The weekend could be a good time to consider looking into some ASX shares.
Shares are often described as volatile. But that also means that investors are presented with different opportunities at different (sometimes lower) prices.
These two ASX shares might be two worthy of considering:
VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports ETF (ASX: ESPO)
As the name suggests, this investment is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to give investors exposure to the video gaming and e-sports sector.
There are only a total of 26 businesses in the portfolio. The largest ten positions make up almost 62% of the portfolio. Those names are: Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Tencent, Sea, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Netease, Bilibili, Unity Software and Roblox.
This ETF actually has more of the portfolio allocated to Asia than any other region. Asian weightings include China (19.5%), Japan (18%), Singapore (6.7%), South Korea (4.6%) and Taiwan (1.7%). The US has a weighting of 43.2%, so it still has the largest single country weighting. Other countries include Sweden and France.
Two of the selling points of the ETF, according to VanEck, is that it's a dynamic growth opportunity and it provides technology diversification. The ASX share invests in the future of sports and accesses companies that are positioned to benefit from the increasing popularity of video games and eSports. Its portfolio gives technology diversification away from the usual names like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet/Google and Microsoft.
Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Over the last three years, the index that VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports ETF tracks has produced an average return per annum of 31%.
Volpara Health Technologies Ltd (ASX: VHT)
Volpara is a leading medical technology ASX share.
Its main focus is providing software to help analyse breast scans. The company has been investing (and acquiring businesses) to ensure its breast health platform has the best patient experience, easier integration of expanded patient pathways and provides support for customer reporting compliance, whilst also positioning the company for scale.
A particular focus of the business is 'risk' for the patient. It recently bought CRA Health to expand its best-in-class personalised risk offerings to all customers whilst also getting a better connection with genetics companies.
The company is seeing a rising gross profit margin, an increasing group average revenue per user (ARPU) and improving scalability.
In FY21, the gross profit margin increased to 91%. The group ARPU increased from US$1.16 at the FY21 half-year result to US$1.40 in the FY21 result. In FY21, total revenue increased 57% and gross profit went up 67%, whilst operating costs only increased by 8%.
In FY22, the ASX share is expecting higher ARPU, new customers, upselling existing customers, acquisitions and a high retention rate.
Most new sales are now for two or three of Volpara's products, representing significantly increased ARPU and the relationship with genetics companies is expected to increase that further.
