The proportion of Australians with private hospital cover has fallen to its lowest level in 10 years. This is largely because younger people are opting out, shifting the mix of insured people towards older, higher claiming age groups. The resulting cost pressures could be too much for some health insurers, leading to industry consolidation.  Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Insurance.

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Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX:ALL) has diversified its exposure beyond gaming machines over the last six years with a push into the online, and more recently the mobile games market. This began with its acquisition of social casino business Product Madness, and the internet gaming system and remote game server from GameAccount Network in late 2012 for around A$32 million. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Editor's Pick, Stocks We Like, Technology & Telecommunications.

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With the Financial Services Royal Commission having handed down its draft report at the end of September, three of the four major banks have recently released statements outlining the expected level of near term customer remediation costs. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Financial Services.

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In this week’s video insight Stuart discusses the factors behind recent market gyrations and provides three basic building blocks to generate the valuation of a company.

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Video Insights.

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Research by University of Melbourne scientists* has found that Australia’s drought may be the worst in 800 years. It’s been devastating for our farmers, and is also likely to be hitting many agriculture companies. So the recently announced FY2018 result by agricultural chemical company, Nufarm (ASX:NUF), makes interesting reading. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Companies.

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English language testing and international student placement company IDP Education released another strong set of result for the 12 months to June 2018. Net profit after tax increased 24 per cent while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 30 per cent relative to the prior year. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Companies, Stocks We Like.

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In this week’s video insight Stuart takes a look at Seek’s (ASX:SEK) full year results. In the 2018 year, Seek reported 24.4 per cent revenue growth. This was a strong result driven by an acceleration in revenue growth in the Australasian, Chinese and Asian businesses.

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by Stuart Jackson Posted in Editor's Pick, Video Insights.

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Amcor has just announced a merger with Bemis, a US based flexibles packaging company. The new entity will be the global leader in plastics packaging with a market cap of around US$17 billion, annual revenue of US$13 billion and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of US$2.2 billion. But after looking at the deal, we wonder if Amcor has paid too much. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Companies, Takeovers.

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The worsening drought in Eastern Australia is resulting in increasingly difficult conditions for businesses right across the agriculture sector. And if official weather forecasts hold firm, it looks like things will be tough for some time to come. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Market commentary.

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While you may not follow movements in the bank bill swap rate (BBSW), right now they are worth paying attention to. You see, rates are on the rise. And that means the funding costs for our major banks are also going up. This could force them to raise mortgage rates – and take mortgage stress to another level. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Financial Services.

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