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Luckily in this low interest rate environment, there are a number of blue chip shares offering investors generous yields.

Three blue chips that are highly rated right now for income investors are listed below. Here’s what you need to know:

Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ)

With the worst now seemingly behind the banks, investors have been piling into the sector again in recent months. The good news is that it may not be too late to invest and still generate a generous yield. According to a note out of Morgans, now that dividend restrictions have been removed, its analysts are forecasting a $1.27 per share dividend in FY 2021. This represents a fully franked 5.2% yield. Morgans has an add rating and $26.00 price target on its shares.

BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP)

Another blue chip that comes highly rated is BHP. Thanks to favourable commodity prices, particularly the sky high iron ore price, analysts at Macquarie are tipping the mining giant to generate significant free cash flow this year. The broker expects this to result in a fully franked ~$3.85 per share dividend in FY 2021. Which based on the current BHP share price, represents an 8.3% dividend yield. Macquarie has an outperform rating and $46.00 price target on its shares.

Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)

This telco giant has struggled for a number of years due to the NBN rollout but has been tipped to return to growth in the not so distant future. This is thanks to its T22 strategy and the arrival of 5G internet. In the meantime, analysts at UBS believe that Telstra will be able to maintain its 16 cents per share fully franked dividend for the foreseeable future. Based on the current Telstra share price, this equates to a 5.2% dividend yield. UBS has a buy rating and $3.70 price target on the company’s shares.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• 2 ASX 50 shares to buy
• Why this broker likes ANZ (ASX:ANZ), NAB (ASX:NAB), and Westpac (ASX:WBC)
• Why this top broker thinks the Telstra (ASX:TLS) share price could surge ~40%
• BHP, Rio Tinto’s new copper mine under threat

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Telstra 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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On Thursday the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was on form again and stormed higher. The benchmark index rose 0.4% to 6,715.3 points.

Will the market be able to build on this on Friday? Here are five things to watch:

ASX 200 expected to rise again.

The Australian share market looks set to end the week on a positive note. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 8 points or 0.1% higher this morning. This follows a positive night of trade on Wall Street, which in late trade sees the Dow Jones up 0.2%, the S&P 500 up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq trading 0.3% higher.

Oil prices push higher.

It could be a good day for energy producers Beach Energy Limited (ASX: BPT) and Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) after oil prices pushed higher overnight. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 1.1% to US$53.48 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price has risen 0.5% to US$56.35 a barrel. This was despite rising COVID cases in Europe and new lockdowns in China renewing concerns about global oil demand.

Gold price softens.

Gold miners such as Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX: NCM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) will be on watch after the gold price dropped lower. According to CNBC, the gold futures price is down 0.5% to US$1,847.60 an ounce. This appears to have been driven by a strengthening US dollar.

Iron ore price rises.

It could be a good day for mining giants BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) on Friday after the iron ore price pushed higher again. According to Metal Bulletin, the iron ore price has risen 1.3% to US$172.36 a tonne overnight. In late trade in the United States, the US listed shares of BHP and Rio Tinto are up 4.5% and 4%, respectively. Similar gains were made by their UK listed shares.

Whitehaven rated neutral.

The Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price could be fully valued according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. The broker has responded to its “weaker than expected” December quarter update by retaining its neutral rating and $1.60 price target on the coal miner’s shares. This compares to the current Whitehaven Coal share price of $1.81.

More reading

• ASX 200 rises 0.4%
• 2 ASX 50 shares to buy
• 3 reasons we might see higher ASX share prices in 2021
• Does the ASX care that Donald Trump has been impeached, twice?
• Why the Meridian (ASX:MEZ) share price is dropping lower today

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro 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 S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by 0.4% today to 6,715 points.

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:

Australian Ethical Investment Limited (ASX: AEF)

Australian Ethical announced its quarterly update for the period ending 31 December 2020.

It said that its funds under management (FUM) grew by another 16.9% to $5.05 billion, up from $4.32 billion at 30 September 2020.

It received net inflows of $270 million for the quarter.

The company attributed the increase to strong investment performance and strong net flows.

In the financial year to date to 31 December 2020, FUM has grown by 24.6%.

The Australian Ethical share price went up more than 1% in reaction to this.

Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME)

The Pro Medicus share price went up 15% after revealing that it won a new contract in the US.

The healthcare imaging company announced that it had won a seven-year contract with Intermountain Healthcare worth $40 million.

Intermountain is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West region of Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

Pro Medicus’ Visage will replace the legacy PACS and other specialty systems across the 24 hospitals and more than 200 clinics. The contract includes the Visage 7 Viewer and the Visage 7 Open Archive. The Visage 7 platform will be fully deployed in the public cloud, using the Google Cloud Platform.

Planning for the rollout is to begin in the third quarter of FY21, with data migration commencing immediately by Visage’s engineering team. The first sites will be scheduled to go-live shortly thereafter.

Pro Medicus CEO Dr Sam Hupert said: “This is a very important deal for us, not only because of its size and scope, it will provide us with a material footprint in Intermountain West, previously an untapped region for us. It also validates our decision to engineer Visage 7 from the ground up to be natively cloud capable, with Intermountain deploying both the Visage 7 Viewer and Visage 7 Open Archive as part of our Visage in the cloud offering, making this one of the largest cloud-based PACS implementations in the world.

“This is our fifth major contract win in six months. We believe this validates our belief that we have unique, market leading technology which, coupled with our expanded product portfolio and native cloud capability, has significantly increased our total addressable market in our key jurisdictions of North America, Europe and Australia.”

Bell Financial Group Ltd (ASX: BFG)

The Bell Financial share price went up 3.6% after giving a profit update for FY20.

It said in the year to 31 December 2020 that revenue went up 18% to $299 million, funds under advice (FUA) grew 9% to $63.9 billion, net profit after tax (NPAT) rose 44% to $46.7 million and the earnings per share (EPS) went up 44% to 14.6 cents.

The company will give a full update of its result in February.

Buy now, pay later operators rise

The entire buy now, pay later industry got a boost today after global competitor Affirm jumped after its own initial public offering (IPO).

Australia’s biggest player, Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT), saw its share price grow by almost 10%, the Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price rose by 5%, the Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) share price went up 7.5% and the Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) share price rose 1.8%.

More reading

• 3 reasons we might see higher ASX share prices in 2021
• Does the ASX care that Donald Trump has been impeached, twice?
• What’s next for WAAAX shares in 2021? 
• Bell Financial (ASX:BFG) share price rising on full year results
• Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price jumps 10% on bullish broker note

Tristan Harrison 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 Pro Medicus Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Australian Ethical Investment Ltd. and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Sezzle Inc. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Australian Ethical Investment Ltd., Pro Medicus Ltd., and Sezzle Inc. 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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There has been plenty in the media lately about companies deemed to have profited from JobKeeper.

And it’s easy talkback and tabloid fodder, not to mention great retail politics.

Here’s how it works:

1. Company gets $X million in JobKeeper payments.

2. Company makes $Y million in profit.

3. Cue outrage

And it seems logical, right.

If a company made $10 million in profit, but got, say, $5 million in JobKeeper payments, isn’t it logically true that half of the profit was funded by the taxpayer?

And shouldn’t it be paid back?

(And, if you’re a politician, shock jock or tabloid rabble-rouser, why would you bother thinking any more deeply on the topic?)

By the way, the answer to ‘Isn’t it logically inescapable that the taxpayer funded the profit?’ is a resounding ‘no’.

Or, more accurately, not necessarily.

But it takes a little thinking – something that, well, doesn’t always get done in our social media and soundbite world.

First, remember that the money for JobKeeper might be paid to the company, but is passed through to the employee. So the company can’t keep the cash and profit from it.

Ah, you say, but if they made a profit, they could have just paid the employees themselves.

Yep. They could have.

Except that, in some (many, perhaps most?) cases, they wouldn’t have.

They would have laid the workers off (or significantly reduced their hours).

Sure, some wouldn’t have. And yes, those companies likely did earn more profits than in a ‘normal year’.

But many – again, perhaps most – would have sacked, laid off, or reduced hours, thereby preserving their profits; rather than keep a full complement of staff, and make a loss in doing so.

Which makes for a pretty tricky policy issue.

I am in complete agreement that taxpayers money shouldn’t be used for corporate welfare (of more sorts than just JobKeeper, by the way).

But if we can’t know, in advance, which employees would have been kept on, and which let go, how do you otherwise design a program that protects jobs – the very aim of JobKeeper.

You could ask those companies whether they intended to lay off workers, I guess. And one or two might even be honest. The rest would either be blatantly dishonest, or – more likely – would have honestly said “We don’t know, because we don’t know how bad things will get”.

And yes, if we’d had 12 months to debate the merits of a scheme designed to keep the maximum number of jobs through an unexpected pandemic, it’s even possible other checks and balances might have been introduced.

But the government was scrambling, and, frankly, came up with a scheme that was astonishingly successful – and our fast return from recession to growth is evidence of same.

(For the record, we can never distinguish entirely between causation and correlation. We can’t know how deep the recession would have been without JobKeeper, nor how slow the recovery might have been. But it’s a fair bet that JobKeeper was instrumental in shortening the recession and moderating its depth.)

Should we ‘claw back’ JobKeeper, then, if companies made a profit?

I mean, we could, but remember that companies entered the scheme in good faith, and to retrospectively demand repayment would be to undermine the effectiveness of a similar scheme in future.

Companies will ask themselves: “If we have to pay this back, would we be better off just sacking workers now, and maximising profits, rather than having to roll the dice on some future clawback of JobKeeper?”.

Because, remember, this was all about maximising employment and minimising unemployment.

It was always a ‘least worst’ option, costing scores of billions, designed to be such a no-brainer that it kept people in work and – and remember this bit – allowing them to make mortgage and other loan repayments, to continue consuming, and to keeping other businesses afloat… which meant more jobs saved.

The economy is always circular – a virtuous circle when growth begets growth, but a vicious circle when decline causes further decline.

So, we can say that companies shouldn’t have received the money, if they were going to make a profit anyway… but we have to remember that – given managers are responsible for maximising profits one way or the other – the cost might have come in the form of huge job losses, and the resultant worsening of economic conditions and the lengthening of a recession.

Yes, paying taxpayer money to profitable companies sticks in the craw. But it might just have been the least worst of the available options. 

We truly need to be careful what we wish for.

More reading

• These ASX shares are growing at a rapid rate in FY 2021
• Are these 2 beaten-up ASX shares turnaround ideas?
• US decides against delisting Tencent and other Chinese giants
• Why the Cyclopharm (ASX:CYC) share price popped 6% today
• Why the Odyssey (ASX:ODY) share price is up a whopping 60% today

Motley Fool contributor Scott Phillips 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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Unfortunately, the pandemic has stifled the growth of a number of popular companies in FY 2021 such as A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) and Altium Limited (ASX: ALU).

The good news, though, is that not all companies are struggling because of COVID-19. In fact, the two shares listed below are on fire this financial year. Here’s what you need to know:

Bigtincan Holdings Ltd (ASX: BTH)

The first share which has been delivering strong growth in FY 2021 is Bigtincan. It is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software globally.

Bigtincan’s software helps businesses increase their sales win rates, reduce expenditures, and improve customer satisfaction. This is achieved by pulling everything from sales content management, coaching and training, document automation, and internal communications into one intuitive, custom-tailored, sales enablement platform. This has proven very popular during the COVID crisis.

So much so, thanks to strong demand, the company expects to report annualised recurring revenue (ARR) in the range of $49 million to $53 million in FY 2021. This represents a sizeable 37% to 48% increase year on year.

And it is worth noting that this is still only scratching at the surface of its $6 billion market opportunity. This gives it a very long runway for growth in the coming years.

Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH)

Another company growing rapidly is Pushpay. It is a donor management and community engagement provider to the church market. Thanks to the quality of its platform, its leadership position, and the shift to a cashless society, Pushpay has experienced a significant increase in demand for its offering over the last 12 months.

This has led to stellar revenue and operating earnings growth in FY 2021. For example, just this week Pushpay upgraded its earnings guidance for a second time due to a stronger than expected finish to the calendar year. 

Instead of operating earnings of between US$54 million and US$58 million, management is now forecasting FY 2021 operating earnings of between US$56 million and US$60 million. This will be up a massive 123% to 139% year on year. This has been driven by strong revenue growth, the recent launch of ChurchStaq, and further operating leverage. 

More reading

• 3 reasons why the Pushpay (ASX:PPH) share price could be a buy
• ASX 200 drops lower
• 3 highly rated ASX growth shares to buy now
• 3 ASX shares to buy that fund managers love
• Why ARB, Mesoblast, Pushpay, & Super Retail shares are racing higher

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 and recommends Altium and BIGTINCAN FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of PUSHPAY FPO NZX. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended A2 Milk. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BIGTINCAN FPO and PUSHPAY FPO NZX. 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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There are some ASX shares that soared in 2020. Other ones have been beaten up over the past 12 months.

Here are two businesses that have fallen by around 20% over the past year:

Altium Limited (ASX: ALU)

The Altium share price has dropped by around 21% over the past 12 months.

The electronic PCB software business implemented temporarily lower prices at the end of FY20 and longer payment terms to ensure that its client base and market share would keep rising.

The ASX share’s management has a plan for the tech company to become the global leader of its industry during this decade. When it reaches market leadership that is likely to mean that the company will be making around US$500 million of revenue.

However, Altium recently gave a trading update for the six months to 31 December 2020 that included continuing COVID-19 effects on its business and clients.

Altium said that its total first half revenue was down 3% to US$89.6 million because of COVID-19 conditions in the US and Europe, as well as challenging economic conditions in China for licence compliance activities.

The company said that the Americas underperformed with a decline of 10% in revenue for the half as the unprecedented levels of COVID-19 negatively impacted the sales performance.

NEXUS recorded a decline in growth of 14% for the half due to the timing of deals with a significant pipeline in the second half.

Altium said China underperformed with a decline of 15% in revenue for the half as licence compliance activities have become more challenging at the low end of the market due to uncertain economic conditions after COVID-19 in China.

However, Altium did share some positives. It said that board and systems revenue was stronger in the second quarter relative to the first quarter. The first quarter revenue was down 11% year on year, but improved to be flat year on year in the second quarter. This was notwithstanding the significant restructuring undertaken in Altium’s sales organisation to enable the company’s pivot to the cloud.

Electronic manufacturing has rebounded with Octopart benefiting from this recovery and achieving 19% revenue growth for the half. Management said this was a positive leading indicator for PCB design growth that should drive Altium Designer sales in the second half.

There was also strong growth in term-based licences over the first half, up 166%.

At the current Altium share price, it’s valued at 38X FY23’s estimated earnings according to Commsec.

APA Group (ASX: APA)

The APA share price has fallen by 17% over the last 12 months

This ASX share owns a large network of 15,000km of natural gas pipelines around Australia with a presence in every mainland state and the Northern Territory. It also owns or has interests in gas storage facilities, gas-fired power stations and renewable energy generation (wind and solar farms). APA owns, or manages and operates, a portfolio of assets and delivers half the nation’s natural gas usage.

The Morrison Government has indicated that gas could play an important part in the recovery from the COVID-19 recession.

APA recently announced that it would be building a new pipeline in Western Australia that would link up with its existing pipeline in the state. The infrastructure ASX share believes that building this pipeline could cause some local resource companies to ask for a connection for cheap energy.

Once completed, the project will unlock more operating cashflow for APA, enabling it to pay a higher distribution. The business has grown its distribution for shareholders every year for a decade and a half.

It currently offers investors a distribution yield of 5.3%.

More reading

• What’s next for WAAAX shares in 2021? 
• 3 ASX 200 shares to buy right now
• Here’s what this leading broker thinks about the Altium (ASX:ALU) share price
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
• ASX 200 rises 0.1%

Tristan Harrison owns shares of Altium. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Altium. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of APA Group. 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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There has been no shortage of commentators telling ASX and international investors about the merits of investing in China.

China is the world’s second-largest and most populous economy. As such, China has been climbing its way up investors’ watch-lists in recent years. In no doubt helped by the stellar performance of some of its biggest companies.

US-based tech companies like Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) are arguably still more popular with Aussie investors. Even so, it’s fairly safe to say that Chinese companies have worked their way into the ASX investor conscience.

Aussie investors are probably familiar with one of China’s biggest companies after 2020 – Tencent Holdings (OTCMKTS: TCEHY). Tencent made waves last year when it acquired a 5% stake in buy now, pay later (BNPL) darling Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) in May – an investment that would have already paid off very handsomely.

Chinese shares prove popular

Other Chinese companies, particularly those in the tech space, are also proving very popular. Just this week, we looked at some of the most popular international shares that ASX investors have been buying of late. And over the week of 4-8 January, 2 Chinese companies were in the top 10 list.

They were the e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd (NYSE: BABA) and the electric vehicle and battery manufacturer Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO), the ‘Tesla of China’.

Other popular Chinese companies include JD.com Inc (NASDAQ: JD), often described as the ‘Amazon of China’, Baidu Inc (NASDAQ: BIDU), the ‘Google of China’ and iQiYi Inc (NASDAQ: IQ) the ‘Netflix of China’.

The stellar performances of some of these companies have no doubt helped. Tencent, for example, is up more than 52% over the past 12 months. Baidu is up more than 70%, and Nio a whopping 1,550%.

As you might have noticed, these companies, although Chinese, are all listed on American stock exchanges like the Nasdaq and the NYSE. Tencent is listed on the over-the-counter (OTC) markets.

But these companies have recently become potential casualties of the rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. Just last month, US President Donald Trump signed a law that requires “foreign companies to submit to increased accounting disclosures and to certify that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government”.

According to reporting in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) 2 weeks ago, the NYSE has already begun the delisting process for 3 Chinese companies – China Telecom Corporation, China Mobile and China Unicom. Other popular Chinese companies like JD.com have initiated separate listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in anticipation of a potential delisting move.

China’s ‘big 3’ safe… for now

However, holders of the more popular Chinese companies will be breathing a sigh of relief today.

According to a separate AFR report today, the US government will not be forcing Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu to delist from American exchanges.

According to the report, the US Treasury has “blocked an attempt” by the Pentagon and the US State Department to delist these companies. That’s despite the latter 2 agencies “pushing hard” for delisting due to “alleged links to the Chinese military”.

Whilst this move might be irrelevant for many ASX investors who don’t hold the US-listed Chinese shares themselves, it would have had other consequences.

A popular and best performing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the ASX is the BetaShares Asian Technology Tigers ETF (ASX: ASIA). This ETF has more than $558 million in assets under management, and has returned 62% over the past 12 months. It holds Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, as well as JD.com and iQiYi. ASIA unitholders (and BetaShares) would be very pleased with this development.

In 2021, Chinese companies will instead be dealing with a Biden Administration in the US. As such, it’s unclear whether the pressure on US-listed Chinese companies will deflate or ramp up in 2021 and beyond. But recent history is no doubt causing some worry for Chinese-focused ASX investors.

More reading

• Here are the US shares ASX investors are buying in 2021 so far
• 2 quality ETFs for ASX investors in January
• 3 great ASX tech shares to buy
• 2 fantastic ETFs for ASX investors to buy
• 2 outstanding ETFs for ASX investors to buy

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Sebastian Bowen owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Baidu, and Tesla. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Alphabet (A shares), Amazon, Baidu, JD.com, Netflix, and Tesla and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended BetaShares Asia Technology Tigers ETF. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Amazon, JD.com, and Netflix. 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 Cyclopharm Limited (ASX: CYC) share price was sent soaring today after the company announced a business update.

Cyclopharm shares went as high as 14.41% in afternoon trade before closing 6.78% up at $2.52 per share.

What Cyclopharm does

Cyclopharm is an ASX-listed radiopharmaceutical company headquartered in New South Wales. It currently has a market capitalisation of just over $203 million.

As stated on the company’s website, “the company’s mission is to provide nuclear medicine and other clinicians with the ability to improve patient care outcomes.”

The health company aims to achieve this objective through the provision of its core radiopharmaceutical product, Technegas, which is used in functional lung ventilation imaging.

What happened?

Today, the Cyclopharm share price went soaring after the company announced an update on its progress towards gaining United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approval. The company needs USFDA approval in order to begin sales of Technegas, its flagship product, in the US.

The company announced that its phase 3 trials have met their Primary and Secondary Efficacy Endpoints in September of last year. As such, it will continue its ongoing “positive” dialogue with the USFDA in order to get its approval of Technegas.

Based on these discussions, the company remains highly confident the approval process is on track to be completed in the second half of FY21.

Cyclopharm also updated its guidance for FY20 revenue. The company stated that despite the challenges of COVID-19, revenue is expected to be in line with that of FY19, which was approximately $14 million.

US market entry

With the impending approval of Technegas, Cyclopharm has begun undertaking activities to ensure it is well placed to rapidly roll out its product. These activities include building inventory reserves, finalising agreements for third party distribution, service and installation, and administrative support.

According to Cyclopharm, the existing market for nuclear medicine ventilation in the US is estimated to be roughly US$90 million annually.

Based on Cyclopharm’s experience in the Canadian market, it remains confident that Technegas can achieve a 50% share of the USA market over 2 to 3 years, with an 80% share representing around 480,000 procedures per annum achievable over a 5 to 7 year period.

More reading

• Why the Odyssey (ASX:ODY) share price is up a whopping 60% today
• Signal share price? An Elon Musk tweet and a WhatsApp controversy
• Why the Nanollose (ASX:NC6) share price is shooting higher today
• 2 ASX 50 shares to buy
• 3 reasons we might see higher ASX share prices in 2021

Motley Fool contributor Daniel Ewing 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 Odyssey Gold Ltd (ASX: ODY) share price is one of the few star performers on the ASX market today. This comes after the company released previously uncovered results from its high-grade Tuckanarra exploration project.

During the opening minutes of trade, the gold miner’s shares rocketed to an intraday high of 8 cents. However, investors have decided to take some profit off the table, sending the Odyssey share price to 6.9 cents, up 60.4%.

What’s moving the Odyssey share price higher?

Today’s news revealed that Odyssey has uncovered a number of previously unannounced results from Bottle Dump (the most eastern pit at its Tuckanarra project), which signify the potential of high-grade gold mineralisation at the site. 

Odyssey acquired an 80% interest in the Tuckanarra gold project from Canadian-listed gold producer, Monument Mining Ltd, late last year. Since then, the miner has been collating and reviewing all historical exploration data to see if it missed any drilling results that occurred before its acquisition of both the Tuckanarra and Stakewell projects.

The newly discovered results from Bottle Dump were as follows:

• 30 meters @ 3.7 grams per tonne (g/t) of AU (gold) (BTD100 from 87 metres)
• 13 meters @ 8.5 g/t Au (BTD128 from 15 metres)
• 8 meters @ 10.3 g/t Au (BTD123 from 88 metres)
• 2 meters @15.8 g/t Au (BTD107 from 81 metres)
• 8 meters @ 6.3 g/t Au (BTD138 from 80 metres)
• 12 meters @ 4.5 g/t Au (BTD108 from 69 metres)

Located in Western Australia, Tuckanarra covers an area of 52 square kilometres. The project has four main pits – Bottle Dump, Maybelle, Cable and Bollard. Originally, Tuckanarra came with extensive drilling and geochemical tests at the site. Over 2,949 drill holes and 6,940 soil/rock samples were conducted prior to the acquisition.

The adjacent Stakewell gold project is located just north of Tuckanarra. Both sites, which represent the Tuckanarra greenstone belt, position Odyssey to become a large player in the area known as the Murchison Goldfields.

In light of the recent developments, the company stated that it was planning to commence its maiden drilling program at Tuckanarra and Stakewell. Odyssey added that planning, contract tendering and permits are well advanced and will begin work sometime this quarter.

Management commentary

Odyssey executive director Mr Matt Syme touched on the positive find, saying:

The Odyssey team is very pleased that our review and modelling of the extensive historical exploration dataset continues to enhance the potential at Tuckanarra.

Bottle Dump is emerging as an exciting, high priority target given the down plunge potential revealed by these and earlier results.

The Company is looking forward to further results from the ongoing review and collation of historic exploration data as well as the commencement of our maiden drill program in coming weeks.

More reading

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• Why the Nanollose (ASX:NC6) share price is shooting higher today
• 2 ASX 50 shares to buy
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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.

The post Why the Odyssey (ASX:ODY) share price is up a whopping 60% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The last week certainly has been anything but boring, especially for the Signal app and its alleged ‘share price’.

You’d be forgiven if you missed Signal’s spontaneous rise to stardom amongst the flurry of big tech interventions and controversies. Better still, what even is Signal? And why does it get the endorsement of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) founder and world’s richest person, Elon Musk?

The truth is Signal is not a publicly traded company, but we’ll get into that a little bit later. Firstly, let’s grasp a novel understanding of what Signal is and how it has come to find itself topping the app stores around the world.

No mixed signals, just plain private

In 2015 former Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) employee Moxie Marlinspike combined 2 secure messaging products to create Signal. The messaging service provides end to end encrypted messaging by solely using your phone number as the intermediatory identifier. However, not even this information is used by Signal to try to identify you.

The fierce privacy emphasis has been praised by iconic ambassadors, such as American whistle-blower, Edward Snowden.

Here’s a reason: I use it every day and I’m not dead yet. https://t.co/Trhgqbwdpj

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 7, 2021

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The platform’s service is in stark contrast to the likes of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and its subsidiary WhatsApp when compared on a privacy scale. Currently, Facebook collects information from its users’ including location, name, photos, browsing history, advertising data, audio data, health and fitness – you get the point, it’s an extensive list.

When ripples turned into waves

As written in The Wall Street Journal, the de-platforming of United States President Donald Trump from popular social media services, such as Facebook and Twitter, after the devastating US Capitol riots resulted in some people seeking means of communication that cannot be intervened.

Pouring fuel on the fire, WhatsApp then updated its privacy policy. The update stipulated that WhatsApp would have the right to share the user’s IP address, phone number, and payments, with its parent company Facebook. These terms of service are mandatory and unless otherwise agreed to by 8 February would bar the user from using the messaging application.

Many WhatsApp users were unsettled by the move and were open to alternatives. Key intro, Elon Musk, turning that diesel into rocket fuel, as he does best. Igniting the public interest in Signal, with the eloquently put tweet, “Use Signal” on 7 January.

With more than 42 million Twitter followers, the ensuing flood of signups to Signal tested its load handling. Reportedly, more than 8.8 million people downloaded Signal through the Apple and Google stores over the week beginning 4 January.

📈 More than 5M people downloaded #Signal this weekend, after @elonmusk and @Snowden tweeted about it 😱 👁‍🗨 #privacy #whatsapp

Our report 👉 https://t.co/qgRqvJ6940 pic.twitter.com/bmvuCWQJwr

— Appfigures (@appfigures) January 12, 2021

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Signal share price, a case of mistaken identity

If we reminisce on last year when the video conferencing software, Zoom, was taking the world by storm – traders and investors mistook Zoom Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS: ZTNO) for the real culprit. This led to a much smaller company rising nearly 900% before being halted.

Much like this scenario, Signal brought along its own doppelgänger for a ride. The ‘Signal’ share price experienced massive volatility and jumped more than 6000% after the Elon Musk tweet. Unfortunately, Signal Advance Inc (OTCMKTS: SIGL) has absolutely nothing to do with the private messaging provider, Signal.

Foolish takeaway

Well, if we were looking for a quiet start to the year, I think that can be ruled out. The absurdity continues into 2021.  Social media companies are grappling with the grey area between responsibility for what is published on their platforms, or if they are more a utility.

We all certainly want to have a right to privacy, but in doing so, we don’t want to create echo chambers of ill intent. The regulatory woes will likely continue for Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. into the future as we attempt to navigate these unchartered waters.  

More reading

• These ASX stocks just got a big upgrade on the back of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
• Will the ASX see a share market bubble in 2021?
• Here are the US shares ASX investors are buying in 2021 so far
• Elon Musk is now world’s wealthiest person
• We’re in a massive bubble: This is when it’ll pop

Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Mitchell Lawler owns shares of Facebook and Tesla. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Facebook, Tesla, and Twitter. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Facebook. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

The post Signal share price? An Elon Musk tweet and a WhatsApp controversy appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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