This particular mining stock pulls copper (alongside lead and zinc) out of the ground in Kazakhstan and North Macedonia. These metals are used in massive quantities in electric vehicles, to name just one reason why I’m paying it close attention.

Earnings here are forecast to rise 3% in 2022. This means the metals digger trades on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 6.5 times. On top of this, Central Asia Metals boasts a mighty 6.9% dividend yield at current prices.

I’d also buy CAML because of its impressive production record of late. The company produced a forecast-beating 14,041 tonnes of the stuff in 2021, up 1.3% year-on-year, ahead of guidance. I think it’s a top buy despite the backdrop of rising political instability in Kazakhstan.

A penny stock on my radar

Property prices are booming in the UK. But of other countries are seeing higher prices too. Therefore I’m thinking of giving my portfolio a bit of geographical diversification by investing in overseas housebuilders (I already own Taylor Wimpey and Barratt in my portfolio).

Penny stock Glenveagh Properties (LSE: GLV) is one such construction stock on my watchlist. This UK share builds properties in Ireland, a market in which the average home price jumped 7.7% in 2021.

Glenveagh is ramping up production to fully capitalise on these fertile trading conditions as well. It is seeking to complete on 1,400 homes a year from 2022 (by comparison it completed on 1,150 last year). Forecasters think earnings here will swell 66% in 2020, leaving the builder trading on a price-to-earnings growth (PEG) of just 0.3. I’d buy it despite the threat rising raw material costs poses to profits.

A top US share for the gaming boom

I’m considering buying shares in Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) too as video games demand rockets. It’s an industry powerhouse with massively-popular franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Civilisation in its stable.

Take-Two is also joining in on the M&A craze sweeping the sector and is looking to seal the biggest games company buyout in history. More specifically, the US share’s planned acquisition of Zynga would help it become a major player in the fast-growing mobile games segment.

This may be needed given the huge supply problems affecting Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X consoles. These shortages could have a permanent impact on console usage and, by extension, demand for Take-Two’s titles on these platforms.

City analysts think Take-Two’s earnings will soar 37% in the year to April 2022. This leaves it trading on a forward PEG ratio of 0.9. A stock could be undervalued with a reading below 1.

The post 3 cheap UK and US shares to buy! appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

Here are two top shares on my own ISA watchlist today:

#1: An American dream

Video gaming is big business. And recent research show that it’s going to get much, much bigger. Developers are spending more and more money to rake it in from their rapidly-growing audiences, with budgets beginning to dwarf many of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters.

Take the latest title from CD Projekt Red as an example. The Polish games developer spent a colossal $330m to bring its much-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 title to life. By comparison Disney spent $275m to make its most recent Star Wars adventure (Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker) back in 2019.

Getting exposure to this fast-growing home entertainment is a brilliant idea for 2021 and beyond, then. And I personally would play this theme by buying shares in New York-listed Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO). This US share’s packed stable of popular games franchises include the evergreen Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. And the planned takeover of British developer Codemasters would boost its catalogue even further.

Today, Take2 trades on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 48 times. Steep on paper, sure. But this is a fair reflection of the huge profits potential of its fast-growing industry.

#2: A top UK tech share

We all know how important good cybersecurity is in today’s internet-driven world. Companies have been spending more and more on protecting themselves and their customers from the growing legion of hackers and scammers. An explosion in online fraud since the Covid-19 outbreak will lead to higher and higher demand for online security services too.

Cyber attacks aren’t just preserved for businesses and individuals of course. State-sponsored cyberwars are becoming a massive problem for major governments as developments this week perfectly illustrate. News has just emerged that several US government departments such as the Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security have been subject to huge security breaches since the spring.

US president-elect Joe Biden has subsequently vowed to “elevate cybersecurity as an imperative across the government, further strengthen partnerships with the private sector, and expand our investment in the infrastructure and people we need to defend against malicious cyberattacks.”

All this means that UK shares like Avast (LSE: AVST) can expect bumper trade in 2021 and beyond. This particular IT services provider is one of the biggest cybersecurity companies on the planet. Consequently, it has the scale to ride this huge market opportunity to its fullest. Today, Avast carries a forward P/E ratio of 18 times, a reading I don’t think reflects its exceptional earnings possibilities. I reckon this tech titan, like Take-Two, could make investors a fortune during the 2020s.

The post A top UK (and US) share I’d buy in my ISA for 2021 to get rich and retire early appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

However, any concern over the game’s cost was quickly muted upon its release. In its first three days, Grand Theft Auto V collected $1 billion in sales. That total, according to the game’s publisher, Take Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO.US), was the quickest any entertainment property has ever hit a billion in sales. 

The enormous cost and sales of Grand Theft Auto V begs an interesting question: How does the business of video games stack up against the movie industry?

Not quite as expensive as you’d think

When news of Grand Theft Auto V‘s $265 million budget broke, several sites were quick to report its budget would rank second all time in production costs if it were a movie. Currently, the most expensive movie production of all-time was Disney‘s (NYSE: DIS.US) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which cost roughly $300 million to produce.

Yet, such a comparison isn’t quite apples to apples. Movie production budgets don’t include marketing the film. The rough rule of thumb in the movie industry is that a marketing budget is equal to 50% of the film’s production budget. So, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End total production and marketing costs is likely closer to about $450 million. 

When considering both production and marketing costs, Grand Theft Auto V’s $265 million budget would rank about the same as Evan Almighty, which is roughly the 42nd most-expensive movie ever made. Bottom line, Grand Theft Auto V was expensive, but video games still aren’t approaching the total cost of the world’s most expensive movies. 

But, what about the sales?

From a sales perspective, Grand Theft Auto V has no peer in terms of speed to $1 billion in sales. Whether or not it has peers in terms of its lifetime sales will be another question. 

The highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar, took 17 days to hit the billion milestone. However, Avatar also wound up hitting $2.8 billion across the global box office. That total also doesn’t include home video sales, merchandising, and later revenue selling the film’s rights to broadcasters. 

Although much fanfare around movies focuses on their opening weekend box office, the total amount a movie can generate on its opening weekend is limited by a very finite obstacle: there are only so many seats for moviegoers to sit in. With video games, the only real restricting factor is distributing discs of the game. In a world where Apple can ship 9 million iPhones on an opening weekend, shipping 15 millions discs isn’t much of a constraint. So, major video game events, like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, tend to be more front-loaded in terms of sales. 

What about the middle men?

One other area to watch is how much distributors of different forms of entertainment get to keep. Conventional wisdom is that movie box office hauls are split 50/50 between distributors and the theaters that play the film. However, bigger-budget movies have enough leverage that the scale has been tilted toward distributors.

Overall, for major films in America, only about 30% of gross goes to theaters. When movies are newer, the distributor keeps more of the box office. In later weeks, the theater increases its percentage of the gate. The interesting wrinkle here is that box-office sales are moving overseas (73% of Avatar’s box office came from overseas), and the equation changes in different countries. For example, in China (where Avatar made $182 million), foreign distributors currently get to keep only about 25% of ticket sales. 

In video games, the middle men are retailers instead of theaters, which keep roughly 20% of sales. In addition, Microsoft and Sony keep a console owner fee that’s around 10% of game sales. Add it up, and the cut from various middle men in the movie and video-game business is surprisingly similar. 

Overall, only 17 movies have attained box office totals of a billion dollars. Of those, only three have gone over $1.5 billion, with The Avengers in third place at $1.51 billion. It’s highly likely that, by the end of its run, Grand Theft Auto V would beat that box office total and be the equivalent of the third highest-grossing movie of all time. 

Apples and oranges 

At the end of the day, video games are more of the “upstart” form of entertainment compared to television, movies, and music. As such, its fun to compare them against other forms of media. However, as we’ve seen here, making direct comparisons across various forms of media can prove very difficult, due to the unique economics of each field. For example, while the recent Pirates of the Caribbean stalled at the box office, the series still has huge merchandising tie-ins, and even feeds into rides at Disneyland. Such benefits are either unknown, or very hard to measure. 

Still, the initial sales numbers out of Grand Theft Auto V are extremely impressive. With Call of Duty: Ghosts set to hit on Nov. 15, its records might be short-lived.

The post Why You Can’t Compare Grand Theft Auto 5 To The Movie Industry appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.