Stock Tips: Never mind the alpha, what's the Sigma play this week?
Sean Conlan – Leyland Private Asset Management
BUY
Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG)
We believe SIG will grow into its current PE multiple by refurbishing existing Chemist Warehouse stores, opening 20 new stores per annum across Australia and by exporting the brand offshore.
Judo Capital Holdings (ASX:JDO)
Improved funding costs give us more comfort on the near-term margin outlook. With forecast a~34% earnings CAGR over the next three years, and trading at only 12x FY26 P/E we think the valuation is attractive.
HOLD
Treasury Wine Estates (ASX:TWE)
TWE has trimmed guidance for FY25 earnings growth, citing lower-than-expected wine sales in the US where economic uncertainty is hurting consumer demand.
Austal (ASX:ASB) We remain positive on the long-term outlook for ASB, considering the macro tailwinds and attractive growth profile, however, we are conscious of its current valuation.
SELL
Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ)
While BOQ's simplification strategy and pivot towards business is bearing fruit, we think it will continue to struggle to make returns above the cost of capital over the medium term.
Lovisa Holdings (ASX:LOV)
We are concerned about the quality of stores recently opened and think that higher-than-normal rates of discounting may be driving strong LFL sales.
Chris Watt – Bell Potter Securities
BUY
CAR Group (CAR)
Resilient RV sales, solid international operations and strong earnings momentum support continued growth. The company continues to benefit from a scalable global expansion strategy that allows it to replicate its model across international markets.
Treasury Wine Estates (ASX:TWE)
While the US premium wine market is weak, core luxury brands remain strong. DAOU Vineyards synergies and broader international opportunities provide upside despite recent downgrades.
HOLD
Technology One (ASX:TNE)
A strong first-half result confirms the business is executing well, with growing recurring revenue and cash flow. However, recent share price gains limit short-term upside.
James Hardie (ASX:JHX)
Strategy execution in US new construction is on track, particularly in the southern states. That said, macro softness and affordability challenges persist.
SELL
IDP Education (ASX:IEL)
Deteriorating student volumes and shifting global immigration policy have led to significant earnings downgrades. Visibility remains poor, and risks are elevated.
Cettire (ASX:CTT)
Weak margins, US tariff headwinds, and a soft cash position point to a challenging outlook. The path to profitability appears longer and riskier.
The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interviews in this article are solely those of the interviewee and do not represent the views of Stockhead.
Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial advice contained in this article.
Originally published as Stock Tips: Never mind the alpha, what's the Sigma play this week?
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News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Stock Tips: It's lithium, property, supermarkets and… water for the win
It's no easy gig analysing share prices and company performance but somebody's got to do it. Every week two experts from our Share Tips columnist pool give us their recommendations. Jed Richards – Shaw and Partners BUY Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) Trades at a notable discount to its net asset backing, presenting a value opportunity for income-focused investors. Offers a strong quarterly dividend yield of about 7.6% and its portfolio includes office properties, primarily leased to government and listed tenants, which contribute about 68% of its gross income. Assets are held for long-term investment and generate stable rental cash flows. Cromwell combines reliable income with potential capital upside. Duxton Water (ASX:D2O) Trading at a discount to its net asset backing, offering a compelling entry point for income and value investors. It provides a dividend yield of 4.98%, paid semi-annually, with consistent growth. The company owns a diversified portfolio of permanent water entitlements across the southern Murray-Darling Basin. With drought conditions emerging in parts of South Australia and Victoria, demand for water is rising, supported by government buyback programs. Benefits from stable annuity-style income through long-term leases to agricultural users. HOLD Santos (ASX:STO) Remains a solid energy holding with exposure to LNG and gas markets across Australia and Asia. The company is currently under a takeover proposal from a major international consortium, highlighting its strategic importance and potential value. While the offer is still under review and subject to due diligence and regulatory approval, it presents possible upside for shareholders. Santos continues to generate strong cash flow and maintains a stable outlook, making it a prudent hold. BWP Trust (ASX:BWP) Offers a solid, reliable yield supported by long-term leases to high-quality tenants, notably Bunnings Warehouse. This relationship provides consistent rental income and low vacancy risk. The trust holds a portfolio of well-located retail properties across Australia, with a focus on large-format retail. While growth may be modest, the income stability and defensive nature of its assets make BWP a prudent hold for investors seeking dependable returns in a low-volatility environment. SELL Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) Has performed well recently and now appears to be trading above fair value. We are locking in profits at this stage given limited near-term growth catalysts. While Origin remains a solid energy provider, its valuation looks stretched compared to peers. For investors seeking better value and income, AGL Energy offers a more attractive alternative, with stronger yield and improving fundamentals. Technology One (ASX:TNE) Has delivered strong share price increases, but now trades at a very high PE ratio – over 97 – making it one of the most expensive stocks on the ASX. Its dividend yield is low, under 1%, which limits income appeal. The company provides enterprise software solutions for government, education, and corporate clients, including financials, asset management, and HR systems. However, competition in cloud-based enterprise software is intensifying, and much of the growth appears priced in. I suggest locking in profits at current levels. Chris Haynes – Equity Trustees BUY Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) One of the largest and most efficient producers of lithium globally, which is a key component in battery production. The lithium price has collapsed over the past 18 months due to excess supply. However, there are signs of supply reductions and a potential bottoming in the lithium price. PLS is well positioned to benefit from a recovery. High risk, but high potential return. Coles Group (ASX:COL) The new CEO has been executing effectively, with improving margins and solid revenue growth. 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While the stock trades at relatively high multiples, these projects offer upside potential. Some consolidation in the share price is warranted. SELL Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) Manages and invests in office, retail, and industrial properties. The stock price has risen approximately 50% this calendar year, while the earnings outlook has only mildly improved. As a result, the price-to-earnings multiple is well above long-term averages. It's a good time to take profits. Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) Owns, operates and develops toll roads globally. Its major investment in the French toll road APRR faces challenges, particularly due to a government that is somewhat hostile to corporate ownership of toll roads. The recent strength in the share price presents a good opportunity to take profits.


The Advertiser
18 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Bull market sends mining summit back to golden age
Goldminers have long hogged the limelight at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum. The annual conference in the remote mining town of Kalgoorlie, in the Western Australian Goldfields region, is the glittering highlight of the resources industry's events calendar. Up-and-coming miners prize their shot to flaunt their wares to investors, while the majors covet the chance to snag an award at the glitzy gala dinner. In recent years, goldminers have been supplanted at the top of the roster by the battery minerals crowd, buoyed by the burgeoning demand for ores like lithium and nickel essential to the manufacturing of electric vehicles. But a record run has sent the price of bullion soaring and investors flocking back to the precious metal. Amid an upswing in mergers and acquisitions activity among goldminers, the largest has been Northern Star's $5 billion takeover of De Grey Mining. Northern Star's Super Pit dominates the Kalgoorlie landscape. The ASX giant's largest asset is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of visitors drawn to the pit's public lookout each year to watch colossal mining trucks wind their way up the serpentine access track or see scheduled blasts shake the sheer rock walls below. But the De Grey deal handed Northern Star a project that could dwarf the 130-year-old deposit, which has been plagued by productivity and cost headwinds in the past year. The newly-acquired Hemi deposit, in the iron-ore dominated Pilbara region, contains an estimated 11 million ounces of gold. That would fetch more than $55 billion at current prices. The project, which is still seeking regulatory approval, has a slightly lower grade than the Super Pit at 1.3 grams per tonne. But given the ravenous appetite for gold, even much lower grade deposits will attract interest at the Diggers conference. Forum chair Jim Walker says the mood in the industry is upbeat. "Gold's still going very, very well, lithium is coming back up again," he told AAP. "So it's going to be a very positive conference from that point of view." Lithium miners have been buoyed after a recovery in spodumene prices, after a global rout carved more than 90 per cent off the price of the mineral. Prices have climbed 50 per cent since they bottomed out in June, with the stronger-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles now driving speculation lithium production will fall short of soaring demand. But share prices for former market darlings IGO, Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources still languish well below the heights of two years ago. While gold presenters now outweigh lithium at the conference, battery minerals producers will still make their presence felt. Now in its 34th year, the forum is just as important to the Kalgoorlie economy as it is for micro-cap explorers looking to get their first project up. More than 3000 people will flock to the town, swelling its population more than 10 per cent. At Wednesday's gala night more than 1300 attendees will be catered for and a plane-load of staff flown in to serve them, given the limited staff and facilities in Kalgoorlie. Marquees will be erected to house 154 exhibitors, while 65 presenters will hold court over three days. It's no challenge for forum director Suzanne Christie, who has been organising the tricky logistics of the event from day one, Mr Walker said. Goldminers have long hogged the limelight at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum. The annual conference in the remote mining town of Kalgoorlie, in the Western Australian Goldfields region, is the glittering highlight of the resources industry's events calendar. Up-and-coming miners prize their shot to flaunt their wares to investors, while the majors covet the chance to snag an award at the glitzy gala dinner. In recent years, goldminers have been supplanted at the top of the roster by the battery minerals crowd, buoyed by the burgeoning demand for ores like lithium and nickel essential to the manufacturing of electric vehicles. But a record run has sent the price of bullion soaring and investors flocking back to the precious metal. Amid an upswing in mergers and acquisitions activity among goldminers, the largest has been Northern Star's $5 billion takeover of De Grey Mining. Northern Star's Super Pit dominates the Kalgoorlie landscape. The ASX giant's largest asset is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of visitors drawn to the pit's public lookout each year to watch colossal mining trucks wind their way up the serpentine access track or see scheduled blasts shake the sheer rock walls below. But the De Grey deal handed Northern Star a project that could dwarf the 130-year-old deposit, which has been plagued by productivity and cost headwinds in the past year. The newly-acquired Hemi deposit, in the iron-ore dominated Pilbara region, contains an estimated 11 million ounces of gold. That would fetch more than $55 billion at current prices. The project, which is still seeking regulatory approval, has a slightly lower grade than the Super Pit at 1.3 grams per tonne. But given the ravenous appetite for gold, even much lower grade deposits will attract interest at the Diggers conference. Forum chair Jim Walker says the mood in the industry is upbeat. "Gold's still going very, very well, lithium is coming back up again," he told AAP. "So it's going to be a very positive conference from that point of view." Lithium miners have been buoyed after a recovery in spodumene prices, after a global rout carved more than 90 per cent off the price of the mineral. Prices have climbed 50 per cent since they bottomed out in June, with the stronger-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles now driving speculation lithium production will fall short of soaring demand. But share prices for former market darlings IGO, Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources still languish well below the heights of two years ago. While gold presenters now outweigh lithium at the conference, battery minerals producers will still make their presence felt. Now in its 34th year, the forum is just as important to the Kalgoorlie economy as it is for micro-cap explorers looking to get their first project up. More than 3000 people will flock to the town, swelling its population more than 10 per cent. At Wednesday's gala night more than 1300 attendees will be catered for and a plane-load of staff flown in to serve them, given the limited staff and facilities in Kalgoorlie. Marquees will be erected to house 154 exhibitors, while 65 presenters will hold court over three days. It's no challenge for forum director Suzanne Christie, who has been organising the tricky logistics of the event from day one, Mr Walker said. Goldminers have long hogged the limelight at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum. The annual conference in the remote mining town of Kalgoorlie, in the Western Australian Goldfields region, is the glittering highlight of the resources industry's events calendar. Up-and-coming miners prize their shot to flaunt their wares to investors, while the majors covet the chance to snag an award at the glitzy gala dinner. In recent years, goldminers have been supplanted at the top of the roster by the battery minerals crowd, buoyed by the burgeoning demand for ores like lithium and nickel essential to the manufacturing of electric vehicles. But a record run has sent the price of bullion soaring and investors flocking back to the precious metal. Amid an upswing in mergers and acquisitions activity among goldminers, the largest has been Northern Star's $5 billion takeover of De Grey Mining. Northern Star's Super Pit dominates the Kalgoorlie landscape. The ASX giant's largest asset is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of visitors drawn to the pit's public lookout each year to watch colossal mining trucks wind their way up the serpentine access track or see scheduled blasts shake the sheer rock walls below. But the De Grey deal handed Northern Star a project that could dwarf the 130-year-old deposit, which has been plagued by productivity and cost headwinds in the past year. The newly-acquired Hemi deposit, in the iron-ore dominated Pilbara region, contains an estimated 11 million ounces of gold. That would fetch more than $55 billion at current prices. The project, which is still seeking regulatory approval, has a slightly lower grade than the Super Pit at 1.3 grams per tonne. But given the ravenous appetite for gold, even much lower grade deposits will attract interest at the Diggers conference. Forum chair Jim Walker says the mood in the industry is upbeat. "Gold's still going very, very well, lithium is coming back up again," he told AAP. "So it's going to be a very positive conference from that point of view." Lithium miners have been buoyed after a recovery in spodumene prices, after a global rout carved more than 90 per cent off the price of the mineral. Prices have climbed 50 per cent since they bottomed out in June, with the stronger-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles now driving speculation lithium production will fall short of soaring demand. But share prices for former market darlings IGO, Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources still languish well below the heights of two years ago. While gold presenters now outweigh lithium at the conference, battery minerals producers will still make their presence felt. Now in its 34th year, the forum is just as important to the Kalgoorlie economy as it is for micro-cap explorers looking to get their first project up. More than 3000 people will flock to the town, swelling its population more than 10 per cent. At Wednesday's gala night more than 1300 attendees will be catered for and a plane-load of staff flown in to serve them, given the limited staff and facilities in Kalgoorlie. Marquees will be erected to house 154 exhibitors, while 65 presenters will hold court over three days. It's no challenge for forum director Suzanne Christie, who has been organising the tricky logistics of the event from day one, Mr Walker said. Goldminers have long hogged the limelight at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum. The annual conference in the remote mining town of Kalgoorlie, in the Western Australian Goldfields region, is the glittering highlight of the resources industry's events calendar. Up-and-coming miners prize their shot to flaunt their wares to investors, while the majors covet the chance to snag an award at the glitzy gala dinner. In recent years, goldminers have been supplanted at the top of the roster by the battery minerals crowd, buoyed by the burgeoning demand for ores like lithium and nickel essential to the manufacturing of electric vehicles. But a record run has sent the price of bullion soaring and investors flocking back to the precious metal. Amid an upswing in mergers and acquisitions activity among goldminers, the largest has been Northern Star's $5 billion takeover of De Grey Mining. Northern Star's Super Pit dominates the Kalgoorlie landscape. The ASX giant's largest asset is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of visitors drawn to the pit's public lookout each year to watch colossal mining trucks wind their way up the serpentine access track or see scheduled blasts shake the sheer rock walls below. But the De Grey deal handed Northern Star a project that could dwarf the 130-year-old deposit, which has been plagued by productivity and cost headwinds in the past year. The newly-acquired Hemi deposit, in the iron-ore dominated Pilbara region, contains an estimated 11 million ounces of gold. That would fetch more than $55 billion at current prices. The project, which is still seeking regulatory approval, has a slightly lower grade than the Super Pit at 1.3 grams per tonne. But given the ravenous appetite for gold, even much lower grade deposits will attract interest at the Diggers conference. Forum chair Jim Walker says the mood in the industry is upbeat. "Gold's still going very, very well, lithium is coming back up again," he told AAP. "So it's going to be a very positive conference from that point of view." Lithium miners have been buoyed after a recovery in spodumene prices, after a global rout carved more than 90 per cent off the price of the mineral. Prices have climbed 50 per cent since they bottomed out in June, with the stronger-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles now driving speculation lithium production will fall short of soaring demand. But share prices for former market darlings IGO, Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources still languish well below the heights of two years ago. While gold presenters now outweigh lithium at the conference, battery minerals producers will still make their presence felt. Now in its 34th year, the forum is just as important to the Kalgoorlie economy as it is for micro-cap explorers looking to get their first project up. More than 3000 people will flock to the town, swelling its population more than 10 per cent. At Wednesday's gala night more than 1300 attendees will be catered for and a plane-load of staff flown in to serve them, given the limited staff and facilities in Kalgoorlie. Marquees will be erected to house 154 exhibitors, while 65 presenters will hold court over three days. It's no challenge for forum director Suzanne Christie, who has been organising the tricky logistics of the event from day one, Mr Walker said.


Perth Now
20 hours ago
- Perth Now
Bull market sends mining summit back to golden age
Goldminers have long hogged the limelight at the Diggers and Dealers mining forum. The annual conference in the remote mining town of Kalgoorlie, in the Western Australian Goldfields region, is the glittering highlight of the resources industry's events calendar. Up-and-coming miners prize their shot to flaunt their wares to investors, while the majors covet the chance to snag an award at the glitzy gala dinner. In recent years, goldminers have been supplanted at the top of the roster by the battery minerals crowd, buoyed by the burgeoning demand for ores like lithium and nickel essential to the manufacturing of electric vehicles. But a record run has sent the price of bullion soaring and investors flocking back to the precious metal. Amid an upswing in mergers and acquisitions activity among goldminers, the largest has been Northern Star's $5 billion takeover of De Grey Mining. Northern Star's Super Pit dominates the Kalgoorlie landscape. The ASX giant's largest asset is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of visitors drawn to the pit's public lookout each year to watch colossal mining trucks wind their way up the serpentine access track or see scheduled blasts shake the sheer rock walls below. But the De Grey deal handed Northern Star a project that could dwarf the 130-year-old deposit, which has been plagued by productivity and cost headwinds in the past year. The newly-acquired Hemi deposit, in the iron-ore dominated Pilbara region, contains an estimated 11 million ounces of gold. That would fetch more than $55 billion at current prices. The project, which is still seeking regulatory approval, has a slightly lower grade than the Super Pit at 1.3 grams per tonne. But given the ravenous appetite for gold, even much lower grade deposits will attract interest at the Diggers conference. Forum chair Jim Walker says the mood in the industry is upbeat. "Gold's still going very, very well, lithium is coming back up again," he told AAP. "So it's going to be a very positive conference from that point of view." Lithium miners have been buoyed after a recovery in spodumene prices, after a global rout carved more than 90 per cent off the price of the mineral. Prices have climbed 50 per cent since they bottomed out in June, with the stronger-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles now driving speculation lithium production will fall short of soaring demand. But share prices for former market darlings IGO, Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources still languish well below the heights of two years ago. While gold presenters now outweigh lithium at the conference, battery minerals producers will still make their presence felt. Now in its 34th year, the forum is just as important to the Kalgoorlie economy as it is for micro-cap explorers looking to get their first project up. More than 3000 people will flock to the town, swelling its population more than 10 per cent. At Wednesday's gala night more than 1300 attendees will be catered for and a plane-load of staff flown in to serve them, given the limited staff and facilities in Kalgoorlie. Marquees will be erected to house 154 exhibitors, while 65 presenters will hold court over three days. It's no challenge for forum director Suzanne Christie, who has been organising the tricky logistics of the event from day one, Mr Walker said.