Investor Insights

As the sharemarket gyrates around record highs, it is easy to conclude that risks are low. In fact, if a simple market truth is observed – that the higher the price you pay, the lower your return – then it must be true that as the market registers new highs, conditions are riskier.

Codan (ASX: CDA) is a manufacturer and supplier of communications, metal detection, and mining technology.  One of its businesses is called Minetec.  It’s a location tracking system that promises to add value to underground mining operations around the world, and has already been adopted by the likes of Newmont and BHP.

Much has been written about Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC): a business which names Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as its largest shareholder and one with a stock price that has declined by around 70 percent over the last two years.

When it comes to investing, it can often pay dividends to zag when everyone else is zigging.   And that’s equally so when it comes to interest rates. At a time when everyone is assuming that rates will go to zero – and possibly beyond – it may be worth stepping back and pondering… what if they don’t?

When it comes to investing in global technology stocks, it pays to do your homework. Because there are some major differences between the big brands that dominate the space. Take Google, Facebook and Uber, for example. Exclusive Content This is exclusive content to subscribers on rogermontgomery. com. View the full article via your subscription or sign up for access.

We like small companies with strong growth potential, especially if they are relatively undiscovered. In this article, we share the four segments we use to classify the small-cap universe. The Montgomery Small Companies Fund has the Australian Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index as its benchmark, and currently this represents companies ranked 101 to 295 in S&P’s index size ranking system.

Reliance Worldwide (ASX:RWC) has been a recent introduction to the portfolio. The company sells innovative and simple plumbing fixtures to enhance productivity and efficiency for end users. Reliance’s core product is the “Push-to-Connect” (PTC) fitting to connect two ends of a pipe, marketed under the Sharkbite brand.

The smaller end of the stock market delivered a mixed bag during the recent reporting season. But if you sift through the company reports, you’ll find five themes common to those that provided positive reports and/or outlook statements. These are the companies to put on your watchlist.

Healius Limited (ASX:HLS) (formerly Primary Health Care) operates a suite of health care businesses including pathology, medical centres, diagnostic imaging and day hospitals. These are businesses that should enjoy reliable long-term growth in demand, and Healius generally has good market positions in the markets it operates in.

Investors in NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF) and Medibank Private (ASX:MPL) would have enjoyed the past six months, with the share price of both companies rising by over 20 per cent. And there may be more good news to come.

With reporting season sprinting to the end, on a fundamental level it is not all doom and gloom, there are winners (and losers). We notice a clear winner in companies with direct consumer exposure. What are our observations on the cyclical winners and those companies with structural growth tailwinds?

Earlier this month I wrote that Alphabet, owner of Google, had a Fortune 500 size business hidden away in its “Other” reported revenues: Google Cloud. But did you know that Alibaba, the Chinese owner of the world’s largest e-commerce platform, also has a massive cloud business? Alibaba operates both Taobao and Tmall.