Bank of Queensland Limited (BOQ):
Bank of Queensland could cut its dividend at its first-half results on April 11 result, according to Morgan Stanley’s Andrei Stadnik. He says a 20 per cent cut in the dividend is “plausible”, given change in management and compounding concerns from falling margins, sub system loan growth, no room to cut costs, no margin for error on loan losses and no excess capital. Mr Stadnik has cut his target price by 5pc to $8.50 today while reiterating his Underweight rating on Bank of Queensland.
BHP Group Ltd (BHP):
BHP Group is among the potential bidders for Blackstone Group and LLOG Exploration's oil-exploration joint venture Bluewater, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Bluewater business, which is also attracting interest from closely held Fieldwood Energy, is focused on deep-water exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and could fetch about $US1.5 billion ($2.1 billion) to $US2 billion in a sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorised to speak publicly. An agreement hasn't been reached and Blackstone and LLOG could decide not to sell Bluewater, the people said.
Bubs Australia Ltd (BUB):
Infant formula maker Bubs Australia's shares have been placed in a trading halt pending its announcement of a proposed acquisition and capital raising. It did not give further details. Shares in Bubs have gained 75 per cent this calendar year as the company has invested heavily in efforts to expand into China. It last month reported its first-half loss had more than doubled to $8.8 million. Its shares surged in February when it entered into a long-term supply agreement with Bega Cheese subsidiary Tatura, and again this month on a marketing and distribution partnership with Chinese dairy producer Beingmate. Bubs shares were worth 80.5 cents when they were placed in a halt that could last until Tuesday.
Healthscope Ltd (HSO):
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has given Canadian investment firm Brookfield another 23 days to make a formal written offer to Healthscope shareholders to acquire the hospital operator. Healthscope said on Friday that the offer documents need to be reviewed by an independent expert, so they won’t be able to dispatched within the normal two months of the announcement of the offer. ASIC has given Brookfield until April 24 to dispatch the documents as part of the $4.4 billion acquisition.
Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (LNG):
ASX-listed energy names are likely to be impacted by a shake up in the global gas markets, as US, Qatar and Russia fight it out to take or maintain their market shares, according to Citi. Analyst James Byrne downgrades the groups long-term LNG price to $US7/mmBtu and says the trading price of some of the local majors do not reflect the risk that growth project schedules or long-term LNG price will disappoint. “We think equity markets continue to have lofty expectations and sentiment could turn over the course of 2019 and 2020,” he says. “We think Chinese gas demand will disappoint expectations, and Russia could target European gas prices at $6/MMBtu, just low enough to deter enough new LNG entrants, maximize its revenue and not undercut pricing with China.” Origin is Citi’s preference in the sector, albeit downgraded to Neutral, alonside Santos while Woodside and Oil Search are both rated at Sell.
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (PLS):
Credit Suisse retained its 'outperform' recommendation on Pilbara Minerals following the company's update to the market on Thursday. The company declared commercial production at its Pilgangoora project in Western Australia and also announced it would try to find partners for its stage three expansion. While the company's March production was below the broker's expectations and its price realisation was also weaker.
Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (RWC):
Reliance Worldwide is starting to look better on the charts after bouncing off a 12-month low of $4.145 yesterday. A bullish “Dragonfly Doji” pattern on daily charts suggests the downtrend since August 2018 is nearing a major turning point. It comes after a marginal and unsustained break below the January 2019 low at $4.18. Potentially major support from the 61.8pc retracement of the 2017-2018 rise is at $4.04. Short interest as of last week was up around record highs above 6 per cent. The fall in US 30-year bond yields from 3.45 to 2.80 since November should offset recent weakness in US housing starts.
(Source: AIMS)
Bank of Queensland could cut its dividend at its first-half results on April 11 result, according to Morgan Stanley’s Andrei Stadnik. He says a 20 per cent cut in the dividend is “plausible”, given change in management and compounding concerns from falling margins, sub system loan growth, no room to cut costs, no margin for error on loan losses and no excess capital. Mr Stadnik has cut his target price by 5pc to $8.50 today while reiterating his Underweight rating on Bank of Queensland.
BHP Group Ltd (BHP):
BHP Group is among the potential bidders for Blackstone Group and LLOG Exploration's oil-exploration joint venture Bluewater, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Bluewater business, which is also attracting interest from closely held Fieldwood Energy, is focused on deep-water exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and could fetch about $US1.5 billion ($2.1 billion) to $US2 billion in a sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorised to speak publicly. An agreement hasn't been reached and Blackstone and LLOG could decide not to sell Bluewater, the people said.
Bubs Australia Ltd (BUB):
Infant formula maker Bubs Australia's shares have been placed in a trading halt pending its announcement of a proposed acquisition and capital raising. It did not give further details. Shares in Bubs have gained 75 per cent this calendar year as the company has invested heavily in efforts to expand into China. It last month reported its first-half loss had more than doubled to $8.8 million. Its shares surged in February when it entered into a long-term supply agreement with Bega Cheese subsidiary Tatura, and again this month on a marketing and distribution partnership with Chinese dairy producer Beingmate. Bubs shares were worth 80.5 cents when they were placed in a halt that could last until Tuesday.
Healthscope Ltd (HSO):
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has given Canadian investment firm Brookfield another 23 days to make a formal written offer to Healthscope shareholders to acquire the hospital operator. Healthscope said on Friday that the offer documents need to be reviewed by an independent expert, so they won’t be able to dispatched within the normal two months of the announcement of the offer. ASIC has given Brookfield until April 24 to dispatch the documents as part of the $4.4 billion acquisition.
Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (LNG):
ASX-listed energy names are likely to be impacted by a shake up in the global gas markets, as US, Qatar and Russia fight it out to take or maintain their market shares, according to Citi. Analyst James Byrne downgrades the groups long-term LNG price to $US7/mmBtu and says the trading price of some of the local majors do not reflect the risk that growth project schedules or long-term LNG price will disappoint. “We think equity markets continue to have lofty expectations and sentiment could turn over the course of 2019 and 2020,” he says. “We think Chinese gas demand will disappoint expectations, and Russia could target European gas prices at $6/MMBtu, just low enough to deter enough new LNG entrants, maximize its revenue and not undercut pricing with China.” Origin is Citi’s preference in the sector, albeit downgraded to Neutral, alonside Santos while Woodside and Oil Search are both rated at Sell.
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (PLS):
Credit Suisse retained its 'outperform' recommendation on Pilbara Minerals following the company's update to the market on Thursday. The company declared commercial production at its Pilgangoora project in Western Australia and also announced it would try to find partners for its stage three expansion. While the company's March production was below the broker's expectations and its price realisation was also weaker.
Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (RWC):
Reliance Worldwide is starting to look better on the charts after bouncing off a 12-month low of $4.145 yesterday. A bullish “Dragonfly Doji” pattern on daily charts suggests the downtrend since August 2018 is nearing a major turning point. It comes after a marginal and unsustained break below the January 2019 low at $4.18. Potentially major support from the 61.8pc retracement of the 2017-2018 rise is at $4.04. Short interest as of last week was up around record highs above 6 per cent. The fall in US 30-year bond yields from 3.45 to 2.80 since November should offset recent weakness in US housing starts.
(Source: AIMS)
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