Australian Stocks Dividend News: Metcash Ltd (MTS)

Metcash Limited (ASX:MTS) is a leading marketing and distribution company operating in the food and other fast moving consumer goods categories. MTS operates via three business units: IGA Distribution (retail), Campbells Cash & Carry (wholesale) and Australian Liquor Marketers (ALM; liquor wholesale).

Metcash today released its first half results, which showed a 14% decrease in 1H profit to $94.4 million.

The company said the decrease was due to grocery price deflation, economic uncertainty and a cut in margins due to increased competition.

Metcash said it expects low-to-mid single digit earnings growth for the full year.

MTS will pay an interim dividend of $0.115.

Click to Receive FREE Trading Recommendations!

ASX Industrials Shares News: UGL Limited (UGL)

UGL Limited (formerly known as United Group), (ASX:UGL) is an engineering and services company providing industrial maintenance, manufacturing, engineering, transport facilities management and corporate real estate services to blue chip companies and governments throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, US and the UK.

Industrials stock UGL, today announced that it has successfully secured approximately $200 million in new contracts, while renewing several old contracts.

Managing Director and CEO, Richard Leupen said that strong momentum of contract wins is consistent with UGL’s strategy of maintaining and growing a stable base of recurring revenue.

Mr Leupen also added the business remains healthy and is well positioned to support the growth outlook within the business.

For FREE Daily Trading Recommendations, Click NOW!

Australia Shares News: Qantas Airways (QAN)

Qantas Airways (ASX:QAN) operates domestic and international airlines under the widely known Flying Kangaroo banner. These airline operations are complemented by extensive holiday travel activities, catering facilities for QAN services and external customers, ground handling of baggage and freight, and engineering and maintenance services.

Qantas updated the stock market today on its expected profit.   The company guided for 1H FY12 profit of $140-$190 million, from $417 million a year earlier.

Qantas said that the recent industrial action will cost approximately $194 million for the first half.

A company spokesman has also denied media speculation that it has shelved a planned Asia-based premium carrier.

Qantas’ passenger numbers for October showed a 1.8% decline compared to the previous year.

Click to Receive FREE Trading Recommendations!

Shares to Buy: Nexus Energy (NXS)

Nexus Energy (ASX:NXS) is small cap emerging oil and gas producer, with operations focused on the Gippsland Basin, offshore Victoria and the Browse Basin, offshore Western Australia.

In 2009, NXS transitioned from explorer to producer with the start-up of the Longtom gas project.

The Longtom project was plagued by production problems in late 2010 due to the detection of mercury in its gas.  However those issues have since been resolved and the project has been delivering record production of late.

A lot of interest currently surrounds NXS’s 85% stake in the Crux liquids project (15% Osaka Gas-owned), which is Shell-operated and has a reserve estimate of around 75 million barrels of oil.

With liquefied natural gas (LNG) seeing global demand as an alternative fuel source, NXS and its peers are in good standing owing to the LNG boom and recovering commodities market.

The company is in the midst of securing financing for its share of Crux’s development, and a final investment decision (FID) is expected by the end of the year.

The Crux of the matter

Nexus is looking to commercialise the Crux project, but before a FID can be reached, it must secure financing.  The group is currently trying to obtain up to US$1 billion in financing, with the lenders currently conducting due diligence.

Encouragingly, NXS has also identified a potential JV partner for the project, and is expecting a binding proposal in the next few weeks.

NXS’ proposed 35% sell-down of its equity stake in the project, combined with the potential US$1 billion in debt financing, are signs that the group is on track achieve the FID by the proposed target date.

The economics of the project have already been confirmed under varying capex and schedule sensitivities.  Construction of the project is expected to total around $1.78 billion.

Therefore, achieving FID by the target date will help alleviate concerns over NXS’ ability to fund the project’s developments costs.

Whilst the stock has rallied ahead of the FID, we believe the market has yet to fully price in the huge revenue potential of the project (assuming a positive FID).

The Longtom and short of it

In late October, NXS reported Longtom gas production of 6.4 petajoules (PJ), which was 7.4% higher than the previous quarter.

Saleable gas production totaled 6.2 PJ, which was up 6.7% on June quarter output. This drove revenue up from $27 million to $29 million in the same period.

The increase in Longtom output has continued the turnaround in this asset, which faced production issues early in the financial year due to mercury detection in the delivered gas.

The installation of mercury removal equipment has so far allowed Nexus Energy to meet gas nominations under its contract with customer, Santos.

Future growth will come from the exploration of Longtom South, which is a prospect located 4km south of Longtom.

Given the proximity of the two fields, it wouldn’t cost NXS as much to develop Longtom South. If gas is ultimately discovered, it will provide another source of cash flow, thus increasing the company’s value.

Outlook

NXS has had a fantastic turnaround in the past few months, as anticipation builds ahead of its proposed FID by the end of the year.

The company is in the midst of securing financing for the project and is also in negotiations to sell down part of its stake.

That’s not to say either of these will definitely happen, as there is always the chance of NXS failing to obtain the required funding.

However, NXS hasn’t indicated any issues with the FID process thus far.  Therefore we believe the potential payoff from taking a position in Nexus Energy is worth the risk.

For further FREE Trading Recommendations, Click Now!

Australian Stocks News: David Jones (DJS)

David Jones (ASX:DJS) is Australia’s second-largest department store retailer and fifth largest retailing company overall. The company operates a chain of over 35 retail stores and mainly sells upmarket brands of clothing, accessories and homewares. The stores also offer a wide product range of David Jones branded merchandise.

ASX 200 listed stock DJS today has reaffirmed its guidance for a substantial fall in first half year profit.

The company expects its net profit for the half year to December 31 to fall by 15-20% on last year’s first half profit of $105.7 million

David Jones also reported first quarter 2012 sales of $414.3 million, which was down 11.2% compared to the previous corresponding quarter.

CEO Paul Zahra said that trading seems to have improved in October and November 2011, but continues to be negative on last year due to a tough operating environment.

For FREE Daily Trading Recommendations, Click NOW!

ASX Industrials News: NRW Holdings (NWH)

NRW Holdings (ASX:NWH) is a provider of civil contracting, mining services and equipment to the resources industry.

A leader in the Western Australia resources sector, NWH provides a number of services, most notably civil contracting services including rail formation, bulk earthworks, road and tunnel construction, and mining services, including earth moving, waste stripping, ore haulage and related ancillary services.

NRW Holdings advised the market that based on current management accounts, net profit for half year ending 31 December 2011 is anticipated to be in the range of $41-$43 million.

This profit forecast would represent a big increase of approximately 100% on the prior corresponding period.

NRW said that the second period of FY12 will be similar to the first period of FY12, subject to any unforeseen events.

Click to Receive FREE Daily Trading Recommendations!

ASX 200 Materials Shares News: BlueScope Steel Ltd (BSL)

BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) is a major steel company in Australia and New Zealand, supplying flat steel products to the building, construction, manufacturing, automotive and packaging industries.

ASX 200 listed stock BlueScope has today launched a $600 million share issue.

The new shares will be offered at $0.40, which represents a 34% discount to the most recent close.

The money will be used to repay existing debt.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for the next 7 Days, Click Here!

Murchison Metals (MMX) Trading Halt News

Murchison Metals (ASX:MMX) asked and was granted a trading halt from the Australian Stock Exchange today.

MMX stated it was in advanced talks on the possible sale of its Oakajee port and rail projects and also its entire stake in the Jack Hills iron-ore development in WA.

Materials Stock, Murchison said it hopes to make an announcement before the commencement of trading on Wednesday.

Click to Receive FREE Trading Recommendations!

ASX Stocks to Watch News: Myer Holdings (MYR)

Myer Holdings (ASX:MYR) is one of Australia’s largest department store groups targeting a wide spectrum of consumers.

Myer has a national network of stores in Australia. It retails designer, national, and international fashion and apparel for men, women and children.

MYR focuses on its retail presence and execution, and also operates a consumer loyalty program.

A cloudy macroeconomic picture has been a major thorn for MYR and its retail peers in recent times.

However, the RBA’s recent rate cut could be the first sign of a near-term turnaround in the company’s fortunes.

Although MYR’s first quarter sales were weak, we see a pickup in momentum heading into 2012, which makes the stock an attractive proposition around current levels.

Confidence is key

MYR’s troubles have stemmed largely from concerns about the Australian economy, specifically the deterioration in consumer sentiment.

Consumer sentiment has remained weak for much of the past year amid global market volatility and the RBA’s hawkish stance on monetary policy.

This has prompted consumers to save more and cut back on discretionary spending, which has hit the sales of retailers such as MYR and David Jones.

However, things have improved in recent weeks, particularly with the RBA’s recent dovishness translating into an interest rate cut this month.

Consumer sentiment shot up 6.3% this month in response to the rate cut as well as the potential for further easing.

When combined with the Aussie dollar’s recent decline, the economic conditions are ripe for a near-term pickup in domestic consumer spending. This should come as a welcome relief for MYR’s sales heading into 2012.

Deflating trading conditions

Yesterday MYR reported a 3.5% fall in 1Q12 sales from a year earlier to $$681.million. On a like-for-like basis, sales were down 5.1%.

The group experienced a tough trading environment during the quarter, but nevertheless said sales were tracking expectations.  It also reaffirmed its full year forecast for flat sales and a 10% fall in net profit.

This came as a relief to the market, which had feared a worse result given the recent global economic turbulence.

The sales result came on the back of a tough FY11, in which net profit fell 3.6% to $162.7 million. Sales were also down for the year amid challenging retail conditions.

A final dividend of 11.5 cents was declared, bringing the full year dividend to 22.5 cents. Maintaining this dividend in FY12 would result in a robust yield ~9%, but even if the group cuts its dividend by 10% (20.25 cents), it would still deliver a healthy yield of ~8%.

Just how valuable?

Despite MYR’s weak 1Q12, we expect an improvement in sales heading into Christmas as consumers take advantage of the recent rate cut.

Unless Europe’s debt crisis intensifies, the rate cut may also prompt consumers to release pent up demand in 2012, which we see as underpinning a sales recovery for MYR.

Heading into FY13, we see a rebound in both earnings and sales for MYR as the Australian economy gathers steam due to the mining boom.

Myer is currently trading at a deep discount to its rivals, given the poor earnings expectation for FY12.  The group’s current P/E of just 8.9x represents a ~30% discount to its industry average.

However we believe the discount is too deep given the company’s relatively stronger leverage to improving consumer sentiment.

Adjusting the discount to 15%, and using a blended EPS spread over FY12, FY13 and FY14, our fundamental-based price target for MYR is $2.77, which represents good value around current levels.

Outlook

Aussie retailers have been out of favour for a while due to cyclical issues (tough economy) and more serious structural problems (strong AUD and online competition).

Whilst we are cautious on retailers as whole due to those structural issues, there is finally some value in the sector given the potential for an improvement in trading conditions.

The RBA’s recent rate cut could prompt consumers to release pent-up demand, which we believe will benefit retailers with strong operational leverage such as MYR.

Although the group’s first quarter sales were weak, we see a pickup in momentum heading into 2012.

Adjusting MYR’s deep discount to its peers, we have a price target of $2.77, which offers decent value at the current share price, particularly when factoring the healthy dividend yield.

If MYR keeps picking up momentum it will be a stock to watch right into the new year.

Click to Receive FREE Trading Recommendations!

ASX Materials Sector News: BHP Billiton (BHP)

BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP)  has a global portfolio of high-quality assets, with more than 100 operations in 25 countries.

BHP held its AGM today, with CEO Marius Kloppers outlining challenges for the company on the back of economic uncertainty and equity market volatility.

Mr Kloppers told the AGM that despite short-term challengers the long-term outlook remains unchanged.

BHP’s strategy remains to invest through the economic cycle, with a plan to invest US$80 billion over the next five years on its mining and petroleum assets.

Click to Receive FREE Trading Recommendations!

ASX 200 Shares News: Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL)

Incitec Pivot Limited (ASX:IPL) produces and distributes fertilisers and explosives. IPL has operations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia.

ASX 200 stock Incitec Pivot has delivered a strong annual profit, slightly beating market forecast.

Incitec recorded a 13% lift in net profit, which it contributes to the second half rise in fertiliser prices and demand for explosives.

The company declared an 8.2 cent dividend, compared to 6 cents the same time last year.

Click to Receive FREE Trading Recommendations!

Gold Shares to Buy: Azimuth Resources (AZH)

Azimuth Resources (ASX:AZH) is a junior gold and uranium explorer, with projects based in Guyana and South America.

The group holds approximately 8000km² of gold tenements in Guyana, and its main asset is the West Omai gold project, which it is currently exploring.

AZH’s other interests are the East Omai gold project, the Amakura uranium project, and the Pandanus West uranium project in Australia.

The company is an exciting prospect that has produced encouraging drilling results at West Omai. There is growing hope that the group’s maiden resource discovery will be significant enough to help underpin the start of production.

Go Guyana

The West Omai project is AZH’s flagship project, and which may contain the discovery of significant gold resources.

West Omai is part of the same corridor that hosts the Omai gold mine, which is the biggest gold mine in South America, having so far produced 3.7 million ounces of gold.

Azimuth Resources is expected to release a maiden resource estimate from the project sometime this quarter.

Given West Omai’s proximity to the Omai gold mine and the encouraging drilling results thus far, a significant resource discovery could be on the cards.

Gold shoots higher

Being an explorer, AZH is tightly leveraged to gold prices.

Although gold was sold-off heavily in September, the precious metal has bounced back strongly in recent weeks amid global economic uncertainty.

The spot price of gold is back above US$1750 an ounce after crashing to just above US$1500 in late September.

Europe’s debt crisis and the potential for another round of bond purchases by the Fed is likely to lure more nervous investors back into gold, which is likely to support prices further.

Such an outcome would be very beneficial for AZH.

Balanced out

AZH completed a $19.4 million capital raising on 31 October, giving it the balance sheet strength to pursue its Guyana exploration program well into 2012.

The raising has come at an ideal time for AZH, which has smartly taken advantage of its strong share price to shore up its finances.

The group also announced plans in April 2011 to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The listing is expected to boost AZH’s global profile, which will come in handy when the group looks at future capital raisings.

Outlook

AZH an exciting prospect that has produced encouraging drilling results at its West Omai project.

The group is expected to release a maiden resource estimate from the project sometime this quarter, and there is hope the estimate will be significant enough to help underpin the start of production.

AZH’s fortunes are closely linked to the price of gold, and with the precious metal on track for continued gains, we believe this will translate into continued strength for AZH’s share price.

This is one of the hot stocks of the year, rising from 25 cent in June to currently be trading beyond 50 cents.

For further FREE Trading Recommendations Click Here.

ASX Industrials Shares News: Asciano (AIO)

Asciano (ASX:AIO) is transport infrastructure and operations company formed from a de-merger from Toll Holdings in June 2007 and joined the ASX 200 soon after.

Today, Asciano released its FY12 September quarter update, saying that it has performed well in uncertain economic times.

However CEO John Mullen did warn global economic conditions were difficult and unpredictable at present, and refrained from releasing specific guidance for the remainder of the FY12.

AIO reported coal volumes fell 9% in the September quarter, amid reduced export demand and delivery issues.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for 7 Days, Click Now!

Financial Shares News: Lend Lease Corporation (LLC)

Lend Lease Corporation (ASX:LLC) is an international group involved in project design, construction and maintenance, property development and property funds management. LLC operates in over 40 countries, with a significant presence in Australia, Asia, Europe, USA and is listed on the Australian Stock Market.

Today Lend Lease’s CEO Steve McCann told the company’s AGM that the outlook for Australia across most of the company’s key sectors remains positive, but weak sentiment in overseas market could impact the business.

Mr McCann did believe that LLC is well placed to deliver growth for security-holders.

Lend Lease also outlined an additional $1.2 billion in infrastructure work in the short term.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for the next 7 Days, Click Here!

Blue Chip Stocks News: Westfield Group (WDC)

Westfield Group (ASX:WDC)  is the largest retail property group in the world by equity market capitalisation. It has investment interests in 126 shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Westfield, which is among the blue chip stocks, has released its 3^rd quarter operating update for the nine months to 30 September 2011.

WDC reaffirmed its full year earnings forecast, saying it is seeing growth in all of its markets.

Current full year forecast for distribution per security is 48.4 cents, whilst operational segment earnings are expected to be 74.6 cents per security.

Westfield did outline their new development projects for the next few years with $1.25 Billion to be spent in 2012 and a further $1.5 Billion in 2013.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for 7 Days, Click Now!

ASX Hot Stocks Tips: Computershare (CPU)

Computershare (ASX: CPU) provides technology systems and services for the international securities industry. Its core services comprise the provision of shareholder registry services, employee share plans and associated services such as printing and share registry analytical services.

Computershare’s US$550 million takeover of Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s investor service business has been approved by U.S regulators.

This deal expected to be completed around the 1^st of January and will make CPU the largest provider of share-registry services in the world.

Computershare is one of the hot stocks of the day up around 15%.

Click Now to receive FREE Trading Recommendations for 7 Days!

ASX Shares to Buy News: WorleyParsons (WOR)

WorleyParsons (ASX:WOR) provides professional engineering and management services to the energy, resource and complex process industries.

WOR offers a broad range of services, from feasibility studies to design and project services, and is exposed to a number of sectors.

The group is a leader in its industry and has established long-term relationships with a number of companies, including some blue chip stocks.

Despite facing obstacles in FY11, WOR was able to grow its profit and revenue, with the Hydrocarbons business driving the result.

Moreover, WOR is ideally placed for the future, as the lure of higher energy prices is likely to drive demand for its services from the bigger oil companies.

FY11 results highlight underlying strength

On 24 August, WOR reported a 25% lift in FY11 net profit to $364.2 million. On an underlying basis, profit was up 2.5% to $298.5 million, matching previous guidance.

A final dividend of 50 cents was declared, bringing the full year dividend to 86 cents per share.

It was a solid result considering WOR faced a number of headwinds such as the strengthening AUD, Middle East instability and natural disasters.

The result didn’t really reflect the strength of the underlying business. Revenue grew 19% on-year to $5.9 billion, driving by a strong performance in the Hydrocarbons business.

The group was also in financially strong shape, with a gearing ratio of just 22% and operating cash flow growth of 5.1% in FY11. Moreover it had more than 50% in untapped debt facilities.

Taken together, this tells us WOR has significant firepower to expand its business –organically and/or through M&A activity.

The group forecast good underlying profit growth in FY12, continuing the momentum displayed in the 2H11. The guidance was reaffirmed at WOR’s AGM last week.

Hyper about Hydrocarbons

The majority of WOR’s earnings are in the Hydrocarbons division. Hydrocarbons are organic compounds, found mostly in crude oil.

WOR’s leverage to the energy market is a key attraction, particularly as demand for oil and gas is expected to strength in coming years due to emerging market growth.

The recent market turbulence has raised questions about faltering energy demand in the developed economies, which has been a factor behind WorleyParson’s recent share price weakness.

However we believe these fears are overblown given the oil supply/demand imbalance (dwindling oil supplies vs. growing energy demand) is only expected to worsen in coming years.

The lure of energy price appreciation at a time of growing demand is likely to see the big energy companies continue their ramp up of capex spending, putting WOR in an ideal position to accelerate its contract win rate.

LNG is the future

The big oil companies have also recognized that the world is moving towards more unconventional sources of energy such as LNG.

There are number of massive projects being undertaken throughout Australia, and WOR has had a hand in some of the key ones such as Pluto and more recently, Wheatstone.

WOR won a $235 million contract from Chevron for the construction of management services at the Wheatstone Project.

WOR’s experience in developing LNG projects, coupled with the established relationships it has with its blue-chip clients, makes it ideally placed to benefit from this increased focus on alternative energy.

Outlook

As the global growth engine continues to shift from developed economies to the developing regions, there will be increased demand for commodities.

As mining companies look to meet this demand, there is going to be a significant increase in capex activities over the coming years.

This will strengthen the market for WOR’s services, providing it with plenty of growth opportunities, especially in the hydrocarbons space.

WOR is in sound financial position and is expected to continue the positive earnings momentum into FY12.

The long-term relationships WOR has fostered with its blue-chip clients is likely to yield considerable benefits for the company, particularly as miners look to capitalize on rising commodity prices as well as the world’s shift to alternative energy sources.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for the next 7 Days, Click Here!

ASX 200 Shares Update: News Corporation (NWS)

News Corporation (ASX:NWS) is a diversified media conglomerate with interests in all geographic locations around the world, and in all facets of the media. The principle activities of the company include printing and publishing, books and magazines, television broadcasting and production including both free to air and pay television, and film production and distributions.

Today, ASX 200 listed News Corp reported 1Q12 revenue of US$7.96 billion, up  7% from  a year ago. However net profit for the quarter came in at US$738 million, down from US$775 in the previous quarter.

The fall in earnings was partially due to the $68 million, or 38%, decrease of operating income in the publishing segment. This reflected the impact from the closure of The News of World in the U.K.

The Cable Network Programming, Filmed Entertainment and Direct Broadcast Satellite Television segments all recorded double digit revenue increases compared to the prior corresponding quarter.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for the next 7 Days, Click Here!

ASX Materials Stocks News: Onesteel Ltd (OST)

Onesteel Ltd (ASX:OST) is Australia’s premier manufacturer of steel and finished steel products and is also a leading metal distributor.

OneSteel revised downward its earnings guidance for the 1H12, saying it will provide a trading update at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 21^st of November 2011.

OST will revise down its earnings due to the collapse of iron ore prices, which are now around 30% below their the levels 3 weeks ago, and also the increase in the Australian dollar over the same period.

Receive FREE Trading Recommendations for the next 7 Days, Click Here!