Over the past week the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was down about 1.2%, yet here are four of the ASX 200 companies that did make new highs. It is always good to look over those companies to see what stocks are successfully rising, and get further inspiration for other stock research.
Dulux Group (ASX: DLX), well known for paint and other stain and sealant products, rose 2.56% on Friday to $5.60, a new all-time high. Earlier this month it released its full-year 2013 results to show a 16.1% rise in net profit after tax to $82.7 million before abnormal charges, part of which came from the purchase and integration of Alesco Corporation.
With a growing housing market, paint products will be used for new homes and people renovating to prepare their homes for future sale or better valuations.
Corporate Travel Management (ASX: CTD), provider of travel management solutions for the corporate market, hit a new high of $6.20 after being in a trading halt earlier in the week, and then announcing it would buy 75.1% of Westminster Travel for $49.2 million.
The Singapore-listed travel management service company has achieved compound annual growth in NPAT of 19% over the past 5 years. In 2013 it had $38.7 million in revenue and $7.3 million in NPAT.
Amcom Telecommunications (ASX: AMM), a $511 million company by market capitalisation, is an IT and telecommunications service provider for data networks for corporations, government organisations and other telecom service companies through its fibre networks in Perth, Adelaide and Darwin. In addition, it offers cloud services and IP telephony.
It made a new high at $2.20 the day after its AGM, where Chairman Tony Grist said that it is in line with achieving another year of double-digit percentage growth in underlying net profit after tax for 2014.
Suncorp Group (ASX: SUN), the insurance and bank group, hit a $13.61 high on Friday. It is taking further steps into the digital age by doing more of its business by cloud computing. After its initial trial stage, the next stage is expected to move up to 50% of the bank's applications to the cloud within about 12 months.
Also it has plans to outsource more of its IT staff by having more than 40 IT roles transferred over to vendors such as Telstra and Optus as it increases its use of third-party service providers.
Foolish takeaway
Investors have a variety of fascinating business stories to follow. Changes in business structure or introduction of new technologies usually incur costs up front, but the benefits come further down the line.
Cloud computing is changing the business scene and innovative companies take advantage of the opportunities it provides. Sometimes, however, seeing future increased demand in things as simple as paint can be good inspiration and investment.
