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The Karoon Energy Ltd (ASX: KAR) share price is rose in late-afternoon trade today. This follows the announcement of a contract with Maersk Drilling.

Founded in 1972, Maersk Drilling is a leading offshore drilling operator. The company supports oil and gas production by providing drilling services to oil companies worldwide.

The Australian oil and gas company’s shares closed the day at $1.20, up 1.69%.

Details of the contract

According to its release, Karoon advised it has contracted the Maersk Developer rig for the 2022 Baúna workover campaign. The award follows a competitive tender process that involved 10 different rig owners.

Under the agreement, Maersk Drilling will conduct a workover program, targeting an increased production of between 5 to 10 KBOPD (thousand barrels of oil per day). Additionally, works will include the replacement of downhole pumps in two wells and the installation of a gas lift in one well. The works will also re-open an oil zone in one well.

Karoon stated that the drilling rig is currently located in the Caribbean, and is expected to arrive in Brazil within the first half of 2022.

Once works are completed at Baúna, Karoon has the option to retain the rig for development at the Patola field. This oil site is adjacent to Baúna and lies inside the BMS-40 Production Licence. Karoon noted that the development of the Patola field could yield more than 10 kbopd and provide additional reserves to its Baúna asset. A final investment decision (FID) is expected to be made in Q2 of 2021.

In addition, the company has the flexibility to extend the Maersk Drilling contract on its Neon light oil discovery. The well, located approximately 60 kilometres northeast of Baúna, will be the first subject to subsurface and engineering studies. Should the Neon oil field prove lucrative, Karoon will employ the rig to drill a control well.

The value of the Maersk Drilling contract has a ‘firm’ price tag of $34 million, which includes rig modifications and a mobilisation fee.

Comments from the CEO

Karoon CEO and and managing director, Dr. Julian Fowles commented:

We are delighted to have signed this contract with Maersk Drilling, a global leader in offshore drilling, with one of the youngest and most advanced rig fleets in the industry. The contract marks another significant milestone in the evolution of Karoon into a substantial production and development company with material near term growth potential.

Karoon share price snapshot

The Karoon share price has jumped over 130% in the last 12 months. It is also up 12% year-to-date. Like most energy shares, Karoon has seen an upwards growth trajectory since its COVID-19 lows in March 2020. The economic rebound in oil prices has predominately driven the company’s share price performance.

Karoon has a market capitalisation of roughly $661 million, with more than 553 million shares on issue.

More reading

• Top broker issues buy alert on Santos (ASX:STO) and these ASX energy shares

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras 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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It seems that a new cyber attack hits the news each day, and now, the Reserve Bank of Australia has found they threaten our financial security.

The Financial Stability Review was released by the Reserve Bank this month. Within it, the institution warns cyber attacks pose a “significant threat” to our financial system.

Let’s look closer into what the Reserve Bank of Australia had to say about the threat of cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks are on the rise globally

The Reserve Bank noted in its report the rising risk and occurrences of cyber attacks on Australia’s financial institutions.

In fact, Australian banks face millions of cyber attacks each day.

One doesn’t have to look far to find examples. For instance, a cyber attack on ASIC and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand hit the news in January, when attackers breached third-party software, Accellion FTA. 

Other news-worthy attacks this year include the Russian-backed attack on United States-based Solar Winds Corp (NYSE: SWI), which experts estimate affected 18,000 of the company’s customers. Another is the Chinese backed hacker who launched a worldwide attack on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) in March. 

In 2018, the International Monetary Fund estimated direct losses from cyber attacks could be as high as 9% of total bank incomes globally – around US$100 billion annually.

Though, it wasn’t just hacks and attacks that were highlighted as technological dangers to Australia’s financial stability.

The Reserve Bank found, as digital platforms and service channels get more nuanced, their risk of failing becomes greater.

An example that may well be a bit too close to home is the ASX’s technical issues that interrupted the trading day on 16 November 2020.

What can be done to prevent attacks?

The Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) have already began working to find weaknesses in Australian financial entities’ software.

The CFR coordinates Australia’s main regulatory agencies, including the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Treasury and the Reserve Bank.

Currently, its conducting an 18-month pilot exercise of its Cyber Operational Resilience Intelligence-led Exercises (CORIE) framework.

CORIE is designed to test and demonstrate the cyber resilience of institutions in the Australian financial services industry.

It will be used to assess cyber resilience by testing selected financial sector entities to ‘ethical hacking’ exercises.

The Reserve Bank hopes CORIE will inform regulators of any systemic or institution specific cyber security risks.

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Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft 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 recommends Microsoft. 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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If you’re wanting to bolster your portfolio with some dividend shares, then the two listed below could be worth considering.

Here’s what you need to know about these ASX dividend shares:

BWP Trust (ASX: BWP)

BWP Trust could be an ASX dividend share to look at right now. The commercial property company is the largest owner of Bunnings Warehouse sites across Australia. At the last count, it owned a total of 68 properties which were leased to the home improvement giant.

With demand for home improvement products growing strongly and government stimulus supporting the industry, Bunnings is arguably the dream tenant for any retail landlord. 

As a result, it will come as no surprise to learn that BWP has been performing positively. For example, during the first half of FY 2021, BWPs profit (including property revaluation gains) rose 6% over the prior corresponding period to $144 million.

This allowed management to reaffirm its plans to pay a full year distribution of ~18.3 cents per share. Based on the current BWP share price, this equates to a generous 4.5% dividend yield.

Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF)

Another ASX dividend share to look at is Rural Funds. It is the owner of a diverse portfolio of high quality agricultural assets across five sectors. These are almonds, cattle, vineyards, cropping and macadamias.

Rural Funds’ assets are leased on extremely long term leases to highly experienced operators such as Select Harvests Limited (ASX: SHV) (almonds) and Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) (vineyards).

In February the company released its half year update and revealed a result in line with expectations. This means it is on course to deliver on its FY 2021 distribution guidance of 11.28 cents per share. Management also revealed plans to increase its distribution by its target rate of 4% to 11.73 cents per share in FY 2022.

Based on the current Rural Funds share price, this will mean yields of 4.6% and 4.8%, respectively.

More reading

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended RURALFUNDS STAPLED. 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 Candy Club Holdings Ltd (ASX: CLB) share price remains flat today despite the company reporting significant revenue and customer increases in its Quarterly Activities Report.

The Candy Club share price is currently trading for 22 cents per share.

Candy Club is a confectionary retailer that specialises in retailing candy boxes in both B2B and B2C markets. It’s heavily US-centric and garners most of its revenue from either B2B or supplying huge US retail chains.

Candy Club revenue increases

Candy Club announced its results today for the three months ending 31 March 2021: its first-quarter FY2021 results. 

The company has made total gross revenue of US$4.13 million in 1Q FY2021, representing an increase of 192% year-on-year (YoY). This was driven by its B2B division, which posted US$3.4 million gross revenue during the quarter.

This is a 21% increase quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), or 423% growth YoY. The company says this is particularly impressive considering the “persistent headwinds” created by the coronavirus pandemic.

The company’s B2C business also experienced good growth in the period, as it was up 49% versus the prior quarter. 

Customer increases heavily US-focused

The company’s total number of retail doors grew further to more than 17,000. At the same time, the number of B2B customers exceeded 10,000 as of 1Q FY2021.

Its larger brick-and-mortar customers continued to grow QoQ. Additionally, the majority of its existing national and regional department and gift store chains reordering.

The company also added several impressive new account wins including the giant US national retailer JC Penny. Fellow rival Macy’s has also expanded Candy Club’s presence by selling the company’s candies in more stores and expecting further growth. Re-order rates for the company’s top 25 customers held over 90% for the quarter.

Candy Club expecting future growth

While Candy Club’s U.S. results appear strong, Australian investors are obviously less excited by the news. Furthermore, the Candy Club share price has remained flat. Nevertheless, the company expects strong growth moving forward.

Candy Club’s B2B division remained strong in 1Q FY2021, achieving quarterly record revenue of approximately US$3.4 million. The company’s strong performance comes amid the challenging operating environment in the US, which continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the thousands of small businesses derived from the company’s e-commerce strategy are driving the recent growth, Candy Club expects the traditional US brick-and-mortar retailers to significantly grow the company’s overall business by 2H FY2021.

Candy Club share price movements

The Candy Club share price is down more than 6% over the past week and month, but the company has gained more than 300% over the past 12 months.

More reading

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Motley Fool contributor Lucas Radbourne-Pugh 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 CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) share price has been in the spotlight in recent memory. This follows concerns over its plasma collections as well as its progress in producing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

At the time of writing, the global biotech’s shares are trading for $264.64, down 1.3% for the day.

Plasma worries

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the global economy and virtually shut down foot traffic movement in the United States.

Unfortunately for CSL, this has affected its plasma collections as fewer people are donating blood to its collection centres. The company last provided an update in March advising that December 2020 plasma volumes were sitting around 80% of the December 2019 levels.

This has led CSL to approach the public for ideas on how it can maximise the yield and processing efficiency in human immunoglobulins.

CSL Behring’s immunoglobulins are much needed for running its business operations. Derived from plasma, human immunoglobulins are a lifesaving therapy that prevent and fight rare and serious infections.

The company is offering $40,000 on the winning idea as well as two one-on-one mentoring sessions with CSL Behring.

COVID-19 vaccine update

Furthermore, CSL is striving to increase production of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. So far, Australia has administered over 1.65 million vaccinations to the public, averaging around 60 thousand doses per day.

The Australian government has indicated that it’s strongly considering bringing vaccine manufacturing capability to Australia within the next decade. This would protect Australians from present and future pandemics through local supply, avoiding political problems such as the European shipment block.

CSL has put its hand up for this proposal and is in current discussions with the Australian government. Although, it may take some time to set up such a facility and begin producing important vaccines.

Broker update

The latest broker update came from investment bank Macquarie yesterday, issuing a price target of $282.50 for CSL. While it may have cut its outlook by 1.9% from its original note, this represents an upside of almost 7%.

CSL share price review

Over the last 12 months, the CSL share price has faltered and is now trading at the same price as recorded in November 2019. The company’s shares momentarily reached a high of $320.42 in late November 2020 before trending downwards and moving sideways since.

As one of the ASX market’s largest companies in terms of market capitalisation, the CSL share price is valued at $120.2 billion. Furthermore, the company has more than 455 million shares on issue.

More reading

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Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of CSL Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie 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 BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price dipped today. That’s despite today’s announcement of the commissioning of a new natural gas field to supply Australia’s east coast.

At close of trade today, shares in the mining giant were selling for $47.44 – down 0.25%. By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 0.68% lower.

Let’s take a closer look at today’s news and how it might be affecting the BHP share price.

BHP’s joint venture

BHP revealed its 50/50 Gippsland Basin Joint Venture’s West Barracouta natural gas field with Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM)’s Australian affiliate, Esso Australia, is now up and running.

The field, located in the Bass Strait off the coast of Victoria, is expected to provide domestic gas supply for Australia’s east coast. BHP’s stake in the venture is worth approximately $400 million. The project hasn’t appeared to have a positive impact on the BHP share price.

Country Manager of BHP Petroleum Australia, Graham Salmond, said:

The Gippsland Basin Joint Venture has played a central role in reliably meeting the energy needs of Australian homes and businesses for 50 years.

As the largest domestic gas project in Australia in recent years, West Barracouta has unlocked a new, high quality gas resource that will help maintain Bass Strait production and support our diverse domestic customer base.

We aim to continue developing opportunities to maximise the value of Bass Strait for the joint venture and our shareholders.

Natural gas commodity price

Presently, natural gas is trading on the commodities market for US $2.75 per 10 billion British thermal units. While up 49.5% higher than this time last year, the price of natural gas is down 16.1% since the middle of February this year.

The website Trading Economics is forecasting the price of natural gas to fall to US $2.16 in 52 weeks’ time.

The BHP share price, however, is still tipped to increase because of the surge in demand for copper.

BHP share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, the BHP share price has increased by 54%. In fact, since the beginning of this year, the company’s value has increased by 10.1%.

BHP has a market capitalisation of $224.3 billion.

More reading

• Treasurer outlines federal budget focus as IMF upgrades Australian outlook
• ASX miners in focus as the copper price looks poised to crack above 10-year highs
• Airbnb predicts huge rebound, ASX travel shares in the hot seat
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX 200 hits new post-COVID high
• Why ASX mining shares are likely to jump this morning

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

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With so many growth shares to choose from on the Australian share market, it can be hard to decide which ones to buy over others.

To help narrow things down, I have picked out two ASX growth shares that could be top options for investors today. Here’s what you need to know about them:

Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)

The first ASX growth share to look at is Megaport. It is a leading provider of elastic interconnection services globally. The company utilises software defined networking (SDN) to allow customers to rapidly connect their network to other services across the Megaport Network.

This means that services can be directly controlled by customers via mobile devices, their computer, or its open API.

The shift to the cloud has led to increasing demand for Megaport’s services. As a result, it now connects more than 2,050 customers in over 700 enabled data centres globally. This led to Megaport reporting Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of $6.3 million at the end of December. This was up $1.7 million or 37% year on year.

Goldman Sachs is confident in its growth outlook. The broker currently has a buy rating and $15.55 price target on its shares.

NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)

Another ASX growth share to consider is NEXTDC. Like Megaport, it appears perfectly positioned to benefit from the cloud computing boom.

This is because NEXTDC is one of the region’s leading data centre-as-a-service providers with a total of 11 world class centres in key locations across Australia. From these facilities, NEXTDC provides colocation services to local and international organisations. 

But it isn’t settling for that. The company has recently opened up offices in Singapore and Tokyo with a view of expanding into these markets. If this expansion proves to be a success, it would give NEXTDC a significant growth runway.

Goldman Sachs is also positive on NEXTDC. Earlier this month it retained its buy rating, added it to its conviction list, and lifted its price target to $15.00. The broker believes NEXTDC is well-positioned for growth over the medium term.

More reading

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James Mickleboro owns shares of NEXTDC Limited. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Australia’s leading investment platform provider CommSec has released data on the most traded ASX shares on its platform from last week.

Here’s the data:

Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P)

Zip’s shares were the most popular shares among CommSec investors last week, accounting for a sizeable 5% of trades. Approximately 58% of these trades came from buyers, who will have been delighted to see the Zip share price surged 13% higher over the five days. The catalyst for this was a strong Q3 update.

Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ)

The Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF was popular with investors again last week. Its units accounted for 1.7% of trades on the platform, with a massive 80% of them coming from buyers. Investors may have been piling in due to a pullback in bond yields.

Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN)

This artificial intelligence technology company’s shares were attributable to 1.5% of trades last week. Almost two-thirds of these trades came from the buy side, which helped drive the BrainChip share price 14% higher for the week. News that the company has begun manufacturing its neuromorphic processor chip for edge AI devices gave its shares a boost.

BetaShares Global Sustainability Leaders ETF (ASX: ETHI)

A new entry to the top five is this ethical investing ETF. It accounted for 1.3% of trades during the period, with buyers accounting for 85% of the volume. This ETF invests in sustainable and ethical companies and has now recorded three straight weeks of gains.

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

The ever-popular Afterpay makes the top five yet again. The payments giant’s shares were attributable to 1.1% of trades on CommSec. And despite the Afterpay share price rising almost 4.5%, only 46% of the volume came from buyers. This morning Afterpay released its third quarter update and revealed that underlying sales continue to grow at a rapid rate globally.

More reading

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James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of BETANASDAQ ETF UNITS and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BETANASDAQ ETF UNITS. 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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An Australian fintech is allowing any person to receive their wages or salary in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).

A privately held startup named Living Room of Satoshi has this week launched its Wages service.

To use the feature, the user simply has to instruct their employer to pay their wages into a Living Room of Satoshi account — as opposed to a bank account.

The cryptocurrency facilitator will then convert a percentage of the wages into Bitcoin and deposit the rest into the user’s bank account.

This is the easiest way to build up a cryptocurrency balance, according to Living Room of Satoshi chief executive Daniel Alexiuc.

“Bitcoin has seen its price rise astronomically in the last 6 months, which has triggered an unprecedented buy-in from institutional investors,” he said.

“We wanted to provide an option for regular folks in Australia to also join this burgeoning ecosystem — and the simplest and most pain-free way is to have a small percentage of your wage converted and sent to you when you get paid.”

The Bitcoin price has risen from about $36,000 at the start of the year to now more than $70,000.

What is Living Room of Satoshi?

Living Room of Satoshi is named after the pseudonym for the anonymous founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The 7-year-old service allows Australians to pay any bill, bank account or credit card using cryptocurrencies. The app also allows Bitcoin purchases.

“We like to imagine that when Satoshi has a bill to pay, he kicks back at the end of the day and pays it in his living room. Hence ‘Living Room of Satoshi’!” states the company website.

The fintech holds its own Australian Financial Services licence.

Living Room of Satoshi is not the only company to allow Australians to receive their wages in cryptocurrency. Fintech getpaidinbitcoin.com.au specifically exists for that purpose.

While Living Room of Satoshi charges a 4.9% conversion fee excluding GST, getpaidinbitcoin.com.au slugs $1 per transaction.

More reading

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Tony Yoo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends 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.

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The Anteotech Ltd (ASX: ADO) share price is one the best performing shares on the ASX today, topping the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) and besting every share in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). At the time of writing, Anteotech shares are up a very robust 13.11% to 34 cents a share after opening at 20 cents this morning.

It’s been an incredible few months for Anteotech, as well as an incredible year. Over the past month alone, Anteotech is up 38%. Year to date in 2021 so far, investors have enjoyed gains of roughly 213%. And over the past 12 months, Anteotech shares have risen a mind-boggling 1,625%. Want one better? Since November 2019, Anteotech is up 3,350%. Enough said.

So who is this company? And why are Anteotech shares rocketing today?

Anteo-who?

Anteotech is a tech company that specialises in ‘surface management technology’. It has two flagship products: AnteoBind and AnteoCoat. AnteoBind is a glue of sorts that has a myriad of biomedical uses, including more recently the management of COVID-19. AnteoCoat uses a similar sort of technology but employs it in the energy space. This is most prominent in battery manufacturing. With this technology, Anteotech aims to increase the charge capacity of rechargeable batteries, as well as reducing size, weight and costs in battery manufacturing.

Anteotech has a range of patents that apply to its technology, which it hopes to use for future growth.

Why are Anteotech shares topping the ASX today?

It’s not entirely clear why Anteotech shares are rocketing today. There has been no major news or announcements out of the company this week.

However, there have been a number of positive developments recently that are likely to be feeding into Anteotech share price today.

Back on 9 April, Anteotech shares jumped 9% on news of a new contract. Under the arrangement, Anteotech will be providing silicon composite for the Super Anode Project, run by the Future Battery Industries Cooperation Research Centre. As my Fool colleague Brooke reported at the time, the company is set to spend roughly $500,000 on the project. In exchange, it will receive some intellectual property rights on any technological developments or breakthroughs.

Further, on 12 April, Anteotech announced that European regulators have given its EuGeni COVID-19 rapid diagnostic test the tick of approval for sale in the European Union and the United Kingdom. That announcement sent Anteotech shares up another 8% at the time.

That was the last major update we got from the company. Saing that, ASX data shows that there has been a significant uptick in the volume of Anteotech shares traded today, which is inevitable from a share price jump like what we’ve seen. 11.4 million shares have traded today so far, significantly above the 5.2 million that swapped hands yesterday. We could be seeing some large institutional buying today, or just some good old fashioned momentum.

Either way, Anteotech investors are probably a very happy bunch right now. At the current share price, Anteotech has a market capitalisation of $636.4 million.

More reading

• Why the Magellan (ASX:MFG) share price has lost its magic
• ASX 200 down 0.4%: Afterpay delivers stellar Q3 growth, Rio Tinto Q1 update
• The Stockland (ASX:SGP) share price is down this morning. Here’s why
• The latest 3 ASX shares leading brokers are urging you to buy now
• ASX miners in focus as the copper price looks poised to crack above 10-year highs

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen 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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