Viewpoint: Bullish
US stocks were strong overnight led by the “hot” Financials and Energy Sectors, pretty much in-line with most of 2021 – our target for the S&P500 is looming fast, only ~2% higher.
One of our positions in the MM Growth Portfolio which has struggled for the last 6-months is Hamish Douglass’s Magellan (MFG) although the stock did trade ex-div 97c (fully franked) earlier in the month. The stocks been moving in tandem with the negative sentiment across both our fund manager and IT sectors but our “gut feel” is its gone too far and another $10 bounce would not surprise.
HUB24 (HUB) focuses on the delivery of a platform which supports investors. The platform is a next-generation service with state-of-the-art portfolio management, transaction, and reporting solutions for licensees, financial advisers, accountants, stockbrokers, and institutions.
The beaten up wealth manager reported 1H21 results this morning that were okay, and an okay result was all they needed to deliver to see the stock higher. Underlying profit was $65.9 million, up +7.4% yoy and they reported an interim dividend of 8c plus a special dividend of 3.5c. That’s 11.5c for the half or nearly 7% annualised, which is strong.
One of the surprising stories of the last 12 months has been education placement business IDP. The first half has seen a quicker than anticipated recovery.
IDP Education (IEL) provides student placement services to enroll into universities, schools, and colleges. The Company offers student services, such as university and course guidance, visa application and scholarships assistance, and pre-departure support services. IDP Education operates worldwide.
Wisetech Global (WTC) designs and develops cloud-based logistics software solutions. The Company offers forwarding, custom clearance, liner and agency, warehousing, and land transport solutions. Wisetech Global operates worldwide.
US markets were again mixed overnight with most major indices closing mixed after recovering from aggressive early losses, we still see fresh all-time highs in the coming weeks but we definitely appear to be in a period of “sell strength and buy weakness”.
Recently we discussed WA miner IGO and on cue yesterday the stocks rallied well over 4% however as a useful read through on the current rally in the Resources Sector we still expect another 8-10% upside during this current leg up implying there’s no reason to exit positions in the sector for a while.
One recent characteristic that’s caught my attention through the current reporting season is the “delayed response” to company’s profit reports / updates. On Monday Lend Lease (LLC) slipped a few cents lower after reporting core operating EBITDA of $405m however on Tuesday after digesting the result overnight LLC soared more than +8%
