruption, so the company reportedly elected to pay the nearly $5 million ransom in popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) to quickly return to normal operations.

But the general public lamented the loss. There was no hope of catching the bad guys because Bitcoin is completely untraceable. Or is it?

According to a press release from the Department of Justice yesterday, U.S. federal authorities have recovered 63.7 bitcoins, worth over $2 million, and this appears to have caused a sell-off in the cryptocurrency market. According to CoinDesk, the price of Bitcoin has plummeted roughly 12% over the past 24 hours. And Bitcoin stocks like Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC), and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (OTC: GDLC) are all down as a result. As of noon EDT, these were down 8%, 7%, 11%, and 13%, respectively.

So what

There are a lot of reasons someone might buy Bitcoin. But security is among the reasons many are bullish on cryptocurrencies and blockchains, in general — people perceive these as untraceable, immutable ledgers. But authorities were somehow able to track down Colonial Pipeline’s ransom payment, break in, and recover a large part. This seems to fly in the face of one of the key Bitcoin tenets and is the reason Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are down so sharply today.

But perhaps there’s a fair bit of misunderstanding surrounding this situation. Bitcoin is stored in Bitcoin wallets, and these wallets have addresses. People can send and receive bitcoins if they know each other’s addresses.

However, each wallet comes with a set of keys — an assigned password so to speak — to keep things safe. But storing keys in a safe place has always been a problem. Those who hold bitcoins are urged to hide their keys, lest someone steal them.

It’s not yet apparent how the FBI got hold of DarkSide’s keys. And with the keys, it obtained a warrant to seize the bitcoins. But here’s the thing: The Bitcoin blockchain ledger is public information. You can see how much is being sent and to which addresses. You just don’t know the identity of the person who owns the Bitcoin wallet. For example, I just watched a roughly $200,000 transaction go through by looking in the Explorer section of Blockchain.com.

Because the ledger is public, it was relatively easy to track Colonial Pipeline’s payment to the right address. How the FBI got DarkSide’s keys is another matter. But either way, nothing was “hacked” with the Bitcoin blockchain network itself.

The transaction went through like it’s supposed to. Therefore, I believe it’s still fair to say that Bitcoin is a secure network. Whether your personal Bitcoin wallet is secure, however, is another matter.

Bitcoin may or may not be down because of confusion surrounding this issue. But either way, it is down. And that’s why these other Bitcoin stocks are down, as well.

Now what

For funds like Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, their values are directly tied to the cryptocurrencies they hold. The former holds only Bitcoin and is therefore 100% tied to Bitcoin. The latter holds Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Chainlink. But 65.5% of its holdings are Bitcoin, so it’s still very much tied to this single cryptocurrency. Moreover, alt-coins like these others have historically gone up and down with Bitcoin, so it’s unlikely they’ll rise significantly while Bitcoin is going down.

Turning to Bitcoin mining stocks, production has been increasing for companies like Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain. For example, Marathon Digital mined just 50 Bitcoins in January but almost 227 Bitcoins in May. But this didn’t just happen — both companies have been purchasing and installing new mining equipment to increase production. The result is more Bitcoin, but a side effect is higher operating costs.

Both Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain intend to continue installing new mining rigs through 2021 and into 2022 under the assumption that the price of Bitcoin will continue rising. But this is a risk to the business completely outside their control.

We don’t know what the exact breakeven price is for these companies, but if Bitcoin keeps falling at this rate (now down almost 50% from its April high) both companies risk mining Bitcoin at a loss — which obviously wouldn’t be good. 

Therefore, if you’re a long-term investor with either Marathon Digital or Riot Blockchain, it doesn’t really matter how well they’re managed if Bitcoin doesn’t start heading back up. That’s the most important thing to watch going forward.

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

The post Bitcoin stocks tumble after authorities recover ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Jon Quast owns shares of Bitcoin and Ether. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Bitcoin. 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.

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

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The Digital Wine Ventures Ltd (ASX: DW8) share price is rocketing today. At the time of writing, shares in the online alcoholic drink vendor are selling for 9.9 cents apiece, up 6.45%, after opening at a high of 10.5 cents each. By comparison, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is up 0.5%.

The price rise comes after the company released impressive sales figures for May and announced a new deal with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Let’s take a closer look at today’s news.

Why the Digital Wine share price is rising

May sales figures

In a statement to the ASX, Digital Wine Ventures said cases shipped in May were up 619% on the previous year to around 25,200. Shipped cases are also up on the previous month by 9.9%. However, this figure is still slightly lower than its March record of 25,300. The Digital Wine share price crashed on its lower sales in April.

The company also says approximately 11,700 orders were processed in May – up an impressive 23.4% on the previous month. Average cases per order did fall from 2.42 to 2.15.

Amazon deal

The second piece of news out today is a partnership with Amazon.

Digital Wine says it provides wine suppliers using Amazon’s integrated trading, logistics, and payment solutions the ability to make their products available for sale on its Australian marketplace by simply clicking a single checkbox.

WineDepot, a Digital Wine subsidiary, will manage product storage and packing, according to the statement. Amazon’s fulfilment network will then be utilised to deliver the products ordered on Digital Wine’s marketplace to the customer.

The company says it expects to release further details on the partnership soon.

Digital Wine share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, the Digital Wine share price has increased more than 1,200%. However, it’s down 50% since hitting a record high of 21 cents in mid-April. Last month, Digital Wine announced it would be expanding into the bBuy now, pay later (BNPL) industry.

Given its current valuation, Digital Wine Ventures has a market capitalisation of $179 million.

The post Digital Wine (ASX:DW8) share price jumps on bumper sales and Amazon deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long January 2022 $1,920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1,940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon. 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 Regional Express Holdings Ltd (ASX: REX) share price is in negative territory today. This comes after the regional airline operator advised it has revised its interim guidance for the current financial year.

At the time of writing, Regional Express shares are down 1.59% to $1.235.

Regional Express headwinds

In a statement to the ASX, Regional Express announced it will not meet its previously forecasted guidance given on 10 May 2021. The company earlier noted that it expected to break even for the 2021 financial year.

However, after the latest COVID-19 interstate border restrictions and lockdowns, Regional Express has suffered a loss in potential revenue. Forced flight cancellations to and from Melbourne, in particular, has disrupted the airline’s recovery from the fallout of the pandemic.

This comes at a time when the company introduced new $39 fares between Sydney and Melbourne to challenge its bigger rival, Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN).

As a result, Regional Express is now projecting a full year statutory loss before tax of around $15 million.

The company also said that it will be refunding affected customer tickets, in line with its COVID-19 refund guarantee policy.

Last month, Regional Express noted that overall demand across its business is sitting at 60% from pre-COVID levels. However, some states in Australia are performing better than others, with Queensland and Western Australia taking the lead.

Operations such as the Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie route commenced in late March this year. Interestingly, these two regional centres account for around 40% of the total number of passengers in Regional Express’ entire network.

Regional Express share price summary

Despite today’s slight fall, over the last 12 months, Regional Express shares have climbed around 10%. Year-to-date share price performance has gone in the opposite direction, down more than 40%.

On valuation grounds, Regional Express has a market capitalisation of roughly $136 million, with approximately 110.1 million shares on issue.

The post Regional Express (ASX:REX) share price edges lower on revised guidance appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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

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As the world navigates to the post-COVID era, the money has moved from growth to value stocks.

To demonstrate, the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) has lost more than 12% off its 52-week high. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has hit new all-time highs in recent weeks, shooting up more than 10% since the start of 2021.

The wisdom seems to be that as the economy picks up after the pandemic malaise, inflation will head upwards. Higher inflation can lead to higher interest rates, which are anathema to growth shares relying on future earnings.

But Montgomery Investments chief investment officer Roger Montgomery rejects the traditional categorisations of ‘value’ and ‘growth’.

“The conventionally accepted method of classifying value and growth stocks is subjective, arbitrary and engineered for convenience,” he said in a company whitepaper.

How ‘value’ and ‘growth’ definitions are flawed

Value and growth classifications are often made on a company’s price-to-earnings (PE) ratio. Sometimes analysts use price-to-sales to better reflect fast-growing businesses that don’t have massive earnings yet.

Growth stocks tend to have high ratios and value shares have low ratios.

REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) is an example of this. The online real estate advertising company’s PE ratio is now more than 158 after the stock price went from under $10 eleven years ago to $166.70 after close of trade Tuesday. 

Even though banking shares have rallied in the past 6 months, a value share like National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) is still selling at a PE ratio of just 20.5 at the time of writing.

And the growth story of 2020, electric car maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) currently trades at a PE ratio of more than 608.

According to Montgomery, this is problematic.

“Classifying growth and value stocks purely on PE ratio or some other market multiple is flawed,” he said.

“Stocks with high PE ratios can be value stocks and stocks with low PE ratios may have them for a very good reason.”

Shares with massive PE ratios can also be ‘cheap’

Forager Funds chief investment officer Steve Johnson last month shared Montgomery’s discomfort about these traditional definitions.

The trouble is price-multiple calculations tell investors nothing about the upcoming potential of a business.

“‘Rocket to the Moon’ trades at 40x earnings, therefore it is expensive: It’s a lazy conclusion,” Johnson posted on Livewire.

“And it can be very wrong.”

Johnson said a business that keeps growing for many years can make current PE ratio judgments look absurd.

It’s yet another investment lesson on the impact of compounding.

“When a company compounds earnings exponentially, the fair value can be a seemingly absurdly high multiple of early-year earnings,” he said.

Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) is one example Johnson cited, admitting that he dismissed it years ago based on its high PE ratio.

Two decades ago the stock was going for around $35 to $40, meaning a PE ratio of more than 30. According to Johnson, Cochlear has grown 15% per annum since then.

The stock closed Tuesday at $232.75.

“With the benefit of hindsight, you could have paid 150 times earnings and have still generated a 10% annual return (including dividends).”

The post Why ‘value’ and ‘growth’ share categories are meaningless appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Tony Yoo doesn’t own any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Cochlear Ltd. and Tesla. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Cochlear Ltd. and REA 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 Cardno Limited (ASX: CDD) share price is flying higher this morning after the engineering services company announced it will undertake a strategic review.

At the time of writing, the Cardno share price is trading at 95 cents, up 31%

What’s going on with the Cardno share price?

Cardno is a global engineering company operating across infrastructure, environmental, and social developments.

The engineering consulting company has commenced a strategic review process following a number of unsolicited approaches from interested parties. This process will seek to determine how to maximise shareholder value, given the recent outsider interest.

According to the release, there are no assurances that Cardno will pursue any transactions from the review.

Furthermore, the company has appointed Baird and Gresham Advisory Partners as its financial advisors. Meanwhile, Gilbert + Tobin will operate as Cardno’s legal advisor during the strategic review.

The outsider interest might indicate the market has been underpricing the Cardno share price.

Intega-resting news

It looks like Intega Group Ltd (ASX: ITG) is jumping on the strategic review bandwagon. Intega is another engineering services company that was demerged from Cardno in late 2019.

In an announcement of its own, the company advised it has also commenced a strategic review following increased activity and interest in the sector. Intega’s chairman, Neville Buch said:

Intega is performing well, and the business is ideally positioned to benefit from the strong pipeline of infrastructure investment in the US and Australia. The business has significant organic and inorganic growth potential, particularly in our core US markets as well as adjacencies. The board however believes that the business is undervalued by recent prices at which Intega shares have traded on the ASX…

Greenhill & Co have been engaged for financial advisory. While Intega has also gone with Gilbert + Tobin for its legal advisory.

Much like the Cardno share price, Intega shares are trading higher on the news. At the time of writing, the Intega share price is up 8.7% to 50 cents a share.

The post Cardno (ASX:CDD) share price skyrockets 30% on strategic review appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler 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 Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW) share price has pushed into record territory this morning after the company released a trading update for FY21.

At the time of writing, the building products company’s shares are up 8.14% to $22.73, topping their previous record high of $21.54 reached on 7 May.

What’s driving the Brickworks share price?

The Brickworks share price is on the move this morning after the company announced a $100 million revaluation profit within its Joint Venture Industrial Property Trust.

Management commented on the industrial property scene in Sydney, saying:

Since the end of the first half, there has been a number of significant industrial property transactions in western Sydney. The pricing of these transactions has reinforced the strong investor appetite for prime industrial property assets.

Given the number of sales and the steep movement in transaction pricing, an independent valuation of our Property Trust assets has been completed, and this process has resulted in further compression of capitalisation rates across our portfolio. As such, a revaluation profit of around $100 million will be recorded in the second half, representing Brickworks’ 50% share of the valuation gain.

Brickworks now expects to deliver record earnings from its property portfolio for FY21, with property earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in the range of $240 million to $260 million, up from $129 million a year ago.

Building products segment gathering momentum

Beyond real estate, Brickworks is also a leading manufacturer of a broad range of building products. Within the trading update, the company reported that sales momentum was picking up in both Australia and North America.

Management reported that:

In Australia, the significant uptick in housing approvals is now translating to increased building activity, with our sales particularly strong in Queensland and Western Australia over recent months. That said, the availability of some materials, such as timber for house trusses, is an issue in some areas, with the resultant delays likely to flatten and extend the duration of the existing pipeline of work.

While no dollar figure guidance was provided, the company expects EBIT from building products in Australia to deliver a year-on-year increase in FY21.

The company’s North American division has been the hardest hit by the pandemic, especially in the first half of FY21. However, the update advised that building activity in the United States is now ramping up, underpinned by the country’s vaccine program.

Management believes there will be better days ahead, suggesting that “a strengthening of commercial sales is anticipated as delayed and deferred projects re-commence over the coming months”.

Despite the challenges in the first half, Brickworks expects US dollar EBIT from its North American building products division to finish FY21 with a year-on-year improvement as well.

How has the Brickworks share price been performing?

The Brickworks share price is up by around 18% year to date compared to the 11.33% increase in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).

A key catalyst that has helped prop up the company’s share price recently, alongside today’s announcement, was its half-year results delivered on 25 March. The Brickworks share price jumped by more than 5% on the day of the announcement.

The post Brickworks (ASX:BKW) share price jumps 8% on record property earnings appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Kerry Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Brickworks. 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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This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced today that it is launching a new prescription program for members of its Prime loyalty program, less than a day after Walmart (NYSE: WMT) said it was offering Walmart+ members a discounted prescription service as well.

Having acquired PillPack in 2018, Amazon has been looking to leverage its ability to buy prescription medicine in bulk and provide savings to members in a bid to take a large slice of the $360 billion prescription drug market.

Like the Walmart program, Amazon’s new service is looking for patients who take just a small number of fairly common medicines, such as those used to treat high blood pressure and diabetes; they’ll pay as little as $1 per month and receive a six-month supply.

Six months is typically longer than what insurance companies will pay for, so consumers could see real savings by enrolling in the healthcare prescription program. As Prime members, they’d also be entitled to receive free two-day delivery.

The new offer is an expansion of the Amazon Pharmacy benefit announced last month that allows Prime members to comparison shop for savings through its network of 60,000 pharmacies. It noted Prime members save 80% on generic medications and 40% on name-brand ones through Amazon Pharmacy.

Walmart just introduced Walmart+ RX, which also provides significant discounts on commonly used medications. It notes that members of Walmart+, a loyalty program the retailer launched to challenge Amazon Prime, can get some common medications free while saving up to 85% on others.

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

The post Amazon launches six-month $6 prescriptions to Prime members appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Rich Duprey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long January 2022 $1,920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1,940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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

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Talk about the death of credit cards may be premature as Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) looks to issue an old-school plastic to take on Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and ASX banks.

The move is interesting on two fronts. Firstly, the posterchild and early fintech innovator seems to be going backwards in embracing a plastic card.

PayPal’s new credit card goes against the grain

This is happening at a time when credit card usage is falling and younger consumers are shunning that method of payment.

Data released by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) this week showed a 29% decline in the value of goods purchased with a credit or charge card.

How PayPal could be pressuring the Afterpay share price

Secondly, PayPal’s move could put pressure on the Afterpay share price. The only offering Afterpay has is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) while competitors have a wider range of products, reported the Australian Financial Review.

Whether it’s Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) or Humm Group Ltd (ASX: HUM), these BNPL me-toos offer other credit solutions.

Don’t cut-up your credit card just yet

PayPal recently launched its own BNPL product and its move to plastic is in response to user demand, it said.

The online payment giant has 9.1 million active Australian users. PayPal found that many of them want a credit card. Demand is especially strong for cards with no annual fees and a rewards program that can be used on a wide range of options, according to the AFR.

“There is no silver bullet when it comes to payments,” the AFR quoted Andrew Toon, general manager of payments for PayPal Australia. “We are focused on delivering a one-stop payments shop.”

Taking on ASX banks at their own game

He added that many credit card users have been left with frequent-flyer points that cannot be used due to COVID-19 border restrictions.

But the PayPal card will hold points in a digital wallet and these can be redeemed via discounts at 300,000 Australian merchants on its platform.

That can’t be good news for ASX banks, which are a major issuer of credit cards. These include the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) and friends.

Foolish takeaway

But PayPal isn’t the only one that’s inventing new payment channels for Australia. Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) is also striking deals to extend the reach of its frequent flyer program. The AFR reported that home loan providers like Symple Loans have signed up.

Borrow big and get a free flight! Fingers crossed this doesn’t come crashing back to earth.

Meanwhile, CBA reported that its no-interest credit card, Neo, accounts for 30% of all credit card applications at the bank. And this number is growing to 40%.

The old-fashion credit card might just be coming back into vogue.

The post PayPal taking fight to Afterpay (ASX:APT) and ASX banks appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• S&P Global gives ASX bank shares the thumbs up

Brendon Lau owns shaes of Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp. Connect with me on Twitter @brenlau.

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO, PayPal Holdings, and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long January 2022 $75 calls on PayPal Holdings. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Humm Group Limited and PayPal Holdings. 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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