Many of Australia’s top brokers have been busy adjusting their financial models again, leading to the release of a large number of broker notes this week.

Three ASX shares brokers have named as buys this week are listed below. Here’s why they are bullish on them:

Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH)

According to a note out of Credit Suisse, its analysts have upgraded this hearing solutions company’s shares to an outperform rating with a $235.00 price target. The broker made the move on valuation grounds after its shares pulled back to a more attractive level. Credit Suisse is positive on its outlook and believes the company has been winning market share over the last few years. The Cochlear share price was trading at $191.50 at Tuesday’s close.

Goodman Group (ASX: GMG)

A note out of Macquarie reveals that its analysts have retained their outperform rating and lifted their price target on this industrial property company’s shares to $26.63. Macquarie has been looking at the property sector and remains positive on Goodman. In fact, it believes the company could upgrade its FY 2022 guidance when it releases its half year results next month. The Goodman share price was fetching $22.88 at yesterday’s close.

ResMed Inc. (ASX: RMD)

Analysts at Ord Minnett have upgraded this sleep treatment company’s shares to a buy rating with an improved price target of $37.90. According to the note, the broker believes ResMed is well-placed to deliver another strong result in FY 2022. This is due to the company taking advantage of the Philips CPAP product recall. And even when Philips has completed the recall and replacement of 5.2 million devices, the broker believes ResMed has the potential to hold onto its increased market share. The ResMed share price was last trading at $32.66.

The post Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended Cochlear Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Cochlear Ltd. and ResMed Inc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Key points

• The Accent share price has been falling this year
• COVID impacts are hurting the retailer’s trading
• Management are confident about the long-term potential of the company with more stores, more brands and more sales online

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The Accent Group Ltd (ASX: AX1) share price has fallen 17% in 2022. Does this now make it an attractive opportunity?

Accent is a large shoe retailing business in Australia. It sells through a wide array of different brands, both owned and with distribution agreements, such as Skechers, The Athlete’s Foot, Trybe, Stylerunner, VANS, Timberland, Platypus, Glue Store and Dr Martens.

One of the main factors that can impact investor thoughts about a company is its trading performance.

Accent recently released its trading update for the six months to 26 December 2021. This could be affecting the current Accent share price.

Trading update

Like for like sales across November and December 2021 were down 3.4% compared to the period in the first half of FY21, but up 4.8% on the pre-COVID period of the first half in FY20.

The shoe retailer said that its digital sales remained “strong” throughout the period and the gross profit margin in December “recovered well” and was above expectations. Accent said that it drove full-price trade in the lead up to Christmas.

Management said that the trading was broadly in line with expectations, with strong demand after the reopening of Victoria and New South Wales.

However, store traffic and sales in the final week of December, and in-particular Boxing Day, were well down on expectations and the prior year, which Accent attributed to the rise of the COVID-19 Omicron variant case numbers and the related impact to store traffic.

The Omicron effect seems to have impacted the company across all banners and states, including in New Zealand, with the most significant impact in New South Wales.

Trading in the first four weeks of January continues to be adversely impacted by COVID. Inventory levels at the end of December were back in line with the original plan. There have been delivery delays from external suppliers across December and early January.

Profit expectations

In terms of how much profit Accent is expecting, HY22 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is expected to be between $30 million to $31 million. Profitability can be a key driver (or detractor) for the Accent share price.

Accent’s growth plans

Whilst management are pleased with the performance considering the COVID impacts, it points to some factors that will help grow the business over the long-term.

One key selling strategy is its omnichannel business model. This means that customers are able to buy products in-store or shop online, whichever is the most convenient for them.

Accent points to several growth avenues for the business. Its digital sales are rising. The ASX retail share is adding new stores to its network. It can benefit from vertically-owned brands and exclusive distribution agreements which remain “highly relevant” and management believes position the company well for the future.

One of the latest distribution agreements is a 10-year deal with Reebok so that Accent can exclusively distribute Reebok products in Australia and New Zealand. Accent plans to grow the Reebok brand through existing wholesale accounts, direct online sales and through its multi-brand retail brands, all of which currently stock the brand including Glue Store, Stylerunner, Platypus and others.

Accent valuation

At the current Accent share price, it’s valued at 11x FY24’s estimated earnings with a grossed-up dividend yield of 10.6% for FY24.

The post The Accent (ASX:AX1) share price is down 17% this year, is it a buy? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Accent Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Recent volatility means that a number of ASX shares are trading notably lower than their 52-week highs. While this doesn’t make all of them buys, two that brokers believe are in the buy zone now are listed below.

Here’s what you need to know about these beaten down ASX shares:

Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC)

The first beaten down ASX share to look at is this horticulture company. The Costa share price was fetching $2.88 at yesterday’s close, which is down 40% from its 52-week high. This was driven partly by a subdued performance during the first half of FY 2021 which saw Costa report flat revenue and a 3% lift in net profit.

Despite its soft performance, Bell Potter continues to see a lot of value in the company’s shares at the current level. This week the broker retained its buy rating but trimmed its price target to $3.85. This implies potential upside of almost 34% over the next 12 months.

The broker said: “Our Buy remains unchanged. Our favourable view on CGC is driven by: (1) expansion and maturation of the international berry operations; (2) expansion and maturation of the avocado orchards; (3) non-recurrence of hail impacting citrus and grape operations in CY21e; and (4) further investment in capacity (avocado, citrus and tomato) to grow earnings beyond CY22e.”

CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)

Another beaten down ASX share to consider is this leading biotechnology company. The CSL share price is currently trading almost 20% lower than its 52-week high. This has been driven by market volatility, plasma collection concerns, and its recent capital raising.

The team at Morgans appears to see this as a buying opportunity for investors. The broker recently put an add rating and $334.70 price target on its shares. This implies potential upside of almost 30% over the next 12 months.

It commented: “We view CSL as a core holding and best positioned among its peers to meet growing patient demand.”

The post Analysts name 2 beaten down ASX shares with 30% upside appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended CSL Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended COSTA GRP FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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There are a lot of growth shares for investors to choose from on the Australian share market.

To narrow things down, below are two ASX growth shares that are highly rated right now. Here’s what you need to know about them:

Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8)

The first ASX growth share to look at is Audinate. It is a leading digital audio-visual networking technologies provider.

The key product in its portfolio is the Dante audio over IP networking solution. Management notes that Dante is the evolution of AV systems, converging all previous connection types into one. It delivers vastly superior performance while making these systems easier to use, easier to expand, and less expensive to deploy. The solution is the clear industry leader, with the number of Dante enabled products manufactured by its customers ~8x greater than its nearest rival.

And while supply chain issues have been weighing on its performance, this is only expected to be a temporary headwind.

UBS remains positive on the company’s future. As a result, it has put a buy rating and $10.40 price target on its shares. The broker believes the company is well-placed to win a big share of the digital AV networking market over the long term.

Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)

Another ASX growth share to look closely at is Megaport. It is leading cloud connectivity and networking solutions provider which has been growing at a solid rate in recent years. This is due to its first mover advantage in a market benefiting from two long-term structural tailwinds.

Goldman Sachs notes that these are the adoption of public cloud (and multi-cloud usage) and the transition towards Networking as a Service (NaaS). The latter is being driven by the increased prevalence of hybrid working and cloud-based applications which put strain on legacy networks designs and impact performance.

The broker is very positive on the company because of these structural tailwinds and believes it is well-placed for strong growth over the long term. So much so, earlier this week Goldman initiated coverage on Megaport with a buy rating and $20.00 price target. It believes Megaport’s “opportunity for further growth is immense (GSe A$129bn p.a. spent on fixed enterprise networking across MP1 geographies).”

The post 2 exciting ASX growth shares tipped as buys appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended AUDINATEGL FPO and MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended AUDINATEGL FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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