In order to receive a dividend, you must own the ASX share before its ex-dividend date.

Here at The Fool, our analysts do not recommend buying ASX shares simply just to get the next dividend payment.

Our market experts say the decision to buy should be more thoughtful than that, and based on fundamental analysis.

But if you already intend to buy any of these ASX shares, you might like to consider the best timing for you.

For example, you could buy before the ex-dividend date and receive entitlement to the next dividend payment.

Or you might prefer to wait until the ex-dividend date itself, when the share price usually falls, to snap up your stock.

Here are some ex-dividend dates next week

The post 20 ASX shares with ex-dividend dates next week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

By comparison, the S&P/ASX All Ords Index (ASX: XAO) is up 0.07% today and has risen 11% over the past year.

The Small Ords index tracks ASX companies ranked 101-300 by market capitalisation. The ASX All Ords tracks the top 500.

ASX small-cap shares typically have market caps between a few hundred million dollars and $2 billion.

Here are two ASX small-cap shares that the experts rate as buys, with a potential upside of 100% each over the next 12 months.

Starpharma Holdings Ltd (ASX: SPL)

The Starpharma share price is steady at 41 cents, which reflects a more than 300% gain over the past 12 months.

Starpharma is an Australian biotech that develops drug delivery systems using proprietary polymers called dendrimers.

These nanoscale molecules help medicines work better in the body.

Starpharma licenses its drug delivery technology to large pharmaceutical companies. It also develops its own anti-infection products.

PAC Partners has a buy rating on this ASX small-cap healthcare share.

The broker forecasts higher growth in partnerships and over-the-counter revenue over the next four years.

PAC Partners says it has a "high risk" 12-month price target of between 80 cents and $1 on this ASX small-cap share.

This suggests a possible minimum capital gain of 100% over the next 12 months.

PAC Partners commented:

Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX:SPL) will start human clinical trials of its novel radiotherapy drug for a solid cancer target by the end of 2026.

This in-house project opens up SPL dendrimer applications beyond the Genentech, medicxi and RAD.ASX partnered projects.

This additional radiotherapy application is well timed with just three FDA approved first generation radiotherapy cancer drugs (e.g.: 2024 Novartis' Pluvicto for prostate cancer.)

SPL has a pipeline of 10 agents and six targets.

SPL only 100% funds this one radiotherapy trial, and has global partners funding the rest (with fees to SPL for service).

Verbrec Ltd (ASX: VBC)

This ASX small-cap share is trading for 21 cents, down 4.55% today and up 147% over the past 12 months.

Verbrec provides engineering, asset management, and infrastructure services and technology to a variety of industries.

These include energy, mining, manufacturing, and defence industries in Australia, New Zealand, PNG, and the Pacific Islands.

Earlier this month, Verbrec reported revenue growth of 18.5% to $46.1 million and EBITDA growth of 135.3% to $4 million for 1H FY26.

During the half, Verbrec sold its non-core competency training segment for $11.2 million and acquired Alliance Automation for $5.5 million.

RaaS Advisory, which specialises in small-cap research, gives this ASX industrials share a valuation of 44 cents apiece.

This implies that Verbrec shares could double over the period ahead.

RaaS Advisory said:

The combined Verbrec and Alliance Automation business strengthens the group engineering offering and as a result work-in-hand and the opportunity pipeline have both grown by more than 50%.

Management released FY26 guidance for the new-look business for revenue of $110m-$120m and EBITDA of $8m- $10m.

Management has delivered a strong turnaround of the existing engineering business over the past two to three years and, in our view, the AA acquisition may prove to be a pivotal point in value creation over the next couple of years.

The post 2 ASX small-cap shares with 100% potential upside appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

A recent post by Ten Bags Full founder Tim Morris shared a screen of those companies that have suffered major share price drops. By comparing 52-week highs with seven-day highs, Morris collected a bunch of companies that investors have been dumping in droves. What I found interesting was that the vast majority had no earnings, and most of the companies were hopeful resources stocks or hopeless mining services companies. It turns out Motley Fool analyst Scott Phillips was on the money when he resisted calls to recommend mining services companies during the initial sell off last year.

However, a collection of 'loser' stocks is fertile ground to find babies thrown out with the bath water. Indeed I suspect Logicamms Limited (ASX: LCM) is just that. The share price is down over 50% from a high of $2.05, despite the fact that Logicamms is likely to survive the mining downturn.

That's because the company makes most of its revenue – 55% in fact – from hydrocarbons, namely oil and gas. Indeed, the company does business with a number of high profile gas and oil companies such as Santos Limited (ASX: STO), Origin Energy Limited (ASX: ORG) and Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH).

The Queensland government has given the go-ahead to extensive coal seam gas production in fertile farm land. The incentive to extract this gas is high, because the new LNG export facilities will expose Australia to the international gas price (that's why gas prices will go up, not because of environmental legislation). However, increasing awareness of the potential for contamination of aquifers by CSG wells is likely to lead to fairly high standards of regulation, which is good news for an engineering company like Logicamms. Indeed, Santos has already paid a fine for contamination of what the Santos hydro-geologist claims is not an aquifer but a 'shallow perched layer.'

Another profitable company that is currently out of favour is Wotif.com Holdings Limited (ASX: WTF). The company specialises in hotel bookings, though it also sells flights. Because it has become clear that Wotif is no longer growing (in fact, probably shrinking) the share price has dropped over 50% from its 52-week high. However, I should note here that the stock's 52-week high was nothing short of ludicrous, so I think it would have to drop a little bit more before it could be considered a bargain. Wotif's problem is that – despite having the best brand in its niche – it faces competition from overseas rivals, domestic rivals and the 'sharing economy' (think AirBnB). These factors mean that less people use the site to book.

Having said that, the company has particularly impressive brand recognition and trust. Trust is important when making internet bookings, especially among the older generations, who are less adept at telling the difference between a scam site and a legitimate site. The business model is also very light on capital requirements, the company has no debt, and is able to benefit from pre-paid bookings which become a sort of float. Therefore, higher interest rates actually benefit the company noticeably. There can be no doubt that the business appears to be in secular decline, but it is far from game over for Wotif.

The third heavily sold down company that caught my eye is Acrux Limited (ASX: ACR), a pharmaceutical company that sells testosterone treatment Axiron, and has a newer estrogen treatment called Estradiol. Axiron is used to treat low testosterone, although there's also the reportedly (underground) market amongst body builders, who seek elevated testosterone levels. Estradiol is prescribed for the treatment of menopause symptoms, but it's not unreasonable to expect that it too will find a secondary market due to the fact that the chemical is reported to increase both fertility and sex drive.

Acrux has also dropped over 50% since its 52-week highs, and looks to be approaching value, assuming sales growth can be maintained. However, in February this year the company announced that: "On 31 January 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Drug Safety Communication (DSC), which stated that the FDA is investigating the risk of stroke, heart attack (myocardial infarction) and death in men taking FDA-approved testosterone products."

Given that the FDA is well known to share a revolving door with big pharmaceutical companies, it's hard to imagine them setting a precedent by banning Axiron. However, these things are difficult to predict. If you're worried about ethics, the fact that so many people appear to be using the drug for bodybuilding (Google it) might be enough to turn you off. What's more, there is scientific evidence that long term use of Estradiol can increase the risk of breast cancer, so these drugs aren't that great in my opinion.

Foolish takeaway

The three companies mentioned above undoubtedly have their problems, but I do believe that contrarian investors might find value there, especially if they wait for the share prices to drop to absurdly low levels (they are already quite cheap). Alternatively, there is clear value if any of these companies manage to solve their problems. In fact, it's quite possible that the companies' problems are more a matter of investor sentiment correcting or potentially over correcting from previously optimistic forecasts.

Finally, please be careful when looking at beaten-down companies. For every baby, there's an awful lot of bathwater. For example, I would never invest in an unprofitable and questionable business like Paladin Resources Ltd (ASX: PDN), which has seen its share price smashed over 50% from 52-week highs. Paladin does not have an attractive long-term business model: uranium mining only seems like a great idea if you ignore Fukushima, Chernobyl and the near-permanent and cumulative liability of radioactive waste.

The post 3 solid stocks that Mr Market hates today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Netcomm Wireless Ltd (ASX:NTC) is a technology hardware manufacturer whose products (routers and so on) are well known to consumers. Now transitioning to supplying the M2M (machine to machine) market, Netcomm is catching the wave of new applications riding high-speed broadband – for example remote health monitoring, smartcards, point of sale terminals and so on. Although Netcomm has been around for some time it hasn't been particularly profitable, even in the good years. However the transition to fast growing areas such as M2M indicates a positive outlook for this company. The potential is there and the current share price of 36c underrates the prospects. No dividend can be expected in the medium term.

Onthehouse Holdings Ltd (ASX:OTH) is a 'second generation' real estate portal modelled on the highly successful North American Zillow. Onthehouse has two divisions: 1) a subscription-based service for real estate professionals and other interested parties. 2) A content rich free consumer service (supported by advertising) which has 13 million properties on its books. Management claims the consumer division site is broadly comparable to the ASX site – where detailed information can be looked up easily. At a share price of 53c Onthehouse is a very good speculation.

Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA) is a North American-based shale oil and gas producer, currently finalising a NASDAQ listing. This company is more of a medium than small cap, with very solid prospects in its areas of operation. With an increasing number of producing wells and easy access to the necessary infrastructure, Sundance Energy ($1.06) is well placed for significant price gains within the next two years.

Melbourne IT Limited (ASX:MLB) offers internet related services such as critical web hosting, online brand protection and enterprise services for a wide range of customers. Following a recent 54cent capital return, Melbourne IT shares are now selling at $1.32. Trading conditions have been difficult for this company in recent years and it is currently engaged in extensive restructuring of the business. Both the financial position and management capability are good and Melbourne IT appeals as a recovery situation with a reasonable franked dividend.

Paragon Care Ltd. (ASX:PGC) is a provider of durable equipment and furniture for the aged care and health markets. With the recent acquisitions of LR Instruments and Richards Medical, Paragon Care is now one of the leading suppliers of surgical instruments and medical consumable products. This is a small company involved in a high-growth industry. Selling at 36c and capable of paying a dividend this year, Paragon Care appeals as a rewarding investment over the medium term.

Foolish takeaway

Small companies can be sweet and lucrative for the dedicated private investor. Under researched and frequently unloved they present constant opportunities if you're prepared to take the time to assess them. In my experience well selected smaller companies offer more growth (capital & income) and I try to hold 50%+ of my portfolio in the small ordinaries. Although they don't have the 'earnings certainty' of a mega-company, they can offer the investor greater compensations over the medium and longer term – especially in times like the present.

The post 6 little battlers for your small-cap portfolio appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.