July 2017
July 2017 Amazon has been a disruptive force to retailers all over the world. We expect its arrival on Australian soil will make it a disruptive force to all retailers here as well over the coming decade. At this stage, there is a lot of speculation about the segments of the market Amazon may choose…
July 2017
July 2017 Advisers are increasingly using SMAs that replicate managed fund model portfolios, but they could be exposing clients to large tracking errors, warns Ralton Asset Management. SMAs, or separately managed accounts, are an alternative to unit trusts and allow clients to have full transparency of their portfolio while entrusting management to an external party. The…
July 2017
Large-cap Australian equities The S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index finished the financial year up 13.8%, although the market lost ground in the June quarter, falling 1.6%. Strength in Industrials and Health Care was not enough to offset weakness in other sectors, principally Financials and Telecommunications during the quarter. Key contributors during the quarter were Aristocrat Leisure…
June 2017
June 2017 Designer and manufacturer of respiratory equipment, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (ASX:FPH) posted a strong profit result for the FY17 financial year, including a near 20% growth in profit to shareholders, which was well received by investors. These profit figures were somewhat dampened by unusually high legal costs, as Fisher & Paykel Healthcare seeks to rigorously…
June 2017
June 2017 Boral shares (ASX:BLD) rose again last month as investors continue to focus on the fundamentals of the US-based Headwaters acquisition. Boral received US regulatory approval for the transaction, completing the final hurdle and formally closing the deal in early May. As we emphasised at the time of the announcement in November last year, the acquisition…
June 2017
June 2017 Caltex (ASX:CTX) shares added value in May as investors began to revisit this name. We bought the stock early this year when the share price fell after the loss of the Woolworths petrol station supply contract due to the business’ acquisition by BP. Caltex already has a strategy to replace the lost profits…
June 2017
The S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index lost ground in May, falling 2.74%. Strength in Industrials and Telecommunications was not enough to offset weakness in other sectors, principally Financials. Lower consumer spending is expected to continue throughout the year as a significant headwind for Australian retailers. Weak wage growth is seeing consumers divert spending away from the…
May 2017
May 2017 Shares in IT company, Computershare Limited (CPU, +4.8%), rose during the month following a positive investor briefing. Highlights of the briefing were the continued progress in CPU’s mortgage service businesses in both the US and UK, in addition to the potential for task automation. With over 13,000 staff performing a range of repetitive,…
May 2017
The S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index added 0.98% for the month of April with Industrials and Healthcare the top-performing sectors. Our Australian shares portfolio outperformed its benchmark during the month and continues to deliver investors solid long-term returns, returning 20.6%, 11.9% p.a. and 14.8% p.a. over one, three and five years, respectively. Since inception the portfolio…
May 2017
April 2017 Shares in horticultural company, Costa Group (ASX:CGC), rallied after the company announced both an increase in profit guidance for the current year and a $65m expansion of its mushroom farm at Minarto in South Australia. Costa is already the number one player in the Australian mushroom category and this expansion will further consolidate…