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The Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT) share price is up by 5.47% today after the company released its FY21 results. Investors appear to be reacting positively to the numbers, sending the Catapult share price to $2.12 at the time of writing.

Catapult develops and sells wearable tracking solutions and analytics. The business supplies 3,000 of the world’s elite sporting teams with GPS-based performance tracking technology and data analytics software.

How did Catapult perform in FY21?

Catapult’s FY 21 results bore the brunt of COVID-19 as competition sports globally were cancelled and athletes were sent home to train. The company then transitioned beyond its wearable tech hardware origins to become a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company.  

As a result, Catapult reported revenue of $67.3 million, a decline of 7.4%. As mentioned in the report, “revenue was lower due to the planned switch from capital sales to SaaS deals and the severe impact from COVID delaying new business.”

However, the company grew globally at a 35% annualised rate during the second half of FY21 against a full-year growth rate of 16.5%.

Momentum building in SaaS metrics

There was growth momentum in Catapult’s SaaS metrics. Subscription revenue growth accelerated to 12.5% in the fourth quarter versus 3.3% for FY21. Subscription revenue made up 79% of total revenue in FY21, up from 71% a year ago. 

Notably, subscription revenue in the performance and health business, the company’s largest vertical by revenue, grew by 15.8% with modest gains in the tactics and coaching business of 1.6%.

Catapult also reported its multi-solution customers business grew at 41% annualised for the second half of FY21.

Improved retention rates  

Catapult’s report focused on what it calls “world class retention rates”. During the pandemic, its annual actual cash value churn rate of 5.5% improved 14.1% on the FY20 rate of 6.4%.

The company highlighted this demonstrates how its solutions are embedded in its customers’ daily workflows.

Free cash flow remained positive

Despite the pandemic headwinds in new sales, Catapult delivered 69% growth in free cash flow to $4.9 million. This represents a second consecutive year of positive free cash flow. 

According to the report, the company is well-positioned financially with US$22.2 million cash at bank as of 31 March 2021.

Management commentary

Catapult CEO Will Lopes said:

I am proud of the results and progress Catapult made in our key SaaS metrics. We finished the year with an annualized ACV growth rate of 35% and world-class customer retention, demonstrating the value our SaaS solutions provide our customers daily. We stayed focused on customers during the pandemic and the business is benefitting as the pandemic impact lessens.

Catapult share price snapshot

The Catapult share price is up by 7% in 2021 so far, and more than 42% in the past 12 months.

On current prices, Catapult has a market capitalisation of $424 million.

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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price is pushing higher on Thursday after providing the market with an update on its digital banking initiatives.

At the time of writing, the banking giant’s shares are up 0.5% to $99.99.

What did Commonwealth Bank announce?

This morning Commonwealth Bank updated the market on its strategy and investments to reimagine products and services and build the best digital banking experiences.

Commonwealth Bank’s CEO, Matt Comyn, commented: “The shift to digital banking is accelerating and we are investing to remain at the forefront of innovation. We aim to be the most trusted partner at the centre of our customers’ financial lives by saving them money, giving them more control over their finances, and by making banking simpler and easier.”

“We are integrating new services into our platform to customise and personalise the digital experience in ways that will increase engagement and bring greater value to our customers.”

What are the new initiatives?

According to the release, Commonwealth Bank has launched a pilot under the new Consumer Data Right (CDR). This will see it become the first major Australian bank to allow customers to view account balances from other eligible financial institutions directly in the CommBank app.

It has also announced partnerships, which include minority investments of $50 million, in Little Birdie and Amber.

Little Birdie

The bank revealed that it has acquired a 23% shareholding in Little Birdie. It is an online shopping start-up that helps customers find special deals when shopping online.

Mr Comyn commented: “Little Birdie will bring customers the best shopping deals from across the internet and will help to connect our 7.5m digitally active customers with our 700k business customers. Combined with our 50:50 partnership with Klarna in Australia and StepPay, CBA’s recently announced buy now, pay later card, we have a highly differentiated platform to help business customers grow and retail customers save money. Deals and offers, integrated with CBA’s goal savings products, will help customers save for a special purchase in a completely different way.”

Amber

Commonwealth Bank has acquired a 25% shareholding in Amber. It provides subscription based access to wholesale electricity prices.

The CEO said: “Purchasing a home is a time when customers look for ways to save money, and electricity is a large expense in a household budget. Our partnership with Amber will help to differentiate our home buying proposition, with Amber providing direct access to wholesale prices and bringing additional discounts for CBA customers.”

Better digital experiences

Mr Comyn concluded: “CBA’s technology enables us to redefine what customers can expect from a bank, moving beyond customer service to delivering deeper, trusted relationships, a better digital experience and better deals on everything from conveyancing when buying a home, to paying for utilities or shopping for homewares.

“We will continue to pursue a strategy of providing a differentiated banking experience for retail and business customers, and leveraging our technology assets to build distinct propositions to better serve our customers.”

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The Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX: VUL) share price is shooting up today after the company provided an update for its pilot lithium extraction plant.

The Vulcan share price is up 5.59% trading at $7.55 at the time of writing.

What’s driving the Vulcan share price today?

The company announced that its pilot plant team has achieved target specification for direct lithium extraction (DLE) feed into its pilot plant. This process diverts brine flow and extracts lithium, with lithium chloride sent to its lithium refining plant while water is recycled with no toxic wastes or gases emitted.

The team was able to achieve a target recovery of greater than 90% for lithium chloride from Upper Rhine Valley brine. In addition, it demonstrated that post-treated DLE brine to be materially the same composition, within analytical error, as production brine, excluding extracted lithium and silica. This result is in line with Vulcan’s strict environmental focus.

The company said its next steps include the ramp-up of DLE pilot plant to a 24/7 operation and conversion of lithium chloride solution to lithium hydroxide. It will also provide samples to potential customers/off-takers and conduct further work on post-treatment of brine.

According to Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium Corporate presentation, project milestones including piloting, offtake agreements and feasibility studies are expected to be completed by mid-2022.

By that time, the company will seek to finance the project to begin drilling and construction for Phase 1 by the third quarter of 2022. The market is clearly excited about Vulcan shares and its near-term prospects of emerging as a zero-carbon producer of critical materials.

Management commentary

Vulcan managing director Dr Francis Wedin commented on the results, saying:

The latest update from our laboratory and pilot plant lithium extraction teams in Germany shows good progress has been achieved in a very short space of time. We will aim to continue this momentum and to continue to rapidly de-risk and scale-up our lithium extraction process in the months to come, as we execute on our strategy to deliver our Zero Carbon Lithium Project into production for the European battery electric vehicle market.

Dr Wedin also responded to comments made by the International Energy Agency (IEA). He said:

With the International Energy Agency last week declaring the need for annual battery production of 6,600 GWh by 2030, implying an annual lithium chemicals requirement of 22 times current total global production, Vulcan is leading the charge to reduce large carbon emissions currently embodied in the traditional production of lithium.

The team at Vulcan is highly motivated to ensure that the global transition to renewables, energy storage and electric mobility is conducted in a sustainable, net-zero manner, and we are channeling this motivation into systematically executing on our Zero Carbon Lithium Project.

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The Swoop Holdings Limited (ASX: SWP) share price is having an incredibly positive first day on the ASX boards.

In morning trade, the telecommunications company’s shares have more than doubled in value after the successful completion of its initial public offering (IPO).

At the time of writing, the Swoop share price is fetching $1.15, which is up 130% from its listing price of 50 cents.

What is Swoop?

Swoop is a telecommunications company formed by the merger of Cirrus Communications and NodeOne Telecommunications.

It is a national provider of fixed wireless internet services to wholesale, business, and residential customers. The company notes that the Swoop network is designed and scaled to deliver ultra-reliable, high throughput, flexible telecom network services.

The Swoop IPO

In conjunction with the acquisitions of Cirrus and NodeOne, Swoop successfully completed a fully underwritten offer which raised gross proceeds of $20 million.

Demand for its IPO was exceptionally strong, with the company revealing that it was more than 15x oversubscribed.

Directors Tony Grist and James Spenceley, along with major shareholder Tatterang, showed strong support for the listing. They collectively subscribed for $4 million of the capital raise. Mr Spenceley is the founder of fellow telco Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC).

The company intends to use the offer proceeds for organic expansion of its fixed wireless network and customer base, as well as the potential acquisition of complementary businesses.

The latter could happen sooner than you might think. According to its prospectus, the company is already in discussions with a number of smaller telcos.

Upon listing, Swoop has approximately 169.6 million ordinary shares on issue. Based on the current Swoop share price, this implies a market capitalisation of approximately $195 million.

Trading update

Positively, the combined business continues to perform well. Management advised that its operational and financial performance for FY 2021 is in line with the company’s expectations.

This news appears to have gone down well with investors, judging by the performance of the Swoop share price today.

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The Tyro Payments Ltd (ASX: TYR) share price is edging lower on Thursday.

In morning trade, the payments company’s shares are down 1% to $3.80.

Why is the Tyro share price dropping?

The catalyst for the softness in the Tyro share price today appears to have been driven by an update on its terminal outages earlier this year.

Following the outages, Tyro’s focus was to return all impacted merchants to normal operation as rapidly as possible. After which, the company established a remediation framework to provide financially impacted merchants a fast and straightforward channel to claim for financial losses caused by the incident.

This included the company actively engaging with all impacted merchants (via its usual merchant communications portal, email, SMS, and direct mail) inviting them to register with Tyro if they claimed to have suffered financial loss.

Today’s update reveals that, to date, a total of 3,656 merchants have registered with Tyro.

What now?

The impacted merchants have been given two options:

Accelerated Path Assessment – which provides a simple remediation solution via a merchant service fee rebate over a designated period if loss is assessed. This rebate is designed to offset the financial loss suffered.

Case Managed Path Assessment – which provides a more tailored remediation solution under which an impacted merchant provides specified claim information about their particular circumstances and the loss they claim to have suffered.

Tyro advised that it has received 973 responses from merchants wishing to pursue the accelerated path option and 76 responses from merchants wishing to pursue the case managed option.

To date, of the 3,656 merchants who have registered as having claimed to have suffered a financial loss, 888 have had their claims settled.

However, no details have been provided in respect to the amount the company has remediated affected customers. As a result, this uncertainty could be weighing a little on the Tyro share price this morning.

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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.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is dumping radar for driver assistance in its lower-priced vehicles, instead putting all of its focus on camera-based technologies to power Autopilot features including lane control and adaptive cruise control.

The electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer said in a Tuesday blog post that beginning this month, Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs built for the North American market will no longer be equipped with radar. CEO Elon Musk telegraphed the change in a March 12 tweet, saying the company is moving toward a “pure vision” approach for Autopilot. 

Tesla has long been at odds with much of the auto industry over the need for radar and related lidar systems. The technology, which provides measurements of distance to help guide automated driving, is relatively expensive and requires sophisticated processing power on vehicles to manage the data in real time. Musk in the past has called lidar “a crutch.”

But Tesla is not abandoning radar entirely. All new Model S and Model X vehicles, which tend to be higher priced, and vehicles built for markets outside of North America will continue to come equipped with radar and will have radar-supported Autopilot functions.

The company said that for now, it is focused on its “higher volume vehicles” but intends to transition all models to the new system, which it calls Tesla Vision, over time. “Transitioning them to Tesla Vision first allows us to analyze a large volume of real-world data in a short amount of time, which ultimately speeds up the rollout of features based on Tesla Vision,” the company said.

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

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

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The Volpara Health Technologies Ltd (ASX: VHT) share price is pushing higher on Thursday.

At the time of writing, the healthcare technology company’s shares are up 1% to $1.26.

Why is the Volpara share price pushing higher?

Investors have been buying the company’s shares following the release of its full year results for FY 2021.

For the 12 months ending 31 March, Volpara reported record revenue from customer contracts of NZ$19.7 million. This was a 57% increase on the prior corresponding period and driven by a 99% lift in subscription revenue to NZ$18.1 million.

This was driven by further market share gains. Approximately 32% of US women now have a Volpara product applied on their images and data. This compares to 27% at the end of the prior corresponding period.

Another positive was the company’s gross margin, which expanded from 86% to 91%. This was driven by several factors, including a focus on cost reductions and scalability of Microsoft Azure, which is its largest cost-of-revenue expense item. Management expects its gross margins to remain within 90% to 92% in FY 2022.

The company’s operating costs increased by just 8% during the year to NZ$39 million. Management advised that costs would have been flat excluding the first full year of MRS costs and two months of CRA costs.

This ultimately led to the company reporting a 14% improvement in its net loss to NZ$17.5 million for the year. Pleasingly, Volpara has the balance sheet strength to withstand this loss. At the end of the period, the company’s cash balance stood at NZ$32.2 million.

Management commentary

Volpara’s CEO and Chief Scientist, Dr Ralph Highnam, said: “FY2021 was an excellent year for Volpara. We successfully conducted our second acquisition, of Boston-based breast cancer risk company CRA Health, LLC, but we’ve also done a huge amount of work behind the scenes to make the company more scalable: digital marketing through to smarter use of our cloud services through to easier-to-deploy software systems into clinics.”

“It’s great to see that work start to come through in the numbers as we see Gross Margin moving upwards and the net loss coming down, even as we continue to grow at a strong pace. We look forward with relish to now Accelerating Out of COVID-19 and reporting on those results during FY2022,” he added.

Outlook

Management expects its growth to continue in FY 2022. It has provided revenue guidance of approximately NZ$25 million to NZ$26 million. This represents year on year growth of 27% to 32%.

And, as mentioned above, the company is expecting its gross margins to be in the range of 90% to 92% in FY 2022.

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The Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC) share price is crashing lower on the day of its annual general meeting.

At the time of writing, the horticulture company’s shares are down 23% to $3.39.

What happened at the annual general meeting?

Costa took investors through its performance during FY 2020 and then provided an update on its guidance for the current financial year. It is the latter that is weighing heavily on the Costa share price today.

In respect to the former, management notes that it successfully managed and executed a COVID action plan which mitigated the risk of any cases within its business and the community and ensured it could continue its day-to-day operations.

This led to Costa delivering a $59.4 million underlying net profit after tax (NPAT-SL), representing an increase of 108.4% over the prior year. This allowed the Costa board to declare a fully franked total dividend payment of 9 cents per share for the year.

What about the 2021?

The company’s new CEO, Sean Hallahan, spoke about current trading conditions. While its international operations are performing well (in constant currency), things aren’t quite as positive for its domestic operations.

He said: “In terms of the outlook for our 2021 financial year, in our international segment we are now well progressed on our harvests in both China and Morocco and as we reported in February at our full year CY20 results announcement, performance has been very positive versus previous year and expectations.”

However, due to a stronger Australian dollar, its reported results will be negatively impacted.

Speaking about its domestic operations, Mr Hallahan said: “Across the domestic produce categories, we have seen mixed performances for the current year to date. In relation to the berry category, solid pricing across the four main berry varieties has led to a good performance to date with a strong outlook.”

“Mushroom production at Monarto has been impacted by short term labour constraints, however once labour needs are fully addressed, we expect improving outcomes. Overall mushroom demand conditions remain strong going into the cooler months.”

Elsewhere, its Avocado volumes and quality have been pleasing, with export volumes continuing to grow. However, its Citrus operations are facing challenges and its Tomato operations are experiencing short term pricing pressures.

Guidance

In light of the above, Costa’s first half performance is expected to be marginally ahead of the previous comparable period in 2020, with strong international operations offset by challenges in domestic produce conditions.

This has fallen well short of the market’s expectations, putting significant pressure on the Costa share price today.

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A global investment house has suggested dividends on the ASX are about to explode.

The latest Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index predicted dividends in Australia would grow 40% this year.

This would come on the back of an excellent first quarter and industries benefiting from the post-COVID recovery.

“As the economic recovery continues, we’re anticipating further dividend increases, with payouts reaching 85% of their 2019 levels,” said Janus Henderson head of Australia Matt Gaden. 

“The dividend bounce back should be a big relief to Australian investors, particularly self-funded retirees.”

Mining carried Australia’s dividend boost in Q1

Janus Henderson noted that Australia looks more like an emerging market than a developed economy.

This is due to the ASX’s reliance on the mining sector, which single-handedly led the dividend boost in the quarter ending March.

“Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) almost doubled its distribution and became Australia’s largest payer in the first quarter,” the investment company stated.

“Including BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP)’s special dividend, mining payouts jumped 60% year-on-year in Australian dollars, with further increases signalled to arrive later in the year rounding off the 60% growth for mining dividends in calendar year 2021. Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) upped its payout by half in April, for example.”

Next sectors where you can grab that sweet dividend action

With mining already topping out and commodity prices starting to wane, where to next for ASX yield seekers?

Janus Henderson predicted another dominant sector on the ASX, banking, would be next to restore dividends to chunky pre-COVID levels.

“Banks [are] expected to likely to restore dividends to around 70% of their 2019 level,” the investment house stated.

“Janus Henderson expects healthy increases from defensive retailers like Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) and Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) too, but a number of other companies will find it harder to grow their dividends substantially — and some may pay nothing.”

A 40% growth in dividends this year would take payouts to $70.9 billion

“Our outlook clearly points to a dividend revival in Australia after a dividend drought last year,” said Gaden.

Janus Henderson portfolio manager Jane Shoemake warned investors to still expect plenty of uncertainty in a still uncertain world.

“There is certainly much less downside risk to payouts this year than previously anticipated, though the timing and magnitude of individual company payouts is going to be unusually uneven and this will add volatility to the quarterly figures,” she said.

“Special dividends will play a role too.”

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The Air New Zealand Limited (ASX: AIZ) share price will be one to watch this morning.

This follows the airline operator’s announcement in regards to its international cargo flights.

At yesterday’s market close, Air New Zealand shares finished the day at $1.565.

What did Air New Zealand announce?

The Air New Zealand share price could receive a boost today after the company revealed it would be receiving continued government assistance.

In this morning’s release, Air New Zealand advised it has been awarded a further five months of cargo flights under the New Zealand government’s Maintaining International Air Connectivity (MIAC) scheme.

Introduced in March 2021, the MIAC scheme gives financial assistance to selected airline operators. The funds are used to support the cost of flying, and help keep the country connected to global trade partners.

This is particularly crucial at a time where international borders continue to remain shut due to COVID-19.

The MIAC scheme will run until the end of October 2021.

Air New Zealand has been awarded an average of 30 flights per week across 13 international cities and key Pacific ports.

These include Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other major hub destinations. However, it excludes the trans-Tasman and Rarotonga travel bubbles currently in service.

The total financial support for Air New Zealand over this additional five-month period is estimated to be between $120 million and $145 million.

This brings overall government financial assistance for FY21 to between $320 million and $340 million in cargo revenue.

While the result is an improvement from FY20 levels, the airline still expects to make a significant loss for cargo revenue in FY21.

Air New Zealand share price summary

Over the past 12 months, Air New Zealand shares have jumped more than 20%, however year-to-date performance has fallen 6%.

The company’s shares reached a 52-week high of $1.88 last June before dropping lower in the months ahead.

On valuation grounds, Air New Zealand has a market capitalisation of roughly $1.7 billion, with approximately 1.2 billion shares outstanding.

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