Totally by chance, I came across walletinvestor.com which predicts share prices generated by machine learning from years and years of historical price data. As it spruiks on its website:
"Markets are moved by countless forces - economic news, sentiment, world events, and the decisions of millions of traders. No model can see all of that, and nobody can predict the future with certainty. What a model can do is study how an asset has behaved over its entire recorded history and describe, statistically, the trajectory that history points toward.
That is exactly what WalletInvestor does. We take the long record of an asset’s prices, let a machine-learning model learn the trend and the rhythm of its movements, and project that forward - together with a range that widens as uncertainty grows. The result is a forecast you can read at a glance and weigh against your own research.
We collect the full record of an asset’s prices - daily values stretching back as far as the data goes - and keep it current with the latest market close.
A machine-learning model analyzes that history to capture the underlying trend and how much the price typically swings around it - the asset’s own statistical fingerprint.
The model extends the trend into the future and draws a band around it. The further out the forecast reaches, the wider that band - because uncertainty grows with time.
Every forecast is regenerated as new prices arrive, and each asset receives a model rating that summarizes its recent behavior at a glance."
So what does it say about BHP? In two words: Strong Buy
Then machine learning takes over, with an immediate high of $69.29 on 23 September, and a one-year prediction of $68.39. That'll do me!
And then came this morning's actual financial results for the year ended 30 June 2026: click here. Revenue up 15%. Profit up 9%. That'll do me!
Since then, the market has opened and BHP is up 3.86%, or $2.40, to $64.60, as I type this. That'll do me, too!
These latest results confirm what the market has suspected for some time: this is no longer an iron ore story. BHP is now the world's biggest copper miner, and shareholders are reaping the benefits.
The headline number from this morning's results was unmissable: a monster dividend of US 99 cents per share, landing almost 19% above street estimates of 84 cents. Other line items also came in ahead of consensus, but they are a sideshow. The dividend was the main event.
There's a reason the payout matters. With the recent capital gains tax changes, Australian investors want more income from dividends, and Chief executive Brandon Craig has given it to them. But the funding of this pay-out is the real story. Both copper profit and copper revenue are now ahead of iron ore - a crossover that has been years in the making - and BHP is now the world's biggest copper producer. I'll drink to that!
P.S. BHP closed at $63.85, well below its intra-day high of $64.79, but there's always tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow (to quote from Shakespeare's famous soliloquy in his play "Macbeth", Act 5, Scene 5).
