Latest news with #Macquarie
CTV News
11 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Major brokerages retain rate cut expectations after Fed keeps rates steady
Most Wall Street brokerages reaffirmed their rate cut forecasts after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its policy rate unchanged this week. The U.S. central bank held interest rates steady as expected and maintained its projection for two cuts this year, though a growing minority sees no cuts at all, and slightly dialed back its outlook to just one 25-basis-point cut in both 2026 and 2027. Macquarie now expects a 25 bps rate cut in 2025, a shift from its earlier forecast of no cuts previously, while UBS Global Research forecasts a total of 100 bp cuts by year-end. Traders are pricing in 48 bps of rate cuts by year-end, according to data compiled by LSEG. They are penciling in a 59 per cent chance of a 25-bps cut in September, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. Here are the forecasts from major brokerages after Fed's meeting: Brokerage Total cuts in 2025 No. of cuts in 2025 Fed Funds Rate (end of 2025) Citigroup 75 bps 3 (starting in September) 3.50-3.75% Wells Fargo 75 bps Starting in September 3.50-3.75% 25 bps 1 (in December) 4.00-4.25% Goldman Sachs 25 bps 1 (in December) 4.00-4.25% Barclays 25 bps 1 (in December) 4.00-4.25% ING 50 bps 2 (H2 2025) 3.75-4.00% Nomura 25 bps 1 (in December) 4.00-4.25% Morgan Stanley No rate cut 0 4.25-4.50% Deutsche Bank 25 bps 1 (in December) 4.00-4.25% BofA Global Research No rate cut 0 4.25-4.50% Macquarie 25 bps 1 (in December) 4.00-4.25% UBS Global Research 100 bps Starting in September 3.25-3.50% (Compiled by the Broker Research team in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Devika Syamnath, Shilpi Majumdar and Vijay Kishore)
Business Insider
18 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Macquarie Remains a Buy on Jumbo Interactive Limited (JUB)
In a report released today, David Fabris from Macquarie maintained a Buy rating on Jumbo Interactive Limited (JUB – Research Report), with a price target of A$13.90. The company's shares closed last Wednesday at €5.35. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter According to TipRanks, Fabris is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 5.8% and a 60.00% success rate. Fabris covers the Consumer Cyclical sector, focusing on stocks such as Aristocrat Leisure , Light & Wonder, and Jumbo Interactive Limited. Jumbo Interactive Limited has an analyst consensus of Moderate Buy, with a price target consensus of €6.31. Based on Jumbo Interactive Limited's latest earnings release for the quarter ending December 31, the company reported a quarterly revenue of €66.13 million and a net profit of €17.86 million. In comparison, last year the company earned a revenue of €73.88 million and had a net profit of €20.15 million
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Is CXHYX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
If investors are looking at the Muni - Bonds fund category, Macquarie National HY Municipal A (CXHYX) could be a potential option. CXHYX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. CXHYX is one of many Muni - Bonds funds to choose from. Muni - Bonds funds invest in debt securities issued by states and local municipalities, which are typically used to pay for infrastructure construction, schools, and other government functions. These securities can be backed by taxes (revenue bonds), but others are known as " general obligation " and are not necessarily backed by a defined source. These bonds are especially attractive because of their inherent tax benefits. Macquarie is based in Philadelphia, PA, and is the manager of CXHYX. Macquarie National HY Municipal A debuted in September of 1986. Since then, CXHYX has accumulated assets of about $685.27 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals. Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. CXHYX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.57% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 1.16%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Compared to the category average of 11.99%, the standard deviation of CXHYX over the past three years is 10.78%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 9.47% compared to the category average of 11.51%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. With a beta of 1, this fund is volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, CXHYX has a positive alpha of 3.26, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis. Investors should also consider a bond's rating, which is a grade ( 'AAA' to 'D' ) given to a bond that indicates its credit quality. With this letter scale in mind, CXHYX has 19.58% in medium quality bonds, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of BBB, and focuses on medium quality securities. However, it is worth noting that 48 % of the bonds in this fund are not ranked, so take the average quality level with a bit of caution. As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, CXHYX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.85% compared to the category average of 0.91%. From a cost perspective, CXHYX is actually cheaper than its peers. Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $100 Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included. Overall, Macquarie National HY Municipal A ( CXHYX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now. For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Muni - Bonds, make sure to go to for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Get Your Free (CXHYX): Fund Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Smarter, relevant search is reshaping the future of generative AI
'But at the same time, I'm already seeing countless examples of how Australian businesses are putting the technology to work in meaningful ways.' Relevance is the missing piece Among the early adopters is one of the nation's largest banks, Macquarie, where relevancy breakthroughs are helping deliver smarter digital services. Macquarie Bank's chief digital officer Luis Uguina says search has become a strategic lever. 'Leveraging GenAI's ability to provide contextually relevant and highly personalised search results has significantly reduced the time it takes to retrieve and extract critical information, both for our customers and internal teams,' says Uguina. That shift is freeing employees from repetitive tasks so they can focus on innovating and continuing to improve customer experiences. 'Customers now receive answers that are not only accurate but also aligned with their specific needs and preferences,' Uguina says. 'That's resulted in increased engagement and satisfaction, with noticeable improvements in metrics like customer recommendation scores.' For GenAI to deliver this kind of value, speed and scale are not enough. Relevance - in context, in real time - is what makes the difference. 'There will, of course, be challenges along the way,' says Pell. 'While we're seeing lots of successful GenAI use cases, an organisation's approach to data management can pose significant challenges to the success of its projects.' And the shift is happening across sectors. In mining, BHP is using GenAI to analyse complex, interdependent operational variables. In retail, Coles is extracting insights from thousands of customer survey comments. In finance, firms like Macquarie are anticipating user intent with precision. Underpinning these advances are techniques like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which enhance LLM responses with proprietary data. By feeding AI systems with business-specific context, RAG helps organisations move beyond generic outputs. It allows them to use their own internal knowledge base to improve accuracy and usefulness. 'All organisations have a responsibility to mitigate security risks, eliminate blind spots in their security posture and identify and respond to threats quickly,' Pell says. For Macquarie, proprietary data is a cornerstone of their AI strategy. Ashwin Sinha, the bank's chief data and AI officer, says it gives the organisation a competitive edge. 'Proprietary data plays a crucial role in enhancing search outcomes by providing unique insights,' Sinha says. 'It allows us to deliver more accurate, relevant and personalised results, tailored to the specific needs of our customers.' Macquarie's internal datasets are used to model customer intent and streamline service workflows. 'It means we can anticipate user needs more effectively and provide results that are not only accurate but also contextually meaningful,' Uguina says. But it's not just about performance - trust and governance remain key. 'We ensure that the use of proprietary data is handled responsibly, adhering to strict privacy and ethical guidelines to maintain trust with our customers,' Sinha says. Solving for complexity and compliance Getting to that point has meant solving for both complexity and compliance. 'One of the primary challenges we encountered was balancing the complexity of advanced search algorithms with the need for speed, accuracy and efficiency,' Sinha says. Optimising infrastructure, adopting distributed computing, and building in privacy protections such as encryption and differential privacy were part of the solution. 'We implemented rigorous testing and validation processes, as well as ongoing audits of our algorithms,' Sinha says. Transparency and user feedback loops were also built in to detect and address any unintended outcomes quickly. The payoff has been measurable. Uguina says GenAI-based search techniques have improved the customer experience and internal operations. 'One of the most notable outcomes has been a substantial improvement in our digital experience, with user satisfaction increasing and our online help resources more useful for our customers,' says Uguina. At the enterprise level, search is also streamlining knowledge retrieval. 'It has enhanced enterprise knowledge retrieval by surfacing actionable insights from vast datasets,' Sinha says. 'That's improved decision-making and increased operational efficiencies.' Elastic's Pell says this type of capability is now essential. 'Most businesses have vast amounts of structured and unstructured data, and the key to unlocking tremendous value from both is to be able to find, analyse, and use data from any source in real time,' Pell says. This is particularly evident in customer-facing applications. While many companies began with GenAI-powered chatbots, more advanced use cases are now emerging. In retail, this includes intelligent product recommendations and real-time sentiment analysis. In financial services and telecoms, it's about speeding up transactions and supporting staff with personalised data. 'There is also a role for generative AI in transactions where human-to-human interaction remains vital, by enabling call centre staff and bank tellers to access relevant, up-to-date data fast and efficiently, giving them the real-time insights they need to resolve issues faster and keep wait times to a minimum,' Pell says. 'It can also provide these employees with personalised recommendations to pass on to their customers.' Security is another area seeing rapid change. With cyber threats on the rise, organisations are starting to use GenAI and search to boost their defensive posture. According to the Australian Signals Directorate, financial losses from cybercrime continue to grow, with average costs per incident reaching $30,700 last financial year. Security teams are using AI-enhanced search to surface relevant signals faster and receive guided recommendations for action. 'Having a search platform helps modernise security operations by providing greater context that includes both public and private data related to security issues,' Pell says. Despite the promise, businesses remain mindful of the risks. Concerns around bias, data sovereignty and regulatory uncertainty are front of mind, especially in sectors like finance, health and government. Pell notes that while GenAI offers clear benefits, many organisations remain unsure how to proceed because 'the absence of specific regulations in this country creates uncertainty regarding compliance', particularly in sectors such as banking, healthcare and the public sector, which must still align new models with APRA's stringent data protection guardrails. Sinha agrees that governance is crucial. 'Advanced search techniques often rely on very large datasets, which can sometimes introduce biases or inaccuracies,' he says. For that reason, Macquarie invested early in frameworks to monitor fairness and build privacy-preserving systems. Even with these guardrails, the momentum is clear. Elastic research shows 88 per cent of Australian IT decision-makers expect to increase their AI investment. The Tech Council of Australia estimates GenAI could add $115 billion to the economy annually by 2030. The next frontier - conversational AI Looking ahead, Macquarie's Uguina sees conversational, intent-aware search as the next frontier. 'Generative AI is making it possible for users to interact with search systems in a more natural, dialogue-like manner,' he says. 'That evolution is transforming search into a more dynamic and personalised experience.' Sinha says the implications for decision-making are profound. 'AI allows us to process vast amounts of data - from transaction histories to market trends - and surface insights that were previously inaccessible,' he says. 'It also enables better risk management by detecting anomalies or threats in real time.' Ultimately, Uguina says, it's about shifting from reactive to proactive. 'With advancements in machine learning and AI, banks will be able to anticipate the needs of their customers before they arise,' he says. 'This shift will make banking not just a transactional experience but a truly supportive one.' As generative AI continues to evolve, the real differentiator will be its ability to deliver relevant, timely, context-aware outcomes. Organisations that get search right won't just improve productivity - they'll unlock entirely new ways to serve, protect and engage their customers.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Energia pays further €40m dividend as New York owner courts bidders
Energia Group, the electricity and gas utility controlled by New York private equity firm I Squared Capital, handed a further €40 million of dividends to its owners in April, weeks after they pressed the start button on a sale of the business. The payment, disclosed in Energia's financial accounts for the year to March, brings total distributions to more than €540 million since the US firm bought Energia, then known as Viridian, in 2016 for €1 billion. Sources said earlier this month that I Squared received several first-round bids in advance of a deadline on May 30th. Interested parties included Itochu Corporation, a Japanese trading company that is involved in businesses spanning textiles to energy and chemicals, US private equity giant KKR , and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board . Australian financial services group Macquarie is also among the companies that have been circling the business, which is expected to achieve an enterprise value of about €2.75 billion, according to the sources. READ MORE Energia's underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) fell almost 14 per cent to €323.5 million in its latest financial year, according to its latest report. Earnings advances across its renewable energy and flexibility power generation divisions offset by a decline in its customer sales business, where margins tightened. The three parts of Energia's business – renewable energy, a flexible electricity generation business and a unit supplying customers – have proven to be broadly complementary in recent years despite upheaval across energy markets. When earnings jumped across the group's renewables and flexible generation businesses in the two years to March 2023 – amid soaring electricity prices globally following Russia's invasion of Ukraine – its business supplying customers suffered large losses, with margins squeezed by heightened wholesale prices. The consumer solutions business delivers a large profit in the year to March 2024 as earnings across the other two units declined. Ebitda in the renewables business, which owns 358 megawatts (MW) of wind assets and purchases electricity from 1.19 gigawatts (GW) of third-party green energy producers, rose 8.5 per cent to €121.4 million in its latest financial year. This was driven by the commissioning of a new wind farm and higher wholesale energy prices. The flexible generation division, mainly made up of two combined cycle gas turbine plants in Huntstown in north Co Dublin with a total capacity of 747MW, posted a 67 per cent surge in Ebitda to €93.5 million. This was fuelled by greater utilisation and prices achieved by the plants – used to plug gaps in electricity supplies in the Greater Dublin Area – during the period. Earnings in the customer solutions business – which supplies electricity and gas to more than 880,7000 households and businesses on the island – declined by 48 per cent to €10.86 million as its margins contracted. 'Energia Group is well positioned for further growth as we work to meet the increasing demand for renewable energy on the island of Ireland,' chief executive Ian Thom said. 'Our leading market position and extensive project pipeline put us at the forefront of Ireland's energy transition, developing the infrastructure necessary to meet climate goals while ensuring secure and reliable energy, and supporting our customers on this journey.' An Bord Pleanála gave Energia permission in March to build a data centre in Huntstown, Co Dublin, in partnership with tech giant Microsoft, adding to the investment case for potential suitors. Energia also has a solar energy pipeline of more than 1,200MW.
