Shares in the Perth-based, growth-focused ASX telco closed yesterday at 3.0 cents apiece. In earlier trade, shares just leapt to 6.0 cents, up 100.0% in intraday trade. After some likely profit-taking, shares are currently swapping hands for 5.2 cents apiece, up 73.3%.

For some context, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is up 0.33% at this same time.

Here's what's driving investor interest in the ASX microcap stock on Wednesday.

ASX microcap stock rockets on positive earnings swing

The Pentanet share price is surging today following the release of the junior telco's quarterly results (Q2 FY 2025).

Investors are piling into the ASX microcap stock after Pentanet reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $600,000 for Q2. That represents a $1.0 million improvement on the $400,000 loss reported in Q1.

"We're excited to share a significant turning point as our business turned EBITDA positive in the quarter and for the half, marking the fruition of our strategic focus over the past several quarters," Pentanet managing director Stephen Cornish said of the earnings achievement.

In other core financial metrics, Pentanet reported consolidated revenue of $11.1 million for the quarter, up 7% year on year. Consolidated gross profit was up 6% from the prior corresponding period to $5.2 million.

The ASX microcap stock has been focused on accelerating its 5G network expansion. Management said Pentanet was on track to double its 5G network coverage in FY 2025. This focus helped drive a 17% quarter-on-quarter boost in its 5G subscribers to 709 in total.

And gaming revenue could provide ongoing support for Pentanet shares. The company reported 31% year-on-year growth in gaming revenue to $1.1 million for H1 FY 2025. Average revenue per user (ARPU) in Cloud Gaming increased by 23% from Q1 to $17.

Also likely grabbing ASX investor interest, the company's net operating cash flow increased to $900,000 in Q2.

Commenting on the strong quarterly results sending the ASX microcap stock rocketing today, Cornish said:

Our commitment this year to double our 5G coverage is on schedule and will bolster our ultrafast bandwidth capabilities and set the stage for sustainable competitive growth and profitability for our Telco division.

As we continue to build and expand our 5G capacity, we've simultaneously increased optimisation of our NVIDIA Cloud division, showing our ability to increase monetisation of our CloudGG platform in stages effectively.

Looking ahead, Cornish added:

This achievement is built on the foundation of scaling up from our freemium service strategy, and we're now positioned to leverage our increased capacity to deliver even greater value to our customers and further growth for stakeholders.

The post Guess which ASX microcap stock just exploded 100% on a 'significant turning point' appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Four ASX shares that are falling more than most today are listed below. Here's why they are dropping:

Arafura Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: ARU)

The Arafura Rare Earths share price is down 2.5% to 20 cents. This may have been caused by a broker note out of Bell Potter this week. In response to a strong rebound this month, the broker has downgraded the rare earths developer's shares to a speculative neutral rating with a 19 cents price target.

Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG)

The Pentanet share price is down 5% to 7.8 cents. This has been driven by the telco raising funds via a placement. Pentanet has received binding commitments for a placement of shares to multiple international and domestic institutional and high-net worth investors. The company will raise $4.28 million at a discount of 7.2 cents per new share. These funds will be used to invest in Nvidia cloud servers and infrastructure, working capital for growth, and the costs of the placement.

Sigma Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SIG)

The Sigma Healthcare share price is down 1.5% to $1.21. This may have been driven by a broker note out of Morgans this morning. According to the note, the broker has downgraded the pharmacy chain operator and distributor's shares to a hold rating with a $1.14 price target. It made the move on valuation grounds.

Webjet Ltd (ASX: WEB)

The Webjet share price is down over 1% to $8.59. This also appears to have been driven by a broker downgrade. According to a note out of Macquarie, its analysts have downgraded the online travel agent's shares to a neutral rating with an $8.88 price target. As with Sigma, Macquarie made the move on valuation grounds.

The post Why Arafura, Pentanet, Sigma, and Webjet shares are falling today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG) shares are locked at 8.2 cents a pop as investors await further information. The share halt comes amid a busy week for the telecommunications and gaming service provider. Yesterday, the company announced further work alongside Nvidia to expand its cloud offerings.

Nvidia has been the poster child for artificial intelligence (AI), rallying 85% this year as tech companies squabble to get the latest best-in-class AI hardware. Amid the excitement, companies with any association have attracted much attention.

More than 275 million shares traded hands between 15 and 19 March. For context, the prior three days saw approximately 181,000 shares traded. That's more than a thousand-fold increase in trading volume.

So what's going on now?

Pentanet put on ice

Before today's market opened, Pentanet requested its shares be paused pending an announcement.

According to the request, the announcement will be in relation to a placement. In other words, Pentanet will be rattling the can for additional funding. Little more is known at this point in time.

The need for more capital makes sense when looking at the company's balance sheet and spending.

As of 31 December 2023, Pentanet held $6.78 million in cash and $2.44 million in debt. Yet, the company recorded $7.4 million in negative free cash flow for the 12 months ending 31 December 2023. It's safe to say the finances aren't as pretty as Nvidia's.

If cash flows over the next year closely resemble the last year, cash would quickly become a scarce resource for this ASX telecom stock.

The last time Pentanet raised capital was in April 2023 — securing $6.1 million via a placement and an additional $330,000 through a share purchase plan.

Nvidia hardware doesn't come cheap

While it's yet to be confirmed what Pentanet intends to use any raised capital for, the proximity to its recent Nvidia announcement is notable.

As per yesterday's announcement, the company has upgraded to Nvidia's L40 graphics processing units (GPUs) to unlock next-level computing capability. According to online sources, one L40 GPU can come with a $23,000 price tag.

On 15 March, Pentanet highlighted that its GeForce NOW partner agreement with Nvidia now recognised New Zealand as a 'serviceable territory'. Potentially, the ASX company will be looking for funds to expand its offering across the ditch.

The post Why this ASX Nvidia partner has just been placed in a trading halt appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In early trade, the ASX tech stock has jumped 34% to 11 cents.

This means its shares are now up 120% over the last three trading sessions.

Why is this ASX tech stock rocketing?

Investors have been fighting to get hold of the high-speed internet and cloud gaming provider's shares since last week thanks to the release of a couple of announcements.

The second was made this morning and reveals that Pentanet has worked with NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) to upgrade its Gen 3 cloud infrastructure with NVIDIA L40 GPUs, to bring Pentanet into the NVIDIA Graphics Delivery Network (GDN).

The release notes that GDN, which is available in over 130 countries, taps NVIDIA's global cloud-to-edge streaming infrastructure to deliver smooth, high-fidelity, interactive experiences.

Management believes that joining NVIDIA GDN will help Pentanet expand its compute capabilities beyond just GeForce NOW cloud gaming and enable the company to take advantage of additional industrial and commercial opportunities with its NVIDIA cloud infrastructure.

What is NVIDIA L40?

The NVIDIA L40 GPU is powered by the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture and delivers revolutionary neural graphics, virtualisation, and compute capabilities for GPU-accelerated data centre workloads.

Its third-generation RT Cores and industry-leading 48 GB of GDDR6 memory deliver up to twice the real-time ray-tracing performance of the previous generation to accelerate high-fidelity creative workflows, including real-time, full-fidelity, interactive rendering, 3D design, video streaming, and virtual production.

The ASX tech share's managing director, Stephen Cornish, believes it will open a pathway for the company. He said:

Joining the NVIDIA global Graphics Delivery Network will open a pathway to new commercial opportunities beyond gaming. The L40 GPU infrastructure brings the most advanced NVIDIA RTX capabilities to help power next-generation graphics and 3D interactive experiences.

What was announced last week?

Today's announcement builds on another agreement the ASX tech share made with the global tech giant last week.

As we covered here, Pentanet executed an amendment to the GeForce NOWTM Alliance Partner Agreement with NVIDIA.

This means the agreement now formally recognises New Zealand as a serviceable territory, with a pathway to add neighbouring territories. It also allows Pentanet to continue being the exclusive distributor of GeForce NOW in Australia.

The post Guess which ASX tech stock is up 120% in three sessions thanks to Nvidia appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In early trade, the ASX tech stock was up as much as 120% to 11 cents.

The high-speed internet and cloud gaming provider's shares have pulled back since then but remain up 86% at the time of writing.

Why is this ASX tech stock rocketing?

Investors have been fighting to get hold of the company's shares on Friday after it announced the execution of an amendment to the GeForce NOWTM Alliance Partner Agreement with tech behemoth NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA).

According to the release, the agreement now formally recognises New Zealand as a serviceable territory, with a pathway to add neighbouring territories.

It also allows Pentanet to continue being the exclusive distributor of GeForce NOW in Australia.

The company highlights that since its launch, Pentanet has amassed 530,000+ GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG members. These are serviced by infrastructure located in Perth and Sydney.

Furthermore, the ASX tech stock now has a solid base of paid memberships, effectively covering the fixed monthly recurring costs incurred in the early stages when the service was launched.

Pentanet's managing director, Stephen Cornish, was pleased with the news. Particularly given that the cloud gaming market in Australia is projected to experience significant growth in the coming years. He said:

Now that we have demonstrated success with Nvidia, we are moving to a Capex deployment model more in-line with our requirements, and retain a first right of refusal to continue being the sole distributor for GFN in Australia. With over half a million members now part of the CloudGG ecosystem, Pentanet continues to demonstrate the growing appetite for cloud gaming in our territory.

Nvidia's vice president of GeForce NOW, Phil Eisler, added:

Pentanet has fostered a deeply engaged cloud gaming community in Australia with GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG. Its commitment to delivering GeForce RTX 3080-level performance that elevates experiences for gamers nationwide and underscores the company's dedication to pushes the boundaries of gaming and internet connectivity.

The post Guess which ASX tech stock is exploding 120% on a new deal with Nvidia appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Four ASX shares that are climbing more than most today are listed below. Here's why they are storming higher:

InvoCare Limited (ASX: IVC)

The InvoCare share price is up 35% to $12.11. Investors have been scrambling to buy this funerals company's shares after it received a takeover approach. InvoCare has received an unsolicited, preliminary, non-binding indicative offer from TPG to acquire 100% of its issued shares for $12.65 cash per share. This will be adjusted for any additional dividends or capital returns made prior to completion of the proposed transaction.

Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG)

The Pentanet share price is up 48% to 24.5 cents. This morning, this cloud gaming provider announced a deal with telco giant Optus Mobile. The initial 12-month agreement will see Pentanet deliver the NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud gaming service to Optus customers. Management believes this agreement marks a significant milestone towards its goal of commercialising GeForce NOW with the introduction of Pentanet's first large-scale wholesale partner.

Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA)

The Sayona Mining share price is up 4% to 24.5 cents. This follows news that the lithium developer has entered into a subscription agreement with PearTree Securities. The agreement sees the issue of 174,459,177 flow-through shares at a price of 31.5 cents per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $54.9 million. This represents a 34% premium to the Sayona Mining share price at Friday's close.

Weebit Nano Ltd (ASX: WBT)

The Weebit Nano share price is up 5% to $7.43. This morning, this memory technologies company announced the availability of its resistive RAM (ReRAM) IP in SkyWater Technology's 130nm CMOS process. This essentially means that SkyWater customers can now easily integrate Weebit's non-volatile memory in their system-on-chip designs.

The post Why InvoCare, Pentanet, Sayona Mining, and Weebit Nano shares are storming higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In early trade, the cloud gaming provider's shares rocketed as much as 70% to 28 cents.

The Pentanet share price has pulled back a touch since then but remains up 42% at 23.5 cents today.

Why is this ASX share rocketing higher?

Investors have been scrambling to buy the company's shares after it announced a collaboration agreement with Optus Mobile.

According to the release, the initial 12-month agreement will see Pentanet deliver the NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud gaming service to Optus customers.

Management believes that this agreement marks a significant milestone towards its goal of commercialising GeForce NOW with the introduction of Pentanet's first large-scale wholesale partner.

The two parties will work towards a program that enables enhanced experience for GeForce NOW users on Optus SubHub, with a specific focus on 5G and the GeForce NOW user management platform, CloudGG.

Solidifying its position

Pentanet's managing director, Stephen Cornish, was pleased with the news and believes it will solidify its position in the market. He said:

This is a big step towards solidifying our position in the gaming market, being the wholesale digital distribution channel for GeForce NOW in our territories. I'm looking forward to working closely with Optus and putting this game changing platform into the hands of new users.

Optus' managing director of marketing and revenue, Matt Williams, added:

Our mission is to break down the barriers to gaming and offer our customers the freedom to play anywhere and anytime. Cloud gaming is an ideal example for 5G in the home and on the go, given the need for high speed, low latency connectivity, and we are excited that we will be able to offer that to our customers very soon.

The post Guess which ASX share is skyrocketing 70% after securing a deal with Optus appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Australia's fastest growing companies of 2022 have been identified and they include a few names Aussie investors are likely familar with.

So, which ASX shares have been posting massive growth lately? Keep reading to find out.

Fastest growing Aussie companies of 2022 crowned

It's been a big year for some notable ASX stocks – they've been included in the 2022 AFR Fast 100 list, with two coming in among the top 10 fastest growing Aussie companies of 2022.

The list is presented by the Australian Financial Review in association with Pemba Capital Partners and PwC. It encompasses 100 companies boasting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of as much as 330% between financial year 2020 and financial year 2022.

5 ASX shares among Australia's fastest growers

Which ASX share will give investors exposure to the fastest grower on the Aussie bourse this year? It's WISR Ltd (ASX: WZR).

The company has been crowned the fastest-growing ASX-listed entity, coming in seventh place on the AFR Fast 100 List. The fintech stock provides consumer finance products.

It posted $7 million of revenue in FY20, growing that to $59 million in FY22. Not to mention, it surpassed $1 billion in loan originations over the three months ended March 2022.

Next up is ASX digital marketplace operator Camplify Holdings Ltd (ASX: CHL). It came in as Australia's ninth fastest-growing company. The company connects owners of recreational vehicles with hirers.

Camplify's shares hit the ASX in June 2021. It boasted nearly $3 million of revenue in FY20. That figure grew to $16 million in FY22.

Another ASX newbie has joined Camplify on this year's list, with telco and internet service provider Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG) taking out spot number 25. Pentanet floated on the exchange in January 2021.

The company brought in $5 million of revenue in FY20, growing that to $16.8 million in FY22.

Just two spots lower lies Credit Clear Ltd (ASX: CCR). The company is in the fintech business, providing receivables management solutions.

In FY20, the company brought in $11 million. By FY22, that had grown to $21 million.

Finally, drone detection software provider DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) has been crowned Australia's 37^th fastest-growing company of 2022.

It posted around $11 million of revenue for the 12 months ended 31 December 2021. That was up from $5.6 million in the prior period.

The post 5 ASX shares for investing in the fastest growing Aussie companies of 2022 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Both have been named as buys and tipped to rise materially from current levels. Here's what analysts are saying about these small cap shares:

Camplify Holdings Ltd (ASX: CHL)

The first small cap ASX share that is highly rated is Camplify. It is one of Australia's leading peer-to-peer (P2P) digital marketplace platforms connecting recreational vehicle (RV) owners with hirers.

Camplify has been growing at a solid rate in recent years and continued this in FY 2022. It has just released its full year results and revealed a 63% increase in gross transaction volumes to $53.6 million and a 94% jump in revenue to $16.4 million.

This went down well with the team at Morgans, which remain very bullish on the company's prospects. The broker said:

Camplify (CHL) released its 4Q22 trading update, which in our view showed strong growth in key metrics and highlighted the underlying momentum in the business post lockdowns easing continued throughout the fourth quarter.

CHL's management team has shown an ability to build out a successful scalable platform, in our view. Whilst still in its infancy and not without risk, we believe structural tailwinds supporting CHL and the prodigious opportunity offshore should provide longer-term growth potential for patient investors.

In light of the above, Morgans has put an add rating and $4.25 price target on the company's shares.

Pentanet Limited (ASX: 5GG)

Another small cap ASX share to look at is specialist broadband provider Pentanet.

It recently released its full year results for FY 2022 and reported a 54.1% increase in revenue to $16.8 million. This was driven by strong demand for its internet services, which resulted in a 34.1% increase in internet subscribers to 16,674. In addition, cloud gaming subscribers grew to 182,000+ after only launching in October 2021.

The team at Bell Potter were impressed with the company's performance and expect this solid growth to continue. Particularly given its exposure to global entertainment and data trends. It said:

We believe 5GG's neXus rollout is a significant opportunity for the company to deliver high quality internet into the Perth metro region which is typically characterised by underperforming networks. Changing media consumption (e.g. streaming) and the proliferation of data downloaded are key drivers of internet premiumisation in Australia.

neXus is underpinned by Meta's Terragraph technology which can enable gigabit internet at scale at high margin and relatively low cost to the consumer. 5GG is also exposed to the rapidly growing cloud gaming industry through the exclusive Australian distribution of NVIDIA's GeForce NOW platform.

Bell Potter has retained its speculative buy rating on the company's shares with a slightly trimmed price target of 56 cents.

The post 2 exciting small cap ASX shares that analysts say have huge potential appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, shares in the internet, gaming and telecommunications provider are trading 10.29% higher at 37.5 cents apiece.

Double-digit revenue and profit growth

Key takeouts for the quarter include:

• Revenue of $16.8 million, a gain of 54% on the previous ear FY21
• Gross profit of $7.4 million, another 55% improvement on FY21
• Gross margin increased by 100 basis points to 44%
• Net loss after tax of $7.9 million, an improvement from the FY21 reported net loss of $13.7 million
• Balance sheet well positioned with $13.4 million in net cash at 30 June 2022
• Recurring revenue increased by 59% to $15.2 million – now 90% of total revenue in FY22

What else happened for Pentanet?

Telco subscribers were up 34% from the previous year to 16,674, with low churn of around 0.95%. Fixed wireless customers now comprise 40% of total subscribers at the end of FY22.

As a result, revenue grew 54% and gross profit also expanded by 55% year on year to approximately $7.5 million.

The bolus of this revenue – 90% to be exact – is now derived from recurring revenue sources.

As a result, Pentanet came in with a net loss of around $8 million, an improvement from last year's after-tax loss of $13 million.

Moreover, average recurring revenue per user (APRU) also increased from $80 to $82 in FY22, whilst fixed wireless APRU remained steady year on year at $87.

Management commentary

Speaking on the announcement, Pentanet managing director Stephen Cornish said:

The last 12 months have seen Pentanet secure its place as a leader in both telecommunications, cloud gaming and esport in Australia. We seized the opportunity to bring new products and technology to market, and now the foundations have been laid for accelerated sustainable growth across our complementary business sectors.

At the same time the business continued to deliver substantial growth in subscriber numbers, which generated a strong uplift in revenue and gross profit. Earnings quality remained high with recurring earnings making up 90% of revenue and the churn rate remaining below 1%.

I've said it before and I want to reiterate for you today – Pentanet is so much more than just another telco. With our ongoing focus on impactful innovation, we are not only contributing to the development of Australia's digital future but also improving and increasing the ways we connect digitally and IRL.

Pentanet share price snapshot

In the past 12 months, the Pentanet share price has slipped more than 43% into the red, but has climbed 17% higher in the past month of trade.

The post Pentanet share price rips 10% higher on double-digit profit growth appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

These two companies made their ASX debut earlier this year. Since then, these ASX shares have outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).

2 ASX shares bringing great returns

Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART)

Australia's leading marketplace for local services went public on 23 March 2021. Prior to hitting the public market, Airtasker's IPO was heavily oversubscribed.

Between retail and institutional investors, the company reached more than five times oversubscribed.

Airtasker managed to raise $86.3 million through the issue of 23.1 million shares prior to listing. On its debut, the Airtasker share price skyrocketed from its listing price of 65 cents a share. Enthusiasm continued to gather, pushing the price as high as $1.96 the day after listing.

Since listing, this ASX share has gone on to raise a further $20.7 million to acquire US-based Zaarly Inc and fund international expansion efforts.

If you managed to get in on the Airtasker IPO at 65 cents, you are well ahead of the benchmark index. Airtasker has delivered a return of 77.7% from its IPO listing price. This compares to the index's 8.8% over the same period.

Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG)

Situated in Western Australia, this telecommunications provider raised roughly $22 million in its IPO in a bid to expand east.

Interestingly, the company differs slightly from other ASX telcos. Pentanet has a focus on delivering cloud gaming via its expanding network. This endeavour is underscored by a partnership with Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA). Pentanet is the only Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud-gaming alliance partner in Australia.

In the third quarter, the company delivered quarter-over-quarter customer growth of 15% — coming in at 10,993 customers. However, Pentanet is still unprofitable on the bottom-line.

Incidentally, the company announced a capital raise on 18 June. The $20 million proceeds will go towards its 5G development and expanding its Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud-gaming offering.

Anyone lucky enough to have grabbed shares in this ASX IPO has enjoyed fantastic returns to date. Based on today's closing price, the Pentanet share price has delivered a return of 204%. Clearly, this successful ASX IPO's returns blow the ASX 200's 11.1% return out the water.

The post 2 ASX shares with IPOs that have delivered market-beating returns appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, the growth-focused telco's shares are down 4% to 73 cents.

Why is the Pentanet share price dropping today?

The weakness in the Pentanet share price on Friday comes after the company announced a successful capital raising.

According to the release, the company has received firm commitments to raise $20 million before costs via a share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors.

Pentanet is raising the funds at 72 cents per new share, which represents a 5.3% discount to its last close price.

Positively, demand was very strong for the placement. In fact, the company revealed that it received demand three times in excess of what it was seeking. Furthermore, there was a strong level of institutional participation that included many notable Australian funds.

Why is Pentanet raising funds?

The release explains that the funds will be primarily used to accelerate the disciplined execution of the company's Fixed Wireless and Cloud Gaming growth strategy. Central to this strategy is the deployment of Terragraph and GeForce NOW infrastructure to drive industry leading performance capability and to build a unique telecommunications and gaming platform in the Australian market.

Management notes that market interest in GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet (the Australian deployment of NVIDIA's cloud gaming service) has exceeded initial expectations since its announcement in January.

As a result, Pentanet has significantly expanded the planned pilot infrastructure rollout and put in place an upgrade capability to accelerate the network deployment where market demand continues to support this.

Pentanet's Managing Director, Stephen Cornish, commented: "It is good to see the strong support from investors, highlighting an increased level of understanding around the relationship between cloud gaming and 5G, now enabling us to move Pentanet into the next stage of growth early. It is a fast-developing market and we have taken advantage of market opportunities in both our Fixed Wireless and our Cloud Gaming services to strengthen our capabilities."

"Our team will continue to show that we are leaders in these developing services, and the highest tier when it comes to providing subscribers with industry leading internet performance and delivering on what will be Australia's best and most anticipated high-quality Cloud Gaming service."

Despite today's weakness, the Pentanet share price is up a sizeable 25% since the start of the year.

The post Why the Pentanet (ASX:5GG) share price is sinking today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The recently listed ASX telco delivers high-speed internet with next-generation internet speeds.

Below, we take a look at the company's latest update.

What did Pentanet report?

In an update this morning Pentanet announced it is commencing its Beta Program for GeForce NOW.

GeForce NOW is a cloud-based game streaming service offered by US-based tech giant, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA)

Pentanet said its CloudGG portal's scheduled launch of 7 pm AWST on 9 June marked the formal commencement of the first part of a three-stage rollout. The company expects to launch the service nationally in October.

According to the release, GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet "will provide Australian subscribers with a high-quality cloud gaming service to almost any device". The service will enable users to instantly play any game across devices. The company said that previously only high-end gaming PCs were able to deliver a similar gaming experience.

Commenting on the first part of the rollout, Pentanet founder and managing director Stephen Cornish said:

A staged and scalable approach, which adds new testers and new users over time, will enable Pentanet to build a GeForce NOW service that will attract a wide variety of gaming customers through a positive user experience.

Pentanet's commitment to provide Australia's gaming community with a user experience that is currently only enjoyed by their international counterparts will allow the company to access an untapped market.

Aussie data centre provider Nextdc Ltd's (ASX: NXT), P2 Perth and S2 Sydney data centres will support the underlying infrastructure deployment.

Pentanet share price snapshot

Pentanet first started trading on the ASX on 29 January this year. Since then the Pentanet share price is up 43%. By comparison, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has gained 10% over that same time.

The post ASX telco partners with US tech giant Nvidia in pioneering gaming deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The share prices of Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS), TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG), and Pentanet Ltd (ASX:5GG) have all remained fairly flat as the end of trading closes in.  

Telstra pays a hefty price for its share

The Australian Communications and Media Authority announced the results of its 26 GHz auction on Friday. Australian telcos placed their bids over the last month in an attempt to secure licenses of the 5G optimised spectrum.

With the spectrum split into 360 available lots, 358 were sold for a combined total of $647.6 million. These 358 lots were snagged by just 5 competing bidders, listed below:

• Pentanet Ltd won 4 lots – paying $7.986 million
• Dense Air Australia won 2 lots – paying $28.690 million
• Mobile JV (TPG's bidding vehicle) won 86 lots – paying $108.187 million
• Optus Mobile won 116 lots – paying $226.203 million
• Telstra won 150 lots – paying $276.576 million

The millimetre wave, or mmWave, spectrum band sold is a short-range, high-frequency, and high-capacity band that unlocks the massive potential of 5G. Clearly, Telstra wants to be the frontrunner of 5G's future in Australia, with the company making up nearly 43% of the total money spent by winning bids.

Telstra commentary

Commenting on the auction results, Telstra CEO Andy Penn said:

High-speed connectivity is critical to Australia's future prosperity and our aspirations to be a world-leading digital economy.

It has become central to all of our lives – the way we live, work, keep ourselves entertained and stay connected, and more and more 5G will be at the heart of that.

In its update, Telstra also revealed it's on track to reach 75% of Australia's population with its 5G network by the end of June. At the time of writing, the Telstra share price is 0.2% higher trading at $3.40 per share.

What about competitors?

Singtel-owned Optus purchased 800MHz in mainland capital cities, along with 600MHz in Hobart and the Margaret River region of Western Australia.

Furthermore, TPG snatched up the 600MHz spectrum licenses across Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, and regional areas. In addition to licenses for the 400MHz spectrum across Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.

There have been competition concerns among players due to the 5G allocations. Optus has nudged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for a 70MHz cap on all low-band allocations.

The post What's with the Telstra (ASX:TLS) share price and other telcos today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

According to the company, for the next 15 years, Pentanet can exclusively offer its Western Australian customers access to high-performance transmission "at the forefront of the delivery of millimetre wave fifth generation (5G) wireless broadband services".

Let's take a closer look at what's soon to be Pentanet's newest offering.

A "once in a generation" opportunity for Pentanet

The Pentanet share price is responding positively after the Perth-based telco announced it has been awarded an exclusive license to transmit 5G services on the 26 GHz range. It says the licence will allow it to provide multi-gigabit broadband to any customer in its service area.

Pentanet's managing director Stephen Cornish said securing the exclusive licence is a "once in a generation" opportunity. 

According to Pentanet's release, the 26GHz band is the best way to transmit 5G.

The company can now provide broadband to customers within 5 kilometres of any 5G tower, rather than the 250 metres it was previously banking on. Customers will be able to access Pentanet's 5G service in Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury and Margaret River.

For 15 years of exclusive use of the technology, Pentanet will pay $8 million dollars. It will do so in annual instalments over 5 years. $1.6 million will be paid this financial year out of the company's existing cash reserves.

The telco won the licence to use the high-band spectrum in an auction conducted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Commentary from management

Cornish commented that the 5G spectrum will speed up the deployment of its Terragraph service and extend its network coverage. He said:

Having access to our own 5G licensed spectrum elevates us to a new height as a telecommunications carrier. We went into the auction unsure if we would be able to compete with the larger players, but our team was able to strategically secure a meaningful allocation at a price point that made sense for our use-case.

Pentanet share price snapshot

Pentanet floated on the ASX in January of this year and, since then, its share price has been performing well.

Currently, the Pentanet share price is trading around 50% higher than the day of its initial public offering.

Pentanet has a market capitalisation of around $154 million, with approximately 263 million shares outstanding.

The post Pentanet (ASX:5GG) share price jumps after news of 5G deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Mr Griffiths published an article on Livewire Markets discussing his latest thoughts and some of the recent moves by the fund.

Why could the bull market go on longer for ASX shares?

The fund manager pointed out that cheap money and lots of liquidity are key reasons why the ASX share market is generating so much growth. But he commented that there are quite a few late cycle markers beginning to emerge. He pointed to the GameStop situation and the growth of special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) as markers.

Those SPACs, which are outlawed in Australia, raised US$100 billion in the three months to March 2021 in the US, which was roughly equivalent to what was raised in the whole of 2020.

Discussing which phase of the market the ASX share market is in right now, Mr Griffiths said:

Stocks have shifted to Sir John Templeton's 4th quadrant market stage-Euphoria (Pessimism-Scepticism-Optimism-Euphoria). Problematic? Eventually but I contend that markets can remain this way for some time. It should be noted that credit markets (including CDS pricing) remain benign and the VIX futures curve remains in clear contango.

He went on to comment on the smaller end of the ASX share market:

Investors need to appreciate that the Small resources subset of stocks is at the early stages of an unfolding rally whilst their industrial brethren appear unstoppable and about 7% shy of their all-time highs.

Which ASX shares have the Eley Griffiths funds been buying and selling?

Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME)

The healthcare technology business has been a recent addition to the portfolio.

Mr Griffiths acknowledged that it's an expensive stock but with a 20% compound annual growth rate of revenue over the next five years and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins of around 60%, it was worth it to buy the business according to the fund manager.

Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG)

Pentanet is a newly-listed Perth telecommunications business where Eley Griffiths participated in the IPO. The former iiNet CEO is the current chair.

Eley Griffiths pointed out that it's winning market share with high bandwidth fixed wireless technology called Terragraph. Capital is only employed when customers sign up. It also has a gaming opportunity with a partnership with NVIDIA, which will allow for multiple use of bandwidth within a single household and delivering high processing power to any laptop or standard PC.

Betmakers Technology Group Ltd (ASX: BET)

The fund manager sees a similar opportunity in Betmakers as Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH).

Eley Griffiths believes that Betmakers has secured the perfect entry to sell the bookmaker and racing operator technology to US operators.

SportsTech is a business it acquired late last year, which has increased its presence to 36 states in the US and Mr Griffiths said that it's the pre-eminent operational partner for US racing bodies.

Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)

The fintech ASX share is a business that the fund has sold out of. It still thinks the thesis is compelling with growing market share and dissatisfied customers at legacy rivals who have been underinvesting in their products.

However, the fintech is looking to reprice its back book and it's also looking to renegotiate its next deposit arrangement.

The fund manager wants to sit on the sidelines until there's clarity on the above issues. Eley Griffiths is hoping for a better entry point in the future.

The post Why this ASX share bull market could run for longer appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Pentanet share price is down 2.7% today to 90 cents per share.

Pentanet is a Perth-based licensed telecommunications carrier and internet service provider (ISP). The company delivers high-speed internet services via its own fixed-wireless network and other fixed-line networks.

It's proven a disruptor in the established telecommunications space. Pentanet entered the market with an emphasis on local service, support and "excellent customer experience". The business was formed in 2017 and its share price has almost tripled since its initial public offering.

Pentanet's angle

Pentanet has grown to a market capitalisation of more than $160 million and has garnered significant interest through its partnership with massive US tech share Nvidia. 

Pentanet is not involved in bringing 5G to Australia or offering mobile networks. Instead, it specialises in fixed network connections and is aiming its marketing efforts at the gaming community.

Pentanet will be the first Australian company to bring Nvidia's GeForce NOW to Australia. This is NVIDIA's premiere cloud-based game streaming service. 

Pentanet's Founder, Stephen Cornish, explained the concept of cloud gaming and how Pentanet can help pioneer the technology:

With cloud gaming is basically someone like myself becomes a hyper-scaler. I build enough computer power in a data centre that can power thousands of people playing a game at any one time; I'm building a multi-million-dollar computer as opposed to the $4,000 computer," he says.

This is absolutely where the future is going to be, but the limitation currently is actually on the connection because you need to have internet that's fast enough so that your computer can kind of be off site.

You need to have that high bandwidth and low latency network to actually enable this cloud technology.

Pentanet share price snapshot

The Pentanet share price has risen 11% this week. Additionally, it has risen 51% over the past month and in 2021 so far. It's also up by that same margin over the past 12 months.

The post What's happening with the Pentanet (ASX:5GG) share price today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

What's 1851 Emerging Companies Fund?

It's a fund that invests on small cap companies outside of the S&P/ASX 100 Index (ASX: XTO). The 1851 Capital fund typically invests in 30 to 80 small cap ASX shares to try to beat the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index.

1851 Emerging Companies Fund has been a very strong performing fund since inception after it launched just before the COVID-19 crash. Since inception in February 2020, the fund has delivered a net investment performance per annum of 28.6%. That's after all fees and expenses. Over the last year, to 31 March 2021, its net return was 100%.

At the end of March 2021, the five largest positions were Uniti Group Ltd (ASX: UWL), Capitol Health Ltd (ASX: CAJ), Frontier Digital Ventures Ltd (ASX: FDV), PSC Insurance Group Ltd (ASX: PSI) and Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd (ASX: PNI).

The fund's net return of 1.1% in March 2021 was able to beat its benchmark's return of 0.8%, partly thanks to these three shares:

Eureka Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: EGH)

The Eureka share price climbed 21% in March 2021. 1851 Capital explained that the business continued its rally after a strong result in February 2021.

In the result, the small cap ASX share reminded investors that its revenue streams are economically stable and highly resilient, with government pensions underpinning around 95% of revenue. It has 97% occupancy.

Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went up 27% to $5.23 million, underlying profit before tax grew 39% to $3.57 million and net operating cashflow increased 16% to $4.05 million.  

1851's investment team are impressed with the ASX share's new board and management at the company who have sent an "impressive" platform for growth in the senior independent living sector.

People Infrastructure Ltd (ASX: PPE)

The People Infrastructure share price went up 18% last month. 1851 Capital attributed this rise to the "solid" result and return of the former CEO.

The small cap ASX share saw revenue growth of 3.1% to $201 million and normalised EBITDA rose 49.3% to $21 million. Normalised net profit after tax and before amortisation (NPATA) grew 51.5% to $13.7 million and NPATA per share grew 19% to 14.8 cents.

People Infrastructure is expecting to grow its normalised EBITDA to between $35 million to $37 million in FY21.

The business continues to look at both the opportunity to grow organically into new sectors as well use its acquisitions that would accelerate that growth.

Pentanet Ltd (ASX: 5GG)

Perth-based telecommunications business Pentanet saw its share price increase 20% over the month. 1851 Capital pointed to strong subscriber growth and optimism around the cloud gaming launch.

On 27 January 2021, the small cap ASX share commenced online registrations of interest by allowing future Australian users of GeForce NOW to reserve their usernames and register for an invitation to the beta program.

Since that announcement, over 24,300 gamers have registered. This level surpassed initial business case expectations and provided strong confidence to scale up its initial launch plans.

Pentanet has proceeded with the placement of an initial hardware order with NVIDIA in line with the cloud gaming strategy. It is buying 18 RTX game servers at an approximate capital cost of A$3.2 million. The aim is to roll out the beta offering this year, with a commercial to launch after that.

The post 3 top ASX small cap shares that delivered for this fund's portfolio appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

What's driving the Pentanet share price?

The Pentanet share price is backtracking today, perhaps as a result of the heavy sell-off in the ASX market.

In its release, Pentanet advised it has received strong market interest in the Australian launch of GeForce Now – NVIDIA's flagship cloud-based game streaming service.

The company launched an expression of interest to gauge potential market demand for gaming services late last month. Future GeForce Now users completed online registrations to receive an invitation to the Beta program.

So far, Pentanet has recorded more than 24,300 registered gamers, greatly exceeding early interest expectations for the upcoming new service. The company said the demand further validated its business case to ramp up its launch plans.

Due to the strong registration response, Pentanet upped its hardware order with NVIDIA from 12 to 18 RTX game servers. The order value is estimated to be around $3.2 million.

Once received, the company will split up and send the servers to Perth or Sydney.

In addition, Pentanet is targeting the rollout of GeForce Now beta in Australia sometime this year, followed by a commercial launch. Pricing for the service is yet to be determined and will be announced at a later date.

The beta program will give the company further insights on usage patterns, and how many users the server can support. This will allow for improvements to ensure a smooth transition to its commercial launch.

A quick take on Pentanet

Based in Perth, Western Australia, Pentanet is a telecommunications carrier and internet service provider (ISP). The company delivers high-speed internet services through its own NBN, LBN and private fixed-wireless network.

In the Perth metro area alone, Pentanet covers more than 80% of customers who require next-generation internet needs.

More recently, the company is seeking to expand in the cloud gaming market through a subscription-based entertainment service. Pentanet signed an alliance agreement with NVIDIA to use its GeForce Now technology throughout Australia.

Management comments

Pentanet managing director Stephen Cornish welcomed the registration response, saying:

We are encouraged by the very strong interest in GeForce NOW and now have a very clear indication from market demand that Australian gamers appear to understand and support the service, mirroring the strong demand also seen overseas.

As someone who grew up playing video games, I am proud to be championing the next generation of gaming service into Australia, and I am looking forward to demonstrating both the power of this technology and its ability to shift the gaming market.

Since listing at the end of last month, the Pentanet share price has risen 4.2%.

The post Pentanet (ASX:5GG) share price falls despite strong gaming interest appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.