Investor Insights

The key driver for the short and medium-term direction of the Australian property market can be boiled down to just three words: access to credit. And, right now, the conditions for credit access are getting tighter. To my mind, it all points to a property market that is about to lose its froth.

In recent weeks, the share prices of Australian banks have been heading south. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) and Westpac (ASX:WBC) have been hit particularly hard, on the back of material falls in their net interest margins. Will margins start to expand soon as the interest rate on fixed rate loans starts to climb again?

As e-commerce growth accelerates it is important that online marketplaces constantly improve their services to stay relevant. Polen Capital identify the characteristics that companies should exhibit which will best position them to reap the long-term benefits of the secular shift to online shopping.

Back in July, the IFM consortium lobbed a full takeover offer for Sydney Airport (ASX:SYD), Australia’s busiest gateway. With the airport about to change hands, here’s why Montgomery Fund’s retained most of its shareholding in SYD throughout the takeover period to date. The initial offer price of $8.

  In this week’s video insight David interviews portfolio manager of the Montgomery Small Companies Fund Dominic Rose to discuss how the rapid vaccination rates have provided a catalyst for the reopening trade. With this in mind the Montgomery Small Companies Fund has broadened their reopening exposures to include a number of domestic opportunities, including Accent Group and oOh!

Australian property company, Goodman Group (ASX:GMG), specialises in industrial sites that cater to the digital economy. And, perhaps predictably – given the past 18 months of retail lockdowns – its share price has done well. The company’s recent trading update was extremely upbeat, announcing higher levels of profitability and expectations for increased earnings for the year ahead.

The share price of electronic solutions and metal detector maker, Codan (ASX: CDA), has fallen around 42 per cent since June. It’s now back where it was around 12 months ago. But instead of being concerned, I believe the company continues to have a very bright future.

The Polen Capital Global Small and Mid Cap Fund was launched on Thursday 21 October 2021, and at the time of writing, it has invested in 30 companies with a weighted average market capitalisation exceeding US$9 billion, across 12 countries. For context, this is a fraction of the big global names like Apple (US$2. 25 trillion), Microsoft (US$2.

Australia’s two supermarket giants, Coles and Woolworths, have just reported their September quarter sales figures. While it’s hard to make comparisons with the same period last year – due to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns – there were some meaningful take-outs from the results.

Lately, we’ve seen numerous takeover offers for ASX-listed companies like Smartgroup, Hansen Technologies, and Iress. These offers inevitably leave investors wondering whether to buy more shares, sell their holding or sit tight. The answer is always the same: it depends on the context.

At the Montgomery Small Companies Fund, our small caps team’s approach is to invest in businesses that benefit from supportive underlying themes. Two themes we like right now are what we call Stable Compounders and Structural Winners. And we have two preferred stocks – one in each theme – that we think will provide solid long-term returns.

With annual general meeting (AGM) season underway, we’re starting to see some interesting trends. One is that, overall, results have been better than expected. Another is that, in Australia, margins are coming under pressure as inflation starts to bite.