Investor Insights

The period from late 2021 into much of 2022 saw strong rising official cash rates and widespread worries about an upcoming recession, equities mostly surprised by delivering strong performance in the financial year of 2023. Investors demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability as they actively pursued opportunities in the market.

  In this week’s video insight David Buckland discusses two Australian biomedical companies, Pro-Medicus (ASX:PME) and Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) which are gaining global recognition. Pro-Medicus specialises in imaging software and has experienced significant growth, while Telix focuses on cancer management technologies with promising market potential. Both companies are poised for further success and expansion.

Most people associate Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) with some of Australia’s best known retail names such as Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks. While this is where the bulk of the earnings are generated now, the role of Wesfarmers in everyday Australians’ lives actually runs deeper than it would appear on the surface with a growing healthcare and resources exposure.

Fears of recession, a market correction and runaway inflation have caused small-cap stocks to materially underperform their large-cap cousins. Those same fears have led many investors asking how wise it is to invest in a small-cap fund now. But investors should remember the stock market is the only market where consumers zip up their wallets when prices are low.

For long term investors and followers of our Small Companies Fund (the Fund) you would be aware that one of the themes we have spoken about since the inception of the Fund is Cloud Computing. In recent weeks we have seen the market becoming quite excited about the prospect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its related industries.

Recently, Zenith Investment Partner published their fund report for the Australian Eagle Trust Long Short Fund (The Fund), reiterating their RECOMMENDED rating. With their updated rating for 2023 investors might be interested in The Fund’s features and benefits, commencing with its historical performance (Figure 1). Figure 1.

The minutes from the June Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting published last week revealed a more hotly contested meeting than the market anticipated, with the decision closely split between a hold or a 25 basis point hike.  ​The threat of further inflation outweighing the option to hold.

With all the talk of recession, we’ve been exploring its probability. As investors, it’s vital to understand which sectors and individual companies are most and least impacted. And helping in that task is appreciating the consumer’s important canary-in-the-coal-mine role.

  In this video Dan Davidowitz, Portfolio Manager and Analyst for Polen’s Focus Growth strategy, shares his insights on the often-misunderstood world of digital payments. Can the Visa and MasterCard duopoly be disrupted? What interests you the most about the digital payments space from an investment perspective? There’s a lot to like about digital payments.

The NAB Business Survey for the May reporting period has begun to demonstrate a significant slowing in activity and has identified widespread apprehension towards the future economic outlook. The survey results reported widespread weakening across most of the indicators, as high inflation and interest rates are now starting to limit growth and general market optimism.

It has been 30 years in the making, when Dr Fiona Wood and scientist Marie Stoner recognised the potential of tissue engineering to treat burns and a skin culture facility was borne. Their product evolved from cultural sheets of cultural epithelial autograph (CEA) to aerosol delivered cell-clusters and today it is known as “spray-on skin”.

Private credit offers investors with an opportunity to earn steady monthly income, a simple way to diversify your portfolio – whilst providing protection against inflation and performance through the economic cycle.