Tag: Motley Fool

  • 2 ASX 200 shares analysts rate as buys

    A businessman lights up the fifth star in a lineup, indicating positive share price for a top performer

    If you’re looking for ASX 200 shares to buy, then you might want to check out the ones listed below.

    These quality companies have been tipped as potential market beaters. Here’s what you need to know about them:

    REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)

    The first ASX 200 share to look at is this property listings company. After a couple of years of battling (very successfully) tough trading conditions, the wind is firmly in REA Group’s sails at last.

    Thanks to the booming housing market, low interest rates, and the relaxation of lending rules, property listing volumes are expected to rise meaningfully in the near term. Combined with new revenue streams, cost cutting, acquisitions, and price increases, this bodes very well for REA Group’s earnings growth in the coming years.

    One broker that is particularly positive on the company is Morgan Stanley.  It currently has an overweight rating and $175.00 price target on its shares.

    SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK)

    Another ASX 200 share to consider is SEEK. It is of course the leading job listings company in the ANZ region and has a number of growing businesses around the globe.

    With the Australian economy recovering strongly from the pandemic and businesses managing to successfully overcome the removal of the Job Keeper program, trading conditions look very favourable for SEEK. Especially given its leadership position in the local market.

    At the end of the first half, the company was averaging 35 million monthly visits and had 160,000 active hirers. This led to the company having almost a third of all placements in the region, which is an enormous five times greater than its nearest rival.

    Analysts at Credit Suisse are positive on the company’s future. They currently have an outperform rating and $34.00 price target on its shares.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post 2 ASX 200 shares analysts rate as buys appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3u7Dnfh

  • The Cettire (ASX:CTT) share price is set to mint a new rich lister

    Crown sitting on top of a pile of dividend cash

    Luxury online retailer Cettire Ltd (ASX: CTT) has fast become a considerably successful company. After debuting on the ASX in December, the Cettire share price has surged 353%. The company now boasts a market capitalisation of $777 million.

    Likely, no one is more excited about the company’s success as founder and CEO, Dean Mintz.

    Rich lister in the making

    Cettire came to life through an incubator in 2014 and was quickly prioritised as a preferred concept.

    Detailed in the prospectus, “Dean identified a market opportunity to build a global online proposition in the personal luxury goods market, a large market characterised by relatively low (but growing) digital adoption, high fragmentation and scope for attractive unit economics.”

    The company was officially launched in October of 2017, experiencing substantial growth since. Under the cloak of a ‘luxury goods retailer’, Cettire runs on a proprietary technology platform. One that has been developed to facilitate the entire customer fulfilment cycle, integrate supplier inventory systems, enable dynamic pricing, and harness data-driven marketing decisions.

    Boasting a shareholding of 66% of shares on issue, Mr Mintz clearly still believes there’s plenty of runway for the company. The global personal luxury goods industry is estimated to have a total addressable market of $460 billion.

    At Friday’s closing Cettire share price of $2.03, Mintz’s stake is worth roughly $510 million. Based on last year’s Australian Financial Review Young Rich list, that would place the Cettire founder in 14th spot – wedged between Envato founder Cyan Ta’eed and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) founder Larry Diamond.

    Sending the Cettire share price higher

    Most recently, the company’s shares have been flying higher following two announcements.

    Firstly, Cettire provided a trading update on 3 May for the company’s third quarter FY21. Rapid growth in sales revenue of 331% to $18.5 million for the quarter resulted in an upgrade to FY21 forecasts.

    Secondly, the luxury goods retailer announced a partnership with Klarna on Wednesday. Under the deal, Cettire will provide its customers shopping in Australia and the United States with Klarna’s buy now, pay later services.

    The Cettire share price finished 9.1% higher on Friday, rising to $2.03 per share. Earlier in the day, the company’s shares hit a new all-time high of $2.13.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post The Cettire (ASX:CTT) share price is set to mint a new rich lister appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3fBEXR8

  • The Perenti (ASX:PRN) share price is dropping 4% today. Here’s why

    falling asx share price represented by woman making sad face

    The Perenti Global Ltd (ASX: PRN) share price is in the red during late afternoon trade. This follows the diversified mining company’s announcement that an underground incident has occurred at Obuasi mine in Ghana.

    At the time of writing, Perenti shares are shedding 4.29% to 67 cents. It’s worth noting though that before the update, the company’s share price was flat at 70 cents.

    Let’s take a close look and see what Perenti updated the ASX with.

    Search effort underway

    Investors are selling off Perenti shares in light of the company’s latest news.

    In its announcement, Perenti advised that a mining employee from the Underground Mining Alliance (UMA) has disappeared at AngloGold Ashanti CDI’s (ASX: AGG) Obuasi mine.

    The UMA is a joint venture between Perenti’s subsidiary, African Underground Mining Services and Rocksure, a local Ghanaian contracting company. The companies hold a 70% and 30% interest, respectively.

    According to AngloGold Ashanti’s release, a mining contractor went missing after a fall of ground in one of the operation’s mining stops. The incident took place on 18 May and immediately triggered a search and rescue effort.

    AngloGold Ashanti noted that rescue teams have worked around the clock in difficult geotechnical conditions to find the missing colleague.

    Relevant authorities have been notified and are providing support to the worker’s family and friends. In addition, UMA is working closely with AngloGold Ashanti during this time.

    AngloGold Ashanti emphasised that safety is paramount and as a result, will indefinitely suspend all mining activity at Obuasi mine. Perenti expects the shutdown won’t have any material impact on its FY21 earnings.

    An update on the situation is expected to be provided in due course.

    About the Perenti share price

    Established in 1987, Perenti is one of the world’s largest companies that provides surface and underground mining and support services. The group is headquartered in Australia, and has operations and offices across 11 countries.

    Over the past 12 months, the Perenti share price has fallen over 40%, with year-to-date performance also down more than 50%. The company’s shares reached a 52-week high of $1.60 in June 2020 on the back of a positive business update. However, the company’s recent half-year results in February sent its shares south.

    On valuation grounds, Perenti presides a market capitalisation of roughly $471 million, with about 704 million shares on issue.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post The Perenti (ASX:PRN) share price is dropping 4% today. Here’s why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/2QANBXA

  • ASX 200 shares cashing in on the rising gold price this week

    Rising gold asx share price buy represented by multiple hands grabbing at gold bullion

    This week, the price of gold hit its highest point since January, sending some S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) gold mining shares soaring.

    At the time of writing, the price of gold is US$1,875.84 per ounce. That’s slightly less than its intra-week high of US$1,888.98, which it hit late Wednesday night.

    According to Bloomberg, US investors are turning to precious metals amid worries over inflation.

    Shareholders in ASX 200 gold mining companies might be hoping these inflation concerns persist if they continue to drive up the price of the yellow metal.

    Despite the commodity’s price gaining a small but respectable 2.2% this week, some ASX 200 gold shares have had a bumper week, as a result.

    So, which ASX 200 shares have been sparkling from the surging gold price? Let’s take a look.

    ASX 200 gold shares making gains this week

    De Grey Mining Limited (ASX: DEG)

    Despite being in the red today, the De Grey Mining share price has gained a whopping 18.7% since this time last week.

    At Friday’s close, the company’s shares were swapping hands for $1.55.

    De Grey had a rough end to last week for no apparent reason. Its shares fell 9.44% last Friday despite no news from the company. Thankfully for shareholders, DeGrey shares have well and truly bounced back this week.

    Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST)

    Over the course of this week, the Northern Star Resources share price has gained 6.74%. This includes a small gain of 0.27% today.

    As of Friday afternoon, Northern Star shares were trading at $11.24, which still leaves them down by more than 20% over the last 12 months.

    Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN)

    Despite falling today, the Evolution Mining share price has ended the week well.

    By Friday’s close, the company’s shares were trading 5.76% higher than at the end of last week, fetching $5.14 apiece.

    In news this week, Evolution completed its acquisition of Canadian gold miner Battle North Gold Corp (TSE: BNAU). Battle North owns 5 gold and silver mines in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia.

    Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX: CHN)

    Finally, trailing the pack was Chalice Mining, with a share price gain of 2.1% over the course of this week.

    At today’s market close, Chalice shares were trading at $7.77 each.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post ASX 200 shares cashing in on the rising gold price this week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3u61x9T

  • 2 fantastic ASX shares with long runways for growth

    3D white rocket and black arrows pointing upwards

    Looking for growth shares to buy? Then you might want to consider adding the two listed below to your portfolio.

    Here’s why they have been tipped as growth shares to buy:

    NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)

    The first ASX share to look at is NEXTDC. It is a leading data centre-as-a-service provider with a growing network of data centres in key locations across Australia.

    NEXTDC has been a very strong performer over the last 12 months. This has been driven by the pandemic accelerating the shift to the cloud, which has led to a significant increase in demand for capacity in its data centres and underpinned strong sales and operating profit growth.

    In fact, demand has been so strong that management has had to bring forward its capacity expansion plans in order to cope.

    The good news is that the structural shift to the cloud isn’t anywhere near complete, with more and more businesses and organisations poised to move their in-house operations to data centres in the future. As a result, NEXTDC still has a long runway for growth in the Australian market.

    But management isn’t settling for that. The company has recently opened up offices in Tokyo and Singapore with a view of expanding into these markets in the near future. Given the size of these markets, they could be a real boost to its earnings growth in the 2020s.

    Analysts at Citi are very positive on its prospects. They currently have a buy rating and $14.45 price target on its shares.

    PointsBet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH)

    Another ASX share to look at is PointsBet. It is one of the world’s leading sports betting companies with operations in the ANZ and US markets.

    PointsBet may be a relatively new company but you wouldn’t think that looking at its financials. For example, during the third quarter, the company reported a 236% increase in turnover to $905.2 million. This comprises Australian turnover of $423.2 million (up 137%) and US turnover to $482 million (up 431%). 

    Another positive was that its net win metric is growing at an even quicker rate. During the quarter, PointsBet’s net win lifted 246% to $64.9 million. This was driven by a 147% increase in Australian net win to $38.2 million and a 716% jump in US net win to $26.7 million.

    Pleasingly, the company is still only scratching at the surface of its US market opportunity. And given recent partnerships with sports teams and broadcasters, it looks well-placed to win market share over the coming years.

    Goldman Sachs is very positive on the company. It currently has a buy rating and $17.20 price target on its shares.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post 2 fantastic ASX shares with long runways for growth appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3hEHug8

  • What happened with the Commonwealth Bank share price this week?

    asx bank shares represented by large buidling with the word 'bank' on it

    The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price slipped today, down 0.4% in late afternoon trading.

    The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) spent some time in the red as well. Though the index has since recouped those losses and is currently up 0.1%.

    Today’s fall marks 3 days of losses for the Commonwealth Bank share price this week. Yesterday, 20 May, was the standout day for the big 4 bank, with shares closing up more than 3.2%. That big lift looks to be enough to put CBA shares up some 0.4% from last Friday’s closing bell.

    CBA in the news

    Earlier this week, CBA’s CEO Matt Comyn presented at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Online Summit.

    Noting that Commonwealth Bank is investing $1 billion in technology in the next 5 years, Comyn said, “As we look into the future, CBA is focused on getting more of our core workloads to the cloud and making sure that key applications are running natively on the AWS platform.”

    CBA also made financial news as yield hungry investors circle the big banks in hopes of a return to the heady, fat dividend days.

    As my Foolish colleague Sebastian noted on Wednesday, “Whilst bank shares have more or less got back to the pricing they were at just before the COVID crash last year, investors are still waiting for bank dividends to follow suit.”

    And in a sign that the resurgent inflation may be more than transitory, Commonwealth Bank today announced a 0.05% rate rise on its 3-year fixed-term owner-occupier loans. Investor only loans will see a 0.10% interest rate bump.

    Commonwealth Bank share price snapshot

    Commonwealth Bank shares remain within a whisker of the psychologically important $100 mark, currently trading for $97.94.

    Earlier this week, CBA hit a new record high of $98.84 per share, surpassing the previous all-time high posted way back in March 2015.

    This follows on a strong year for shareholders, which has seen the Commonwealth Bank share price gain 66% over the past 12 months. By comparison, the ASX 200 is up 27% at that same time.

    At the current share price, Commonwealth Bank pays a dividend of 2.6%, fully franked.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post What happened with the Commonwealth Bank share price this week? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3v3xjpc

  • Why the Kogan (ASX:KGN) share price crashed 14% to a 52-week low

    asx share price falling lower represented by investor wearing paper bag on head with sad face

    It has been another day to forget for the Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) share price on Friday.

    The ecommerce company’s shares have just closed the day 14% lower at a 52-week low of $8.70.

    This latest decline means the Kogan share price has now lost 66% of its value since peaking at $25.57.

    Why did the Kogan share price crash?

    Investors have been hitting the sell button again on Friday following the release of a trading update.

    As you might have guessed from the performance of the Kogan share price, this update fell well short of the market’s already reasonably downbeat expectations.

    According to the release, Kogan is expecting to report adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $58 million to $63 million in FY 2021. The market consensus estimate stood at ~$70 million.

    Kogan’s guidance represents growth of just 16.7% to 27% on FY 2020’s adjusted EBITDA of $49.7 million. While many companies would be pleased with this level of growth, it is a significant slowdown on its first half growth rates. During the first half, Kogan reported adjusted EBITDA of $51.7 million, up a whopping 184.4% on the prior corresponding period.

    It is also worth noting that FY 2021’s result includes the Mighty Ape business, which was acquired for $122.4 million.

    According to the acquisition announcement, the Mighty Ape business was expected to contribute EBITDA of A$14.3 million in FY 2021. If it has indeed contributed this, then it would mean the core Kogan business has actually posted a decline in EBITDA in FY 2021.

    What is going wrong?

    Unfortunately for the company, and therefore the Kogan share price, it appears as though management has simply got it wrong with its inventory management. Kogan has filled its warehouses with inventory and then failed to shift it as planned.

    This has led to demurrage costs at ports, an increase in costs for warehousing, and then an increase in marketing spend to move it along. Throw in some significant discounting and product cost inflation, and you have a recipe for disaster for a retailer.

    The good news is that the company expects to return to normal inventory levels and marketing spend over the coming few months. However, based on the Kogan share price on Friday, some investors aren’t sticking around to find out if that happens.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post Why the Kogan (ASX:KGN) share price crashed 14% to a 52-week low appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/2QAKQWe

  • Why this ASX ETF is trouncing the index today

    green etf represented by letters E,T and F sitting on green grass

    If you’ve never suffered from a cyberattack, count yourself lucky.

    Cyberattacks come in all shapes and sizes. Some are orchestrated by nations – we’re looking at you Russia and China. While many are carried out by individuals or small groups of hackers.

    But whether they steal an individual’s bank details to go on a personal shopping spree, or shut down a national gas pipeline for a huge ransom demand, they all have one thing in common.

    They’re illegal.

    And they must be deterred, if not eliminated.

    Cyber criminals raking in tens of millions in ransom

    The standard advice if your computer is being held hostage by hackers’ ransomware is not to pay them any money. Doing so won’t guarantee that they unlock your data and device(s). And it will only encourage further hacking.

    The reality is that many people and large corporations do buckle in and shell out money to get their tech back up and running.

    After Colonial Pipeline Co was hacked in the United States on 7 May – disrupting fuel supply in the world’s biggest economy – the company opted to pay the cyber criminals US$4.4 million (AU$5.6 million).

    And Colonial is far from alone.

    US insurance giant CNA Financial Corp, which rather ironically offers cyber insurance, was hacked in March this year as well. As Bloomberg reports, the company paid US$40 million “in late March to regain control of its network after a ransomware attack…The Chicago-based company paid the hackers about two weeks after a trove of company data was stolen, and CNA officials were locked out of their network.”

    Palo Alto Networks estimates that the average ransom payoff in 2020 was US$312,493. That’s up 171% from cyber-related ransoms paid in 2019.

    Bloomberg reports that “a task-force of security experts and law enforcement agencies… estimated that victims paid about $350 million in ransom last year, a 311% increase over 2019”.

    And closer to home we have this from the Australian Financial Review:

    Nine majority-owned real estate classifieds business Domain is warning users to look out for suspicious emails that purport to be from rental agents offering property deals after it was hit by a cyber attack.

    The attack allowed scammers to access personal information, including email addresses and phone numbers.

    An ASX ETF fighting for your digital safety

    With cyberattacks and the ransoms paid to criminals doubling and even tripling year-on-year, cyber security firms are in the spotlight. And I imagine quite busy.

    While the ASX does have a number of smaller cyber shares, the biggest players in the industry are all listed internationally.

    But there is an ASX exchange-traded fund (ETF) you can look into which provides exposure to 40 of the leading cyber security shares in the world.

    Namely, Betashares Global Cybersecurity Etf (ASX: HACK).

    Hack counts Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) as its largest holding, followed by Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN) and Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD).

    While the HACK share price has lagged the returns from the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) over the past 12 months, today is a different story.

    In late afternoon trading, HACK shares are up 2.4% while the All Ords is up a slender 0.1%.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post Why this ASX ETF is trouncing the index today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/342shgP

  • Top brokers name 3 ASX dividend shares to buy today

    3 reasons for asx 200 share price rise represented by hand holding up 3 fingers

    Fortunately, in this low interest rate environment, there are countless dividend shares for investors to choose from on the Australian share market.

    But with so many to choose from, it can be hard to decide which ones to buy. To narrow things down, I have picked out three ASX dividend shares brokers think investors should buy:

    Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API)

    According to a note out of Macquarie, its analysts have retained their outperform rating and $1.45 price target on this pharmacy chain operator and distributor’s shares. This follows news that Pfizer Australia will start to distribute medicines through Australian Pharmaceutical Industries from September. This is expected to boost its earnings before interest and tax by $4 million per annum. Overall, the broker believes the company is well-placed for growth and is forecasting dividends per share of 5.2 cents in FY 2021 and 7.3 cents in FY 2022. Based on the current Australian Pharmaceutical Industries share price of $1.17, this will mean fully franked yields of 4.5% and 6.2%, respectively.

    Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG)

    Analysts at Ord Minnett have retained their buy rating and $28.00 price target on this iron ore producer’s shares. According to the note, the broker has been looking at the first development project being planned by the company’s Fortescue Future Industries business. It appears to support the development, suggesting that green ammonia demand could be significant in the future. Outside this, the broker continues to expect Fortescue to deliver bumper free cash flows in the near term thanks to the sky high iron ore price. Ord Minnett believes this will lead to fully franked dividends of $3.29 per share in FY 2021 and $2.86 per share in FY 2022. With the Fortescue share price currently fetching $22.42, this will mean massive dividend yields of 14.7% and 12.7%.

    G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM)

    A note out of UBS reveals that its analysts have retained their buy rating and $1.30 price target on this childcare centre operator’s shares. This follows the release of its annual general meeting update earlier this week. The broker is pleased with the way the company’s occupancy rates are improving and expects the Federal Budget to support further improvements. Overall, it believes the company will be well-positioned for growth from FY 2022, which it suspects could support a re-rating of its shares. UBS expects fully franked dividends of 4 cents per share in FY 2021 and 6.1 cents per share in FY 2022. Based on the current G8 Education share price of 97.2 cents, this will mean 4.1% and 6.3% yields for investors.

    These Dividend Stocks Could Be Your Next Cash Kings (FREE REPORT)

    Motley Fool Australia’s Dividend experts recently released a brand-new FREE report revealing 3 dividend stocks with JUICY franked dividends that could keep paying you meaty dividends for years to come.

    Our team of investors think these 3 dividend stocks should be a ‘must consider’ for any savvy dividend investor. But more importantly, could potentially make Australian investors a heap of passive income.

    Don’t miss out! Simply click the link below to grab your free copy and discover these 3 high conviction stocks now.

    Returns As of 15th February 2021

    More reading

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

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3bHJy3b

  • Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) hikes interest rates. Is the RBA wrong?

    Graphic representation of a House and percentage symbol balancing on scales

    The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price is a little rocky today. CBA shares opened well down on yesterday’s close, but have slightly recovered since and are trading at $98.02 at the time of writing, down 0.39% for the day.

    But that’s not the biggest news for CBA shares today. According to a report from news.com.au, Commonwealth Bank has just given its homeowners an interest rate hike.

    Most of us pay attention when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raises or lowers the official cash rate. But banks can raise or lower their own rates independently of the RBA. And that is what has happened today.

    According to the report, CommBank has raised its interest rates on 3 and 4-year fixed-term loans – by 5 basis points for owner-occupiers, and by 10 basis points for investment loans.

    This makes CBA the first of the big four banks to move in this way. RateCity research director Sally Tindall was quoted as stating the following:

    When CBA hiked its 4-year rate in March, a flurry of lenders followed in its wake… We expect the same thing will happen with 3-year rates in the coming months.

    What does CBA’s rate hike mean?

    If you’ve got a fixed loan with National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) or Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ), you might want to keep an eye on your lender.

    The RBA has not made any moves in terms of interest rates since it slashed the cash rate to its current level (and all-time low) of 0.1% last year. That was in response to the coronavirus pandemic, of course. What’s more, the RBA has repeatedly asserted that it doesn’t foresee rates changing until 2024.

    It has made such a move dependent on inflation rising and staying at 2-3%, as well as the economy reaching full employment seeing strong wages growth.

    So that makes this move by Commonwealth Bank today very interesting. It implies the bank doesn’t quite see the RBA’s stated course as gospel. If the RBA was to raise rates sooner than 2024, it would make CBA’s fixed-rate loans a drag on the bank’s profitability. So CBA is arguably moving ahead of the curve here – and showing its hand on what it thinks of the RBA’s commitment as well.

    Where to invest $1,000 right now

    When investing expert Scott Phillips has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the flagship Motley Fool Share Advisor newsletter he has run for more than eight years has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*

    Scott just revealed what he believes are the five best ASX stocks for investors to buy right now. These stocks are trading at dirt-cheap prices and Scott thinks they are great buys right now.

    *Returns as of February 15th 2021

    More reading

    The post Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) hikes interest rates. Is the RBA wrong? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

    from The Motley Fool Australia https://ift.tt/3udjNyg