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One of the biggest recent transactions among S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) company directors was worth almost $200 million.

Let’s take a look.

ASX 300 insider transactions over the past week

Dicker Data Ltd (ASX: DDR)

Founder and CEO David Dicker sold off approximately 18.3 million shares at $10.90 per share by way of an underwritten block trade on 5 March. The stock was sold “to certain sophisticated, professional and/or institutional investors”, according to the disposal notice.

The total consideration was almost $200 million and represented 10.2% of the company’s issued capital.

The company issued a statement explaining the sale:

The sale of shares is due to a recent divorce settlement and subsequent restructuring of David Dicker’s portfolio.

Dicker has entered into a six-month escrow on his remaining shareholding of 93,785,988 shares. The trade reduced his voting power from 62.35% to 54.77%.

The ASX 300 tech share is up 0.56% to $10.76 in afternoon trading.

Atlas Arteria Group (ASX: ALX)

Atlas Arteria director Ken Daley spent a bit over $24,500 buying 4,600 shares on-market on 7 March. Fellow director Andrew Cook also added 5,000 shares to his holdings in the ASX 300 stock on 5 March. He paid $26,500 for the stock, taking his total holdings to 43,000 Atlas Arteria shares.

The industrials stock is down 0.94% to $5.28 on Tuesday.

Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC)

Stephen Conry bought up 11,775 shares over two days on 5 and 6 March for a total consideration of $149,896. This increased his holdings in the ASX 300 real estate investment trust (REIT) by almost 75%.

The ASX 300 property share is up 1.25% to $13.01 this afternoon.

The post $200 million sell-down among ASX 300 insider sales and purchases over past week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• 3 ASX 200 REITs receiving broker upgrades today
• Why Accent, Cettire, Dicker Data, and Iress shares are dropping today
• 4 ASX tech shares tumbling on results releases
• Here are 4 ASX 200 REITs results catching the eye on Wednesday
• Leading brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today

Motley Fool contributor =”https://www.fool.com.au/author/TMFBronwyn/”>Bronwyn Allen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Dicker Data. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Dicker Data. 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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Which ASX dividend stocks could be buys in March? Let’s see what the team at Morgans is saying about the two listed below.

Here’s what its analysts are saying about these stocks:

Bapcor Ltd (ASX: BAP)

This auto parts retailer could be an ASX dividend stock to buy according to Morgans. The broker has an add rating and $6.60 price target on its shares.

Although Morgans acknowledges that a change of management and strategy creates a bit of uncertainty, it believes this has been built into its current valuation. Morgans commented:

Despite the uncertainty tied to an inevitable strategy review, we continue to see higher earnings in FY25 as realistic. We acknowledge the BAP investment case is tricky until the new CEO provides some strategy clarity. However, despite incurring mgmt and strategy change and a difficult cost environment, the business has been resilient. We think the valuation point continues to provide value on a medium-term view.

In respect to dividends, the broker is forecasting the company to pay 19.5 cents per share in FY 2024 and 23 cents per share in FY 2025. Based on the current Bapcor share price of $6.06, this implies dividend yields of 3.2% and 3.8%, respectively.

Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL)

Another ASX dividend stock that has been given the thumbs up by analysts at Morgans is Super Retail. The broker has an add rating and $17.50 price target on the shares of the owner of BCF, Supercheap Auto, Macpac, and Rebel.

Morgans has been impressed with the company’s performance, noting that it is outperforming rivals. It said:

In our opinion, the business is outperforming the competition across most of its retail operations as it leverages its brand equity, strong omnichannel credentials, well subscribed loyalty programmes and extensive network of stores. PBT was down only (5)% compared, for example, with JB Hi-Fi’s (20)% decline. Although there is some work to do at rebel, in particular, we believe SUL will continue to deliver strong returns and remains likely to declare a special dividend in August.

As for income, Morgans expects fully franked dividends per share of 96 cents in FY 2024 and 74 cents in FY 2025. Based on its current share price of $14.70, this will mean yields of 6.5% and 5%, respectively.

The post Why does Morgans rate these ASX dividend stocks as buys? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Buy Coles and these ASX dividend shares next week
• Brokers name 2 ASX 200 dividend shares to buy
• Why did Super Retail shares drop after going ex-dividend?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday
• Move quickly if you want to receive the Super Retail dividend

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Super Retail Group. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Bapcor. 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 some very big gains being recorded from ASX All Ords shares on Tuesday.

For example, the shares listed below have been going gangbusters with three of them up over 10% this afternoon.

Let’s see what is happening:

Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX: BGL)

The Bellevue Gold share price is up 11% to $1.62. This follows the release of a production update from the gold miner this morning. The ASX All Ords share revealed that its gold production continues to ramp up, with production totalling 13,364 ounces in February at a head grade of 5.2g/t gold. Management notes that this ensures that Bellevue Gold is on track to meet its guidance of 75,000 ounces to 85,000 ounces for the first half of FY 2024.

Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB)

The Mesoblast share price is up 25% to 40 cents. This may have been driven by a delayed reaction to an announcement out of the biotechnology company on Monday. Mesoblast revealed that the US FDA will support an accelerated approval pathway for rexlemestrocel-L under the existing Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation. This therapy is Mesoblast’s allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cell product for patients with end-stage ischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and a left ventricular assist device.

Novonix Ltd (ASX: NVX)

The Novonix share price is up 18% to $1.04. This is despite there being no news out of the battery materials technology company today. Though, it is worth noting that this ASX All Ords share has been on a tear recently. So much so, it is now up 53% since this time last month.

Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP)

The Zip share price has continued its positive run and is up 9% to $1.31. This means that the buy now pay later provider’s shares have now doubled in value since the start of 2024. Investors have been buying the ASX All Ords share after it delivered a strong half-year result and was the subject of takeover rumours. In addition, last week UBS upgraded the company’s shares to a buy rating and lifted their price target to $1.43 from a lowly 36 cents.

The post 4 ASX All Ords shares going gangbusters on Tuesday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Guess which 3 ASX All Ords shares are up 60%+ in 2024
• Why 4DMedical, Block, Judo, and Mesoblast shares are pushing higher today
• Why is the Mesoblast share price jumping 16% on Monday?
• Why Cettire, GQG, Mesoblast, and Nine Entertainment shares are falling today
• 3 ASX All Ords shares rocketing over 10% today

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Zip Co. 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 Scott Phillips.

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Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) shares have risen by 29.61% over the past month to trade at $1.32 apiece on Tuesday afternoon. The ASX lithium share is currently up 4.92% for the day so far.

There has been no official news from the junior lithium explorer over the month to explain the 30% surge.

However, battered lithium commodity prices have rebounded a bit over the period. So, this could be a factor pushing Liontown shares higher. The lithium carbonate price is up 11.28% over the past month.

As the chart below shows, Liontown shares have been through the wringer over the past nine months.

They hit an all-time high of $3.20 in June 2023, then fell through the floor after United States lithium giant Albemarle Corp (NYSE: ALB) withdrew its $3 per share takeover bid in mid-October 2023.

The ASX lithium stock is down 58.75% since that record high.

What’s next for Liontown shares?

On Friday, Liontown will release its 1H FY24 results.

As my colleague Mitch points out in our results preview article, investors will be looking for an update on construction progress and funding at the flagship Kathleen Valley lithium project.

Production is scheduled to commence in the middle of this year.

Back in December, Liontown chair Tim Goyder told investors that Kathleen Valley has an expected ten-year average C1 cash production cost of roughly US$475 per tonne. This may be updated on Friday.

The price of spodumene concentrate today is US$1,025 per tonne.

Over the past fortnight, it has risen by 13.9% from US$900 per tonne.

The post Liontown shares rocket 30% in a month ahead of Friday’s results appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today
• Is the Liontown share price ready for next week’s numbers?
• Why Coles, Liontown, Lovisa, and Wildcat shares are dropping today
• Why are ASX lithium shares like Pilbara Minerals crashing on Tuesday?
• Why the 2024 outlook for these rebounding ASX 200 lithium shares looks ‘better than market expectations’

Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. 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 Scott Phillips.

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Investors in S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares have been keeping a close eye on the pending end to elevated inflation levels.

As you likely recall, inflation took off from historically low levels in early 2022, spurred by the government’s massive pandemic stimulus measures. Inflation in Australia reached an eye-watering 7.8% in December 2022. It gradually reduced over the next year, falling to 4.3% in December 2023.

And the monthly CPI indicator for the 12 months to January 2024 came in at an even lower 3.4%.

That’s coming closer to the RBA’s target range of 2% to 3%.

Which is good news for most ASX 200 shares.

Unless the trend reverses.

How inflation can throw up headwinds for ASX 200 shares

High inflation can negatively impact ASX 200 shares in a number of ways.

First, it reduces the amount of money many consumers have to spend, which can see less revenue flowing in for many Aussie companies.

Second, high inflation comes hand in hand with higher interest rates. That’s going to hurt any companies holding high levels of debt or those priced with future earnings in mind.

And many companies can’t readily increase their prices to match these increased costs without further impacting their business.

So, there are good reasons investors in ASX 200 shares are hoping we’ve seen an end to the past two years of elevated inflation.

But a number of market experts are cautioning those hopes may be premature.

Addressing The Australian Financial Review Business Summit yesterday, BlackRock global chief investment strategist Wei Li said, “In the near term, markets may not be appreciating how quickly inflation can fall through the simple mechanics of the pandemic unwind.”

Li continued:

In the long-term, markets may not be appreciating how different the new regime is in terms of the supply side constraints… After inflation gets to target, it could cause a roller coaster rebound back higher than what markets are currently expecting.

Li said the RBA may have to accept inflation at the upper end of its target, or 3%.

Former federal treasurer Peter Costello also offered some sobering views on inflation and interest rates.

According to Costello:

The market now believes that interest rates have peaked, and they are going to fall, and have priced in those interest rate reductions. What happens if they don’t materialise as soon as the market expects? There is a fair bet to make that the market may have run beyond itself.

If inflation is poised for an unwelcome rebound, this is the ASX 200 share I’ll be buying.

An inflation-busting ASX stock

Running my slide rule over inflation-resistant ASX stocks, I looked for companies whose services will remain in strong demand even if price rises continue to hit consumers’ discretionary spending.

Importantly, I also looked for ASX 200 shares that have demonstrated they can pass on inflationary costs to their customers.

Enter, toll road developer and operator Transurban Group (ASX: TCL).

Transurban reported its half-year results (1H FY 2024) on 8 February.

Highlights included a 2.1% year on year increase in the company’s Average Daily Traffic (ADT) numbers, which reached 2.5 million trips per day.

This helped drive a 6.3% increase in proportional toll revenue to $1.76 billion.

And Transurban upped its interim dividend by 13% to 30 cents per share. The stock currently trades on an unfranked trailing yield of 4.6%.

On the expenditure side, Transurban’s operational costs increased by 1.7%. That ran below inflation, so in real terms, costs fell over the six-month period.

And this ASX 200 share is well positioned should inflation in Australia or North America rebound.

In 1H FY 2024, 67% of the company’s revenue had CPI-linked tolling escalations.

And in the unexpected scenario where inflation reverses, most of Transurban’s tolls cannot be lowered as a result of deflation.

The post If inflation rebounds I’ll be buying this leading ASX 200 share appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Analysts say these ASX All Ords dividend stocks are buys in March
• Bell Potter says these ASX 200 stocks are strong buys for March
• 2 ASX 200 dividend shares that could be strong buys this month
• 3 all-star ASX dividend stocks I’d own in retirement to combat falling interest rates
• 5 ASX 200 shares that boosted their dividends this earnings season

Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Transurban Group. 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 Scott Phillips.

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One of the most popular ETFs in Australia is the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS).

In fact, at the last count, there was $14.7 billion invested in the fund.

To put that into context, that’s more than the value of lithium giant Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) and Australia’s flag carrier airline Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN).

What is the Vanguard Australian Shares Index (VAS) ETF?

This popular ETF gives investors access to the top 300 companies listed on the Australian share market.

Vanguard highlights that this provides access to long-term capital growth potential and regular income through distributions.

In addition, due to the sheer number of ASX shares that you are buying a slice of with the ETF, it provides almost instant diversification to a portfolio.

Clearly there’s a lot to like about this ETF. But has it delivered the goods for investors over the last 12 months? Let’s dig deeper and find out.

$10,000 invested in ASX VAS

If I had invested into this ETF 12 months ago, I would have been buying at a price of $88.87.

This means I would have been able to pick up 113 units for an investment of $10,042.31.

While the first few months of ownership would have been relatively flat before a turbulent period between mid-September and the start of November, it would’ve paid handsomely (literally) to have held on.

At the time of writing, VAS is trading at $96.50 on the ASX boards. This means that my 113 units would have a market value $10,904.50. That’s a return of 8.6% or approximately $862 on my investment.

But it doesn’t stop there. As I mentioned above, the VAS ETF offer regular income through distributions.

Since this time last year, the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF has paid out a total of $3.47 per share in dividends.

This equates to a dividend yield of 3.9% based on my buy price and would have generated $392.11 in income over the 12 months.

The post How much would I have now if I’d invested $10,000 in Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (VAS) a year ago? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• With a spare $500, here’s how I’d start buying ASX shares this March
• 5 ASX shares to buy for an effortless path to financial freedom
• Buy these ASX ETFs for easy passive income
• 3 reasons to buy another ASX ETF over the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (VAS)
• 3 excellent ASX ETFs to buy in March

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. 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 Scott Phillips.

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Passive income is one of the greatest benefits of investing because it is generated while you sleep.

All you need to do is hold the asset and the passive income will simply flow into your bank account.

How lovely.

But how much passive income will you get by investing in ASX shares vs. property?

Well, this is going to be fun.

Let’s compare the current gross rental property yields on offer around the country vs. the dividend yields being paid by some of the best income shares on the ASX.

Ready?

Shares vs. property passive income comparisons

Let’s start with the passive income on offer from investment property around Australia today.

The first thing to note is that rents have skyrocketed by an average of 9.1% per year for the past three calendar years, according to CoreLogic data.

That means landlords have received a near-30% boost to their passive income over this short period.

CoreLogic’s national median rent reached $601 per week in December. This equates to a median annual passive income of $31,252 a year.

Back in August 2020, the median rent was $437 per week. So, landlords are now receiving $8,000 more in median passive income today on the same unimproved asset.

Several factors have contributed to this unusually large rise in rents.

Among them are reduced household sizes (i.e., fewer people per dwelling) and big population growth driven by migration.

There was also a notable decline in investor purchases and a rise in the number of investors selling for a period last year.

Longer-term factors are also in the mix, such as a reduction in social housing supply and wages growth not keeping up with rental growth.

So, here’s the state of play on passive income via shares vs. property.

Rental returns of houses

Here are the current gross rental yields of houses across the country.

Market	Gross yield	Market	Gross yield
Sydney	2.7%	Regional NSW	4%
Melbourne	3.1%	Regional VIC	3.9%
Brisbane	3.6%	Regional QLD	4.5%
Adelaide	3.7%	Regional SA	5%
Perth	4.4%	Regional WA	6.2%
Hobart	4.2%	Regional TAS	4.5%
Darwin	6.1%	Regional NT	6.8%
Canberra	3.7%

Rental returns of apartments

Here are the current gross rental yields of apartments across Australia.

Market	Gross yield	Market	Gross yield
Sydney	4%	Regional NSW	4.4%
Melbourne	4.5%	Regional VIC	4.7%
Brisbane	5.1%	Regional QLD	4.9%
Adelaide	5%	Regional SA	5.1%
Perth	6.2%	Regional WA	8.7%
Hobart	4.6%	Regional TAS	4.9%
Darwin	7.4%	Regional NT	n/a
Canberra	5.1%

Passive income via dividends

As you can see above, rental yields are generally pretty strong. But remember these are gross yields, which means all the holding costs associated with property investment have not been deducted.

That’s a key difference between shares vs. property — there are no ongoing holding costs with stocks.

Now, let’s discuss dividend yields and compare them to the rental yields above.

The average dividend yield for S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares is 4% per annum.

If you only own ASX 200 stocks with 100% franking, then your average gross yield goes up to 5.7% per annum.

That’s pretty comparable with many of the property markets showcased above, especially apartments.

But some ASX shares pay a lot more.

Let’s take a look at the dividend yields on the top 10 ASX 200 stocks.

ASX 200 share ranked by market capitalisation	Dividend yield
BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP)	5.7%
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)	3.84%
CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL)	1.44%
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB)	4.94%
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC)	5.33%
ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ)	5.53%
Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG)	8.64%
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)	3.17%
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES)	2.95%
Goodman Group (ASX: GMG)	1%

The post How much passive income will I get from shares vs. property? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Why BHP, Brainchip, Lake Resources, and Yancoal shares are sinking today
• Should you wait for a dip to buy ASX 200 bank shares?
• If I’d put $5,000 in Westpac shares at the start of 2024, here’s what I’d have now
• Why is the BHP share price getting hammered on Tuesday?
• Here’s the NAB dividend forecast through to 2026

Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has positions in Anz Group, BHP Group, CSL, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia, Goodman Group, and Macquarie Group. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended CSL, Goodman Group, Macquarie Group, and Wesfarmers. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Macquarie Group and Wesfarmers. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended CSL and Goodman Group. 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 Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price skyrocketed by 41% on Tuesday before the ASX announced a pause in trading pending an announcement just before 1pm.

Appen shares reached an intraday peak of $1.17, then fell back to $1.08 before the pause took effect.

That intraday peak was a big jump on yesterday’s closing Appen share price of 83 cents.

It’s also the first time the stock has traded above $1 since October last year.

There has been no official news from Appen to explain the share price surge earlier today.

However, ASX tech shares are currently the second-best performers among the 11 market sectors, so perhaps Appen is riding a bit of sector optimism today.

The S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ) is up 0.6%.

The pause in trading was announced by the ASX compliance department. This hints at the possibility that the announcement to follow will be a ‘please explain’ from the ASX to Appen.

While we’re waiting for that ASX announcement, let’s review the latest news from Appen.

Latest news: FY23 results

Appen released its FY23 full-year financial results and an investor presentation on 27 February.

Investors were pretty pleased with the numbers, with the Appen share price rising 16.7% on the day.

As my colleague Bernd reported, Appen revealed a near-30% year-over-year decline in revenue driven by a lower contribution from global services.

New markets revenue fell 7.8% due to a 46.5% decline in Appen’s global product. And there was a $69.2 million non-cash impairment charge.

The good news is that Appen resized its cost base and worked out how to save $60 million in annualised costs from here.

The company also expects to cut costs by a further $13.5 million this year. However, these cuts are only the result of Alphabet Inc terminating its global inbound services contract.

That deal was worth $82.8 million in revenue for Appen in 2023, so it was a big blow to lose the Google parent as a customer.

The contract termination was announced in January and becomes effective next week.

Following Appen’s FY23 results, the consensus recommendation on Appen shares fell from a hold to a moderate sell on CommSec.

What’s next for the Appen share price?

Volatility is typically the name of the game with small caps.

The battered company is also in transformation mode, so we’ll just need to see how that goes.

It’s possible that the rise of artificial intelligence may become a catalyst for taking the Appen share price higher in the coming years.

Appen is hoping to return to cash EBITDA profitability in FY24.

However, it says this “will largely depend on revenue growth from our non-global customers, the timing of which remains uncertain”.

The company says it is now working with 22 large language model builders globally to support the development of generative AI foundation models.

According to the latest S&P DJI quarterly rebalance, Appen will drop out of the ASX 300 on 18 March.

The post Big news about to drop: Appen share price put on ice following 41% surge appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Appen share price tumbles amid ongoing losses for the ASX AI stock
• Guess which beaten-up ASX 300 tech stock is rocketing 15% today

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has positions in Appen. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Alphabet and Appen. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet. 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) is fighting back from yesterday’s selloff and is on course to record a small gain. In afternoon trade, the benchmark index is up 0.15% to 7,715.7 points.

Four ASX shares that are holding back the market today are listed below. Here’s why they are dropping:

BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP)

The BHP share price is down 1% to $42.48. Investors have been selling BHP and other miners today following a sharp pullback in the iron ore price overnight. Concerns over demand from China weighed on the price of the steel making ingredient.

Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN)

The Brainchip share price is down 2.5% to 36 cents. This may have been driven by profit taking from day traders following a series of strong gains from the semiconductor company’s shares. Brainchip’s shares remain up 40% since this time last month despite a recent pullback.

Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE)

The Lake Resources share price is down 11% to 10.2 cents. This morning, the struggling lithium developer announced the completion of an institutional placement. It has received firm commitments to raise $15 million at 7 cents per new share. This represents a 39.1% discount to where its shares last traded. These funds will be used for working capital purposes while it aims to complete its ongoing strategic partnership process.

Yancoal Australia Ltd (ASX: YAL)

The Yancoal share price is down 7% to $5.60. This has been driven by the coal miner’s shares going ex-dividend this morning for its latest payout. Eligible shareholders can now look forward to receiving its fully franked 32.5 cents per share final dividend next month on 30 April. This equates to a 5.4% dividend yield based on its last close price.

The post Why BHP, Brainchip, Lake Resources, and Yancoal shares are sinking today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Why is the BHP share price getting hammered on Tuesday?
• Why are Lake Resources shares crashing 20% on Tuesday?
• Buy BHP and these ASX dividend shares
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Tuesday
• Why are short sellers shifting into ASX blue chips and out of lithium losers?

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. 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 Scott Phillips.

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The All Ordinaries (ASX: XAO) stock Adairs Ltd (ASX: ADH) has seen its share price jump 5% after the chair’s resignation. This gain meant the company reached a 52-week high.

It has been an extraordinary recovery for the ASX retail share in recent times, doubling from where it was on 27 October 2023.

Chair resignation

The operator of Adairs, Mocka and Focus on Furniture has announced that non-executive chair Brett Chenoweth has tendered his resignation from the board, effective 22 March 2024, which is less than two weeks away.

According to Adairs, Chenoweth explained that his decision “reflects his desire to concentrate on his other corporate responsibilities, with particular focus on chair and board roles across the digital infrastructure and media sectors.”

Management comments

The Adairs CEO Mark Ronan said:

On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Brett for his substantial contribution to Adairs over the past 4 years. He has been a pleasure to work with and a valuable partner to both myself and the organisation during his time as chair.

Who will be the new chair of the ASX All Ords stock?

Adairs said it will commence a search for a new chair.

In the meantime, non-executive director Kate Spargo will serve as the interim non-executive chair. Spargo has been an independent company director for 20 years across a variety of sectors including infrastructure, construction and engineering, energy, financial services, building product manufacturing and health services.

Spargo has been a director of Adairs since May 2015. She is also a director of Sigma Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SIG) and Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SHL).

Recent trading

The latest update from the ASX All Ords stock was with the FY24 first-half result where it said sales for weeks 27 to 34 were down 9.6% for the overall business. Looking at the individual segments, Mocka sales were up 4%, Focus on Furniture sales were down 14.1% and Adairs sales were down 9.5%.

Adairs said customer traffic is still “significantly lower” than last year, with consumers remaining value-orientated. It revealed that customer conversation declines “notably” when offers are reduced.

However, there was a material decline in sales in May 2023, so management expects the comparative sales performance will improve in the second half of FY24. It’s focused on managing its gross profit margin, maximising sales conversion and managing its cost of doing business (CODB).

Initiatives for growth include product ranging, supply chain improvements, the Adairs-operated national distribution centre, CODB management and store rollout.

The post 52-week high! ASX All Ords stock surges 5% as chair steps down appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Why Adairs, BHP, Deep Yellow, and Woodside shares are dropping today
• 3 ASX 300 shares receiving broker upgrades today (one with 25% potential upside)
• Adairs share price rockets 12% as dividend payments resume

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Adairs. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Adairs. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Sonic Healthcare. 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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