They say you should sell shovels in a gold rush. Codan’s got a smarter idea

Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA) has notched gains just south of +20% on Friday, coming out of the blue as a tech-stock-to-watch for early CY26, thanks to its one-year gains − up +130%, and bringing Codan’s market cap to $6.7 billion.

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The Australian electronics and engineering company, which makes metal detectors, rugged comms devices for extreme environments and also mission control room technology, has satisfied its many investors on Friday with its news first half revenues should be around A$394M, a 20% jump vs pcp.

Metal detection, perhaps curiously, is netting Codan $168 million (+48% vs pcp), driven by metal detector sales in Africa, presumably as higher gold prices attract more and more people into the sport.

(The old adage says that you should sell shovels in a gold rush, but I’m starting to think we’ve just found someone even smarter.)

Communications, meanwhile, is coming in with $222 million worth of revenue for the company, up +19% vs pcp, that growth rate in line with earlier stated guidance – no word on market drivers there.

This finance journalist will admit he wasn’t too familiar with Codan until today; looking at its five-year chart, one can see how Codan has, in one sense, ‘come out of nowhere’ – now a new gold jewel in Oz’s tech index.

CDA last traded at $37/sh.

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