What's Hot: Kogan, Audio Pixels and Bellevue Gold at Record Highs

Summary

• KGN, AKP and BGL have hit record highs despite subdued market.
• Since 16 March, KGN is up 179% until yesterday, as stay-at-home themes intensify amid COVID-19.
• Audio Pixels recently noted dramatic customer interest.
• Bellevue Gold is riding the move to gold stocks, as markets tumble albeit promising fundamentals.

Stocks of Kogan, Audio Pixels and Bellevue Gold under discussion have hit fresh highs today. And, this has occurred at a time when markets are trending lower. Gold miners are toping the charts and at the time of writing, Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), Silver Lake Resources Limited (ASX:SLR) and St Barbara Limited (ASX:SBM) were leading the gains in the benchmark index.

Kogan.com Limited (ASX:KGN)

At the beginning of the year, KGN crashed severely as market participants punished the online retailer on missing expectations. On 20 January 2020, shares of Kogan.com were down 22% as sales and profit growth numbers failed to meet analyst estimates.

Most of the pain was related to the lower sales in the exclusive brands category. Kogan.com had disclosed teaser for the half-year results, which also included massive trading days like Black Friday, Boxing Day and Christmas.

Kogan.com continued to be neglected by market participants with COVID-19 led market sell-off intensifying – KGN shares closed at $3.79 in mid-March – the lowest point during this calendar year.

As an online business, the marketplace operator was plying trade hassle-free with minimal impact on business operations. Australian households also embraced stay at home while avoiding public places except for essentials, thus increasing their acceptance of online retail more broadly.

COVID-19 has led to strong demand for Kogan that is not only limited to buyers, but sellers as well – it has been signing up larger number of sellers on the platform, indicating that lower store traffic is inducing small businesses to take up the online channel.

Earlier this month, KGN acquired an Australian furniture icon – Matt Blatt, which has been trading since 1981. This augments its market for furniture and homewares, which has seen massive demand over the past months.

At the same time, KGN is focused on improving its active customer base. By the end of April, the Company had around 1.95 million active customers.

On 29 May 2020 (AEST 03:08 PM), KGN was trading at $11.410, up by 8.049% from the previous close.

Audio Pixels Holdings Limited (ASX:AKP)

Established in 2006, AKP is seeking to commercialise a new technology that would change the dynamics of speakers and audio products in the consumer electronics space. Its product, a tiny little chip, could be used in every appliance that has audio features.

Audio Pixels is a consumer technology company, which is also listed in NASDAQ. Once commercialised, the product of the Company is believed to allow the development and production of next-generation speakers.

Its technology is patented and uses proprietary systems to generate sound wave through a micro-electromechanical structure (MEMS) instead of conventional parts in speakers. It does not require power amplifier or analog converter like the traditional systems, while AKP employs a single product.

AKP intends to manufacture a single chip that would be used in audio systems as a single chip or in multiples, depending upon the applications. Manufacturer of the audio system will decide on the number of chips to be used in an audio system.

Its chips are scalable in smartphones, televisions, speakers, laptops, etc. AKP believes that a small chip will provide flexibility to its customers for innovation and design while enabling a transition from the traditional systems.

Fred Bart, AKP Chairman, noted that the business delivered many accomplishments over the past one year. Its MEMS transducer is nearing completion, while processes of assembly and packaging as well as ASIC have improved.

The Company has also resolved technical glitches in the meantime, and there has been dramatic surge in customer interest and discussions over the recent past. Moreover, he believes that the business is now closer to introduce its product commercialisation.

On 29 May 2020 (AEST 03:20 PM), AKP was trading at $21.920, up by 9.491% from the previous close.

Bellevue Gold Limited (ASX:BGL)

Bellevue Gold is an emerging player in the Australian gold mining industry. It is working on Bellevue Gold Project, which was closed and forgotten for 20 years (1997 to 2017). Previously, the site was one of richest gold mines in the country.

In March quarter, the Company reported a 23% increase in inferred resource at the project, taking resources level to 6.1 MT at 11.3 g/t for 2.2Moz. It has experienced multiple high-grade lode gold system and excellent gold recoveries of 98.8%.

The Company has mining licences in a major gold mining district with excellent infrastructure. Since 2017, BGL has completed 7,400m in reverse circulation drilling and 142,000m in diamond drilling at the project, delivering gold discovery of 2.2 million oz.

BGL holds strong cash balance for the planned activities in 2020/21. Most recently, the Company reported exceptional results from Deacon Lode, which constitutes for a meaningful part of the inferred resources.

On 29 May 2020 (AEST 03:30 PM), BGL was trading at $0.850, up by 6.25% from the previous close.

(NOTE: Currency is reported in Australian Dollar unless stated otherwise)