No. 22 Cincinnati hosts rival Xavier in crosstown clash
Atalanta tops Serie A after late win over AC Milan while Inter goes 13 games unbeatenSyracuse and Georgetown meet for the 100th time Saturday when the Orange host the Hoyas in the latest installment of their classic rivalry. As former Big East Conference rivals, Syracuse and Georgetown have staged many memorable contests over the decades with the Orange holding a 54-45 all-time advantage. The teams still meet annually despite the Orange now playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Syracuse has won five of the last seven meetings, including a 12-point triumph in Washington D.C. last December. "It definitely felt like a Big East game," Hoyas coach Ed Cooley said after last season's contest. This time around, Georgetown (7-2) is coming off a 73-60 loss to West Virginia in which the team shot under 38 percent from the floor and committed 14 turnovers. "When the ball has music, when the ball is singing, unbelievable music happens," Cooley said. "The music is the play. The music is body movement and screening an open shot. We didn't have good music today." Thomas Sorber is the team's leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, although the freshman has failed to reach that average in six of the last seven games. Syracuse (5-4), meanwhile, is coming off a 102-85 win over Albany despite the absence of leading scorer J.J. Starling (19.8 points), who is out indefinitely with a hand injury. In his stead, freshman Donnie Freeman supplied 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting despite playing just 23 minutes due to an illness. "Whatever (illness) he has, he needs to keep that, if he can keep playing like, whatever he was feeling," Orange coach Adrian Autry joked. Syracuse will be looking for more success from 3-point range after hitting 6-of-15 (40 percent) against Albany. In their previous game -- a five-point loss to Notre Dame -- the Orange failed to make a 3-pointer for the first time in more than a decade. No Syracuse player has made more than 11 3-pointers this season -- and even that player (Chris Bell) is only shooting 25 percent from long distance. --Field Level Media
Fortunately for income investors, they have a lot of options to choose from on the Australian share market. So many it can be hard to decide which ones to buy over others. To help narrow things down, let's look at a three ASX dividend shares that analysts rate as buys. Here's why they could be top options next week: ( ) If you are not averse to investing in the mining sector, then mining giant BHP could be an ASX dividend share to buy. That's the view of analysts at Goldman Sachs, which believe the miner is well-positioned to benefit from a copper bull market. They said: We remain bullish on copper due to ongoing supply side challenges and increasing demand and expect BHP's copper EBITDA to increase by ~US$3bn to ~US$10bn by FY26E (~45% of group EBITDA). Under our base case, copper EBITDA is expected to reach US$14bn by FY35E and ~US$19bn with all copper growth, at GSe long run copper of US$4.44/lb (real $, from 2028). Goldman Sachs expects this to underpin fully franked dividends of 99 US cents (~A$1.54) per share in FY 2025 and US$1.08 (~A$1.68) in FY 2026. Based on BHP's current share price of $40.70, this implies of 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively. Goldman Sachs has a buy rating and $47.40 price target on its shares. ( ) Another ASX dividend share that could be a buy is Smartgroup. It is an industry-leading provider of employee benefits, end-to-end fleet management, and software solutions with over 400,000 salary packages and 64,000 novated leases under management. Bell Potter likes the company due to its defensive business, favourable tailwinds, and attractive valuation. It said: SIQ looks well priced given a fwd P/E of ~14.5x, a defensive client base, earnings tailwinds from the Electric Car Discount Bill (exempts low or zero emission vehicles from Fringe Benefits Tax), an ROE of ~30% and a strong balance sheet. In respect to dividends, the broker is forecasting fully franked dividends of 53.3 cents in FY 2024 and then 59.7 cents in FY 2025. Based on its current share price of $8.17, this would mean dividend yields of 6.5% and 7.3%, respectively. Bell Potter has a buy rating and $10.00 price target on its shares. ( ) Another ASX dividend share that has been given a buy rating is telco giant Telstra. Goldman Sachs thinks income investors should invest due to its defensive earnings, positive growth outlook, and asset monetisation opportunities. It said: We believe the low risk earnings (and dividend) growth that Telstra is delivering across FY22-25, underpinned through its mobile business, is attractive. We also believe that Telstra has a meaningful medium term opportunity to crystallise value through commencing the process to monetize its InfraCo Fixed assets – which we estimate could be worth between A$22-33bn. As for dividends, Goldman is forecasting fully franked dividends of 19 cents per share in FY 2025 and then 20 cents per share in FY 2026. Based on the current Telstra share price of $3.99, this represents dividend yields of 4.75% and 5%, respectively. The broker has a buy rating and $4.35 price target on its shares.
FACT FOCUS: Vermont ruling does not say schools can vaccinate children without parental consent