Tag: Motley Fool

The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price was out of form on Thursday and dropped lower following the release of a trading update.

The payments company’s shares fell almost 2.5% to $96.20.

How is Afterpay performing in FY 2021?

Afterpay’s update revealed that its strong form continued in November and during the all-important Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotional period.

According to the release, the company’s global underlying sales reached $2.1 billion for the month. This was an increase of 112% from the $1 billion reported in November 2019.

But arguably best of all, was news that the company generated $1 billion of underlying sales in the United States in November. This was the first time the company has achieved this level of sales during a month in any market.

Also catching the eye was its strong performance in the UK market. Underlying sales more than quadrupled to $200 million during the month.

Finally, its performance in the ANZ market remains strong. Afterpay reported a 54% increase in underlying sales to $900 million. This was a new monthly record for the region.

Customer numbers continue to grow.

A key driver of its record-breaking month in the United States was another rise in active customers.

With a number of significant retailers launching on the platform since the end of September, active customers in the United States increased by ~1 million. This means the total number of customers that have signed up to Afterpay in the country now exceeds 13 million.

Is the Afterpay share price in the buy zone?

One broker that was impressed with its performance in November was Goldman Sachs.

It commented: “We make material upgrades to our FY21-FY23 estimates as APT’s November trading update was clearly ahead of our prior forecasts in each geography.”

“While we continue to expect competitive pressures to build through 2021 with launches of similar products from PayPal (PYPL) and Shopify (SHOP) likely to gain some momentum, APT’s service seems to be resonating with consumers in all geographies given the frequency of use trends imputed in the update were clear,” it added.

However, while it has lifted its price target to $99.90, it has retained its neutral rating for valuation reasons. With the Afterpay share price at $96.20, this price target implies potential upside of just 3.8%.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• ASX 200 rises on Thursday
• ASX 200 up 0.3%: Fortescue rockets, Afterpay sales explode, Westpac APRA update
• Will the Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price hit new highs?
• These ASX shares are growing rapidly in FY 2021

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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US stock exchange Nasdaq Inc (NASDAQ: NDAQ) this week submitted a plan to force its listed companies to have diversity on their boards.

The proposal sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday Australian time would see mandatory inclusion of one female board member on each company, plus another who is in a racial minority or is an LGBTQ person.

Companies that do not meet those rules could get kicked off the NASDAQ.

NASDAQ is the second largest share market by market capitalisation in the world. 

Giants like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) all live there.

More than 75% of its listed companies would not meet the requirements of its new proposal, NASDAQ found.

Will the ASX also mandate diversity in Australian boardrooms?

An ASX Ltd (ASX: ASX) spokesperson told The Motley Fool the local bourse would concentrate on getting its listed companies to be transparent, rather than mandating particular values.

“ASX’s focus is on disclosure and ensuring that investors have information about the corporate governance practices of companies to make informed investment decisions.”

The ASX spokesperson said that the exchange’s Corporate Governance Council has a guideline stating all companies should “set measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity in the composition of its board, senior executives and workforce generally”.

There are no clauses relating to ethnic minorities or LGBTQ representation.

“Under Listing Rule 4.10.3, ASX listed entities are required to benchmark their corporate governance practices against the Council’s recommendations and, where they do not conform, to disclose that fact and the reasons why,” said the ASX spokesperson.

“It is for the market to pass judgment on whether it thinks the practices adopted by the company are appropriate or not.”

The Corporate Governance Council is made up of 19 business, shareholder and industry representative bodies.

Why the same people are on all the boards

Despite the ASX’s reticence, investor groups have called for greater diversity on boards. Critics have said the same people merely switch between Australian boardrooms.

“It is still social connections that drive board appointments,” former independent NRMA director Richard Talbot wrote on SMH.com.au.

“It’s a small gene pool with few outsiders. It leads to ‘group think’, under which directors become more concerned with being liked and connected. In Sydney, they cluster in the eastern suburbs. They go to the same schools, then mix with the same people in legal firms and big accounting firms.”

In October, 9 major institutional shareholders — HESTA, Aberdeen Standard Investments, BlackRock Australia, Ellerston Capital, Fidelity International, First Sentier Investors, IFM Investors, Pendal Group and WaveStone Capital — started the 40:40 Vision campaign.

The program will push for all S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) companies to have 40% female representation in executive roles by 2030.

HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey said at the current rate it would be 80 years before equal gender representation would be seen at the CEO level.

“We see lack of gender diversity in leadership as a financial risk,” she said.

“Companies that fail to consider 50% of the population for leadership positions risk missing out on the best people and the performance of the organisation will eventually suffer.”

More reading

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• Element 25 (ASX:E25) tumbles on latest PFS update
• Is the housing market safe in 2021?
• Is Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) share price a better buy than BHP (ASX:BHP) share price?
• Here are the ASX bank shares rated as a buy today

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Tony Yoo owns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Nasdaq and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon and Apple. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The world has suffered greatly this year with the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, but the 10 richest people have somehow increased their wealth by $1.5 trillion.

The collective wealth of the exclusive club went up 56.8% since the pandemic started in 13 March up until 1 December, according to research from UK company Buy Shares.

With the staggering ascent of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares, it might not be surprising that its chief Elon Musk had the highest boost in fortunes.

Musk added US$128.6 billion to his worth, which was a mind-blowing 423% increase. Tesla stocks have gone up the same percentage during that period.

Rank	Person	Wealth USD on 13 March	Wealth USD on 1 December	Increase	Associated with
1	Jeff Bezos	$111bn	$185bn	66.7%	Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN)
2	Bernard Arnault	$69.2bn	$141.1bn	103.9%	LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (EPA: MC)
3	Elon Musk	$24.6bn	$128.6bn	422.76%	Tesla
4	Bill Gates	$102bn	$118.8bn	16.47%	Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
5	Mark Zuckerberg	$65.3bn	$101.7bn	55.74%	Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB)
6	Warren Buffett	$75.9bn	$86.5bn	13.96%	Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A)
7	Larry Ellison	$54.1bn	$78.6bn	45.28%	Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL)
8	Larry Page	$58.9bn	$77.4bn	31.4%	Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
9	Amancio Ortega	$52.2bn	$76.7bn	46.93%	Industria de Diseno Textil SA (BME: ITX)
10	Sergey Brin	$57.1bn	$75.2bn	31.69%	Alphabet
Source: Buy Shares; Table created by author

The world’s wealthiest person, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, made a tidy US$74 billion, which was a 67% increase.

The least successful out of the 10 billionaires, Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett, added a “meagre” 14% – just US$10.6 billion.

All 10 top richest people either currently lead or have led publicly listed companies.

How did they make money while others lost?

So how did the ultra-rich boost their fortunes while the rest of the world struggled with a virus that had such a wide-ranging impact?

According to Buy Shares, the “secret” was simply following a very old investing axiom.

“Notably, most billionaires did not sell their shares while the pandemic saw the market hit historical lows,” the analysis read.

“The world’s wealthiest also remained resilient by buying more company stocks as the equity market around the world was crashing.”

By holding onto their portfolio and even buying more stocks during the March crash, they all added to their substantial fortunes during the market recovery.

“The pandemic accelerated technology and healthcare entrepreneurs,” said the Buy Shares study.

“With restrictions on movement and gatherings, most people relied on eCommerce platforms like Amazon to get essential goods and services. The reliance on technology sectors saw their stocks remain resilient and recovering quickly.”

More reading

• Amazon grew even more dominant in 2020
• Facebook just spent $1 billion to monetize messaging
• Amazon’s holiday sales jump 60%
• Elon Musk wants to steer Tesla towards higher profits
• Cyber Monday sales hit a record $10.8 billion

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. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. 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. Tony Yoo owns shares of Alphabet (A shares) and Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, 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 has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Amazon, and Facebook. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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There are a few reasons why income investors may love Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF) shares.

What does Rural Funds do?

According to the ASX, Rural Funds has a market capitalisation of $868 million.

Rural Funds is a fairly unique business on the ASX. It’s a real estate investment trust (REIT) that specialises in owning agricultural properties and leasing them out.

Here are some of the reasons why income investors may love Rural investors:

Diversification

Rural Funds has a diversified farm property portfolio. It has a total number of 61 properties. Its farms are spread across a number of different sectors.

It has cattle farms, vineyards, macadamia farms, almond farms and cropping (cotton and sugar).

Those farms are diversified across different states and are in different climactic conditions.

Rural Funds does actually own a significant number of water entitlements for its tenants to use, but it doesn’t carry the operational risks like its tenants do.

Strong financial position and tenant base

One of the main ratios that REITs tell investors about is the gearing ratio, which tells investors about how much debt it has compared to the asset value.

A high gearing ratio suggests that a REIT may be carrying a lot of debt. A low gearing ratio may suggest that a balance sheet is more sustainable.

At 30 June 2020, Rural Funds had a gearing ratio of 29.7%, which it measures as the external borrowings compared to the adjusted net asset value (the adjustment is for the market value of its water entitlements).

It has a high quality tenant base that are in strong financial positions to be able to keep paying rent as it’s due.

Some of its tenants include Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE), Select Harvests Limited (ASX: SHV), Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (ASX: AAC), Olam and JBS.

Income growth

Income investors may be most interested in the income distribution side of things of Rural Funds.

The farmland REIT aims to increase its distribution by (at least) 4% each year. That is comfortably ahead of the inflation rate.

The distributions are largely supported by two factors.

The first is that Rural Funds has rental increases built into all of its contracts. Plenty of its farms have a fixed 2.5% increase per annum. Most of its other farms have rental increases linked to CPI inflation. There are also occasional market reviews.

The other main way that it is generating rental growth is that it’s investing some of its excess rental profit (adjusted funds from operations – AFFO) into productivity improvements which aims to increase the rent and the value of the farms.

Finally, the REIT occasionally makes acquisitions which can be accretive to earnings per share. It has been busy acquiring cattle farms over the past few years which management indicate has more capital growth potential than other farm types.

Valuation

Rural Funds has an adjusted net asset value (NAV) of $1.94 per unit, which incorporates the most recent independent property valuations, inclusive of water entitlements. Compared to the Rural Funds share price of $2.52, it’s priced at a 30% premium to the adjusted NAV.

It’s guiding a distribution of 11.28 cents for FY21, which translates to a forward distribution yield of 4.5%.

More reading

• 2 ASX dividend shares with generous 4%+ yields
• 2 defensive ASX dividend shares for income
• 3 ASX dividend shares rated as buys
• These ASX dividend shares offer yields of at least 4%
• Should you take a bite of these tasty ASX shares?

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison owns shares of RURALFUNDS STAPLED. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended RURALFUNDS STAPLED and Treasury Wine Estates Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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There are a lot of options at the small end of the market for investors to choose from.

Two that could be worth getting better acquainted with are listed below. Here’s what you need to know about them:

Serko Ltd (ASX: SKO)

Serko is an online travel booking and expense management provider behind the Zeno Travel and Zeno Expense platforms. Zeno Travel provides AI-powered end-to-end travel itineraries, cost control and travel policy compliance to corporate customers. Zeno Expense allows its users to automate and streamline the expense administration function, identify out-of-policy expense claims, and prevent fraud.

Times have been hard for Serko in 2020 because of the pandemic. However, things are starting to improve. On Thursday the company provided a trading update which revealed that in November its transaction volumes increased to 44% of pre-pandemic levels.

With domestic borders reopening, a potential COVID vaccine (or three) soon to be rolled out, and its new Booking.com deal coming into effect, management appears optimistic that transaction volumes will continue to improve over the coming months.

Whispir (ASX: WSP)

Whispir is a leading workflow communications platform provider which allows organisations to deliver actionable two-way interactions at scale using automated multi-channel communication workflows. 

It was a very strong performer in FY 2020. For the 12 months ended 30 June 2020, it reported a 25.5% increase in revenue to $39.1 million and annualised recurring revenue (ARR) growth of 34% to $42.2 million. This was well ahead of its guidance. Since then it has continued its growth and reported a 26.7% increase in ARR to $43.7 million for the first quarter of FY 2021.

The good news is that this is still only scratching at the surface of its large global market opportunity. Management estimates that the workflow communications platform as a service market could be worth US$8 billion per year by 2024.

More reading

• ASX 200 rises on Thursday
• 2 turnaround ASX shares to buy
• Serko (ASX:SKO) share price on watch after trading update
• The Nitro (ASX:NTO) share price is down 20% in a month. Time to invest?
• Why the Whispir (ASX:WSP) share price is storming 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 Whispir Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Serko Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Serko Ltd and Whispir Ltd. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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With interest rates unlikely to improve from their record lows any time soon, it’s very fortunate that the Australian share market has dividend shares offering investors very generous yields.

Two ASX shares dividend shares with yields above 4% are listed below. Here’s what you need to know about them:

BWP Trust (ASX: BWP)

BWP Trust is the largest owner of Bunnings Warehouse sites in Australia. It currently owns 68 stores, with seven of these properties having adjoining retail showrooms that are leased to other retailers. At the last count, the company’s portfolio was valued at ~$2.5 billion, was generating annual rent of $151.4 million, and enjoyed an occupancy rate of 98%.

Due to the strength of its tenancies, BWP has been able to collect rent largely as normal this year despite the pandemic. This allowed the company’s board to grow its distribution in FY 2020 to 18.3 cents per share.

Based on the current BWP share price, this represents a trailing 4.2% dividend yield. Management has suggested that its distribution is likely to be similar in FY 2021.

Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF)

Rural Funds is an agriculture-focused property group. At the end of FY 2020, it owned 61 properties across five agricultural sectors. This includes almond properties leased to Select Harvests Limited (ASX: SHV) and wine properties leased to Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE).

As with BWP, it has been a solid performer during the pandemic. In FY 2020, the company reported an 8% increase in property revenue to $72 million. This allowed the company to increase its distribution yet again.

And pleasingly, thanks to its fixed rental increases, management has been able to provide guidance for another increase in FY 2021. It intends to pay shareholders a distribution of 11.28 cents per share. Based on the current Rural Funds share price, this works out to be a 4.5% yield.

More reading

• 2 defensive ASX dividend shares for income
• 3 ASX dividend shares rated as buys
• These ASX dividend shares offer yields of at least 4%
• Should you take a bite of these tasty ASX shares?
• 2 ASX dividend shares with generous 4%+ yields

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 and Treasury Wine Estates Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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On Thursday the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was back on form and charged higher. The benchmark index climbed 0.4% higher to 6,590.2 points.

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

ASX 200 expected to rise.

The Australian share market looks set to rise on Friday after a positive night of trade on Wall Street. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 11 points or 0.17% higher. In late trade in the United States, the Dow Jones is up 0.4%, the S&P 500 is flat, and the Nasdaq has risen 0.3%.

Oil prices push higher.

Energy producers such as Oil Search Ltd (ASX: OSH) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) could be on the rise today after oil prices rose again. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 0.8% to US$45.63 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price has climbed 1% to US$48.72 a barrel. This follows news that OPEC has agreed to increase its production gradually.

Premier Investments AGM.

Smiggle, Peter Alexander, and Just Jeans owner, Premier Investments Limited (ASX: PMV), is holding its annual general meeting today. It was a strong performer in FY 2020 thanks to its online sales growth. Premier Investments reported a 29% increase in net profit after tax to $137.8 million. Investors will no doubt be keen to see whether this momentum has carried over into the new financial year.

Gold price rises again.

Gold miners including Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) and Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited (ASX: SAR) could end the week on a high after the gold price pushed higher again. According to CNBC, the spot gold price is up a further 0.7% to US$1,843.50 an ounce. The prospect of the US finally approving a COVID-19 stimulus package has given the gold price a lift.

Afterpay rated neutral.

The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price could still climb a touch higher from here according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. This morning the broker responded to its trading update by retaining its neutral rating and lifting its price target to $99.90. This compares to the current Afterpay share price of $96.20. Goldman revealed that Afterpay thoroughly outperformed its expectations in November.

More reading

• ASX 200 rises on Thursday
• Can OPEC deliver more share price gains for Santos (ASX:STO) and Woodside (ASX:WPL)?
• ASX 200 up 0.3%: Fortescue rockets, Afterpay sales explode, Westpac APRA update
• Will the Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price hit new highs?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Premier Investments Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Arena REIT (ASX: ARF) share price was a strong performer on Thursday.

The property company’s shares rose a solid 2% to finish the day at $2.87.

Why did the Arena share price push higher?

Investors were buying the company’s shares today after the release of a positive update.

According to the release, Arena is expecting the completion of eight existing Early Learning Centre (ELC) development projects in the first half of FY 2021. These will be at a total cost of $41 million with an average initial yield on all costs of 6.7%. They will also have a weighted average initial lease term of 20 years.

In addition to this, the company has completed the acquisition of seven established ELCs for a total cost of $40.3 million at a net initial yield on all costs of 6.1%. These are all leased to existing Arena tenant partners with a weighted average initial lease term of 27.3 years.

It doesn’t stop there. Arena has also completed the disposal of three ELCs for $7.2 million. This represents a 16.1% premium to prevailing book value.

What else did Arena announce?

Arena is expecting a net revaluation uplift of $37.3 million in its portfolio value at 31 December 2020.

This reflects growth of 4% since 30 June 2020 and is the equivalent to an increase of approximately $0.11 in Arena’s Net Asset Value per security.

Another positive is an increase in the portfolio weighted average lease expiry to 14.7 years. This compares to 14.0 years at 30 June 2020.

But perhaps best of all, management revealed that 100% of rent due to the end of November 2020 has been collected. This will ease any concerns that the pandemic was going to have a lasting impact on rental collections.

Distribution upgrade.

In light of this positive performance, management has upgraded its FY 2021 distribution guidance.

It now expects to reward shareholders with a 14.81 cents per security distribution, which will be an increase of 5.7% on FY 2020.

Based on the current Arena share price, this equates to a generous 5.15% dividend yield.

More reading

• Medical Developments International (ASX:MVP) share price on watch after trading update
• ASX 200 rises on Thursday
• Why the 1300 Smiles (ASX:ONT) share price is smashing record highs
• Why the Elixinol (ASX:EXL) share price popped 43% today
• RBA pushing share prices up, not helping economy: experts

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. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Medical Developments International Ltd (ASX: MVP) share price will be on watch on Friday following the release of an update after the market close.

What did Medical Developments International announce?

This afternoon Medical Developments International provided an update in relation to its Penthrox European Union (EU) transition activities and current trading conditions.

In respect to the former, the transition arrangements for taking back the distribution rights from Mundipharma in the EU are progressing to plan.

According to the release, progress to date includes the establishment of an EU based legal and corporate structure, contracting of pharmacovigilance and regulatory related service providers, and securing operational infrastructure in-market. The latter includes importation and logistics capability.

In addition, the marketing authorisations previously held by Mundipharma are being transferred concurrently to allow the company to assume control of sales and distribution activities on 1 March 2021.

The company’s CEO, Brent MacGregor, commented: “The opportunity in the EU remains strong and we’re revisiting our execution strategy, assessing and building on the foundation work done by Mundipharma, including determining where we can deploy a direct or hybrid selling model which brings enhanced control and margin. Europe will be the primary focus of MVP over the coming year.”

Trading update.

The first half has been softer for Medical Developments International due to COVID-19 headwinds.

Management notes that following an early COVID pandemic surge in sales, the mild cold and flu season, along with improved community hygiene practices, has depressed demand for respiratory products.

Furthermore, reduced community activity is resulting in fewer ambulance movements and lower demand for Penthrox, which is better known as the green whistle.

Finally, Penthrox Australia sales have been impacted by timing differences associated with the transition from the exiting distribution partner, Mundipharma Australia.

However, overall reported revenue is showing growth. This is the result of accelerated milestone income amortisation from the hand-back of the EU distribution rights from Mundipharma.

Mr MacGregor concluded: “We are looking past these challenges. We expect to see a recovery in Australian sales in the coming months and will build infrastructure for the global growth of Penthrox. The transition arrangements in the EU are progressing well and additional rollouts into unlaunched markets will occur in 2021.”

More reading

• 2 ASX healthcare shares that have risen since Pfizer’s vaccine news

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 Medical Developments International Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Medical Developments International Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by 0.4% today to 6,615 points.

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:

Serko Ltd (ASX: SKO) 

Serko is travel management software business.

Today, the company announced it intends to provide periodic updates to assist the market to assess changes to the environment it operates in.

Serko said it has seen a gradual improvement in transaction booking volumes after the easing of domestic travel restrictions within Australia over the past couple of weeks.

Transaction volumes increased to 44% of prior year volumes for the month of November. This was an improvement from 35% of prior year volumes for the month of October. Serko revealed that the past week has seen some daily transaction rates around 50% of prior year volumes.

New Zealand domestic travel increased to 85% of prior year volumes for the month of November, which was an increase from 76% of prior year volumes for the month of October. Australian domestic travel increased to 33% of prior year volumes for the month of November, up from 26% of prior year volumes for October.

The ASX share said it was pleased to see Australian travel bookings start to recover with the current easing of domestic travel restrictions.

The travel company also confirmed that new customers in select global (predominately English-speaking) markets are now being directed to the new Booking.com for business platform powered by Zeno.

The Serko share price went up around 3% today.

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

ASX 200 buy now, pay later giant Afterpay revealed its growth statistics for November 2020.

The company boasted of exceeding $2 billion in global sales in a month in November. It said that global underlying sales increased by 112% to $2.1 billion.

Australia and New Zealand underlying sales increased by 54% to $0.9 billion. United States underlying sales grew by 186% to $1 billion. UK underlying sales rose by 315% to $0.2 billion.

Afterpay said that referrals to global retailers continued to grow strongly with over 35 million leads generated during the month, which was 147% higher than November 2019.

This was the first time that monthly underlying sales in the US were higher than Australia and New Zealand. Afterpay said this contribution reflected its fastest-growing and largest region.

Afterpay is now available in-store after being integrated across thousands of stores nationally. There is a “strong pipeline of new merchants preparing to launch soon”.

The BNPL company said that with a number of significant retailers launching on the platform since 30 September 2020, active customers in the US increased by around 1 million. The total number of customers that have signed up to Afterpay in the US now exceeds 13 million.

The Afterpay share price fell around 2% in response to the update.

Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)

The ASX 200 global investment bank announced today that it’s going to acquire Waddell & Reed Financial which is a US-listed asset wealth manager for US$1.7 billion.

The business has two divisions. It has an asset management business with approximately US$68 billion in assets under management (AUM). It also has a wealth management business with approximately US$63 billion of assets under administration (AUA).

On completion, Macquarie will sell the Waddle & Reed Financial Services wealth management business to LPL Financial for US$300 million plus excess net assets.

The increased scale and diversification of the combined platform will, according to Macquarie, create significant long-term benefits for clients, advisors and shareholders.

This deal is expected to close by the middle of 2021.

The Macquarie share price went up by about 0.2% today.

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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 Serko Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Serko Ltd. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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