Stocks making the biggest moves at noon: AV Jennings, Earlypay, IAG Insurance and more

These are the companies and sectors making headlines in afternoon trade.

AV Jennings (ASX: AVJ) – Shares in the land development company surged 86% after receiving an unsolicited and non-binding indicative proposal from Proprium Capital Partners and AVID Property Group, to acquire the company at 67 cents per share or a 103% premium to the stock's last close.

Earlypay (ASX: EPY) – Shares in the SME financing company rallied 21% after the company outlined FY25 EPS targets of 2.2 cents per share, up 28% on the prior corresponding period. "Given the strong ongoing financial performance and Board confidence in the business, Earlypay is targeting to return to a dividend payout ratio of at least 60%," the company said in a statement. This implies the stock is currently trading at less than 10x FY25 forecasts and potentially yielding ~15%.

Alliance Aviation Services (ASX: AQZ) – Shares in the charter and allied aviation services company rose 6.1% after the company announced the sale of six airframes and 13 surplus Rolls-Royce engine cores. The sales are forecast to generate $20-23m in cash and reduce future annual capex by $10-15m from FY26 onwards.

DroneShield (ASX: DRO) – Shares rallied 7.9% after the company appointed several high-profile Australian defence and government strategists into the business, including:

• Terry van Harsen (Vice President, Strategy) has served in the Royal Australian Air Force for over 35 years as Commander, fighter pilot and weapons officer

• Kym Osley (Strategy Advisor) has over 45 years of experience working within the Defence Force. He was the Head of the $17bn Australian F-35 program, and was awarded a Minister for Defence Industry Support Commendation for his work in capability development with defence

Spartan Resources (ASX: SPR) – Shares in the gold explorer rallied 6.7% after the company advised that recent surface drilling has confirmed a "significant new gold discovery", named "Freak". The assays returned hits including 10.26m @ 5.37g/t gold from 520.56m down-hole.

IAG Insurance (ASX: IAG) – Shares p 4.0% after the company entered into a 25-year exclusive strategic alliance to provide RACQ general insurance products and services. IAG will acquire 90% of RACQ's insurance underwriting business for $855 million, with an option to acquire the remaining 10% from two years after the completion on specific terms. The transaction is expected to be EPS accretive in the first full year of ownership.

Stocks rallying off no market-sensitive news include Iris Metals (+15.9%), DUG Technology (+6.3%), Weebit Nano (+5.6%), GQG Partners (+4.9%), Omni Bridgeway (+4.9%), Nuix (+4.4%), Praemium (+3.8%) and Zip (+3.4%).

Humm Group (ASX: HUM) – Shares dipped 19% after the company flagged a slowdown in SME equipment financing. This has negatively affected all-important net interest margins in recent months.

Webjet Group (ASX: WJL) – Shares down 4.1% after the ACCC commenced proceedings in Federal Court against the company for allegedly making false and misleading representations about flight prices and bookings.

Fisher & Paykel (ASX: FPH) – Shares eased 3.2% after the company guided to weaker-than-expected FY25 earnings. At its first-half FY25 earnings report, FPH reaffirmed full year net profit after tax between $320-370 million. The midpoint falls 3.6% short of Macquarie forecasts of $358 million.

Stocks falling on no market-sensitive news include Sheffield Resources (-12.5%), Novonix (-7.6%), SmartPay (-7.1%), Peninsula Energy (-3.4%) and Brazilian Rare Earths (-3.1%)