The Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV) share price was a strong performer last week.

The fashion jewellery retailer’s shares avoided the market selloff and recorded a 16.5% gain.

Why did the Lovisa share price shoot higher?

Investors were bidding the Lovisa share price higher last week after the retailer reported a 48.3% increase in half year revenue to $217.8 million and a 70.3% jump in net profit after tax to $36.1 million.

This was driven by a 21.5% increase in same store sales and the opening of 42 new stores during the period. The latter brought the company’s store network to a total of 589 stores.

Could Lovisa become a global force?

In response to its results, the team at Morgans retained its add rating and lifted its price target on the company’s shares to $24.00.

Based on the current Lovisa share price of $19.86, this implies potential upside of 21% for investors over the next 12 months.

Morgans referred to Lovisa’s same store sales growth as “remarkable” and suggested that under its new leadership, the company could be on course to becoming “a global force.”

Commenting on the result, the broker said: “In our opinion, Lovisa’s 1H22 result was nothing short of remarkable. +21.5% LFL sales growth, complemented by an accelerated store rollout and increased gross margins saw EBIT up 59%, 20% above our forecast.”

Morgans was equally positive on the future and suspects the company could become one of Australia’s most successful retailers.

It concluded: “LOV may just prove to be one of the biggest success stories in Australian retail. With ambitious (and financially well-incentivised) new leadership in place, we think now is the time LOV steps up to become a global force. Investment will be needed to expand LOV’s network in the US and Europe and to take it into new markets, but the returns could be stellar.”

The post Broker says Lovisa (ASX:LOV) could become a ‘global force’ 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. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Lovisa Holdings Ltd. 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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If you’re looking to bolster your portfolio with some blue chip shares in March, you may want to look at the two listed below.

Here’s why these blue chip ASX shares are highly rated right now:

Goodman Group (ASX: GMG)

The first blue chip ASX 200 share to look at is Goodman Group. It is a leading integrated commercial and industrial property company with a portfolio of in-demand properties. These properties have exposure to key growth markets such as ecommerce and logistics. Thanks to strong demand and a material development pipeline, Goodman has been tipped to continue its solid growth in the coming years.

Earlier this month, the team at Citi responded to Goodman’s half year results by retaining its buy rating and lifting its price target to $29.50. This compares favourably to the latest Goodman share price of $22.21.

Citi believes that management’s upgraded earnings per share guidance of 20% in FY 2022 is conservative and sees scope for Goodman to outperform it.

REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)

Another ASX blue chip ASX 200 share to look at is REA Group. It is a leading provider of property and property-related services via websites and mobile apps across Australia and Asia. It is best-known for the realestate.com.au website which has been dominating the ANZ market for years.

For example, during the first half of FY 2022, REA reported an average of 12.6 million unique visitors to its website each month, with a record 13.2 million in October. The latter is the equivalent of 65% of Australia’s adult population. On average, there were 3.3x more visits than the nearest competitor each month.

Looking ahead, thanks to its dominant market position, the resilient housing market, and new acquisitions and revenue streams, REA Group appears well-positioned for long term growth.

Citi is also very positive on REA. Earlier this month, the broker put a buy rating and $166.00 price target on the company’s shares. This is meaningfully higher than the current REA share price of $133.17.

The post 2 blue chip ASX 200 shares analysts rate 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. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended REA Group Limited. 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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This year has already seen a lot of volatility on the ASX share market. Some ASX tech shares have fallen more than 30% since the start of 2022.

Lower prices for businesses may not necessarily mean that they are better value. But, it could mean that the more compelling ideas are cheaper.

Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH)

Pushpay is a leading business in the electronic donation space in the US. Its main client base is medium and large churches in the US where it provides digital giving tools and church management software.

The Pushpay share price has fallen 30.4% since the start of the year.

The ASX tech share has been steadily winning over churches as clients in the country for years. This sees the company generate attractive ongoing revenue as the donations roll in each year.

Pushpay is seeing its gross profit margin steadily climb, which is helping profitability. The business is investing for growth as it aims to win over at least a quarter of the Catholic market as well. The ASX tech share has pointed out that there are strong links between Catholic churches and some education institutions that could open up further growth avenues.

The business reported that the company hasn’t seen any material change in digital giving reverting to non-digital means, indicating that the faith sector may have gone through a fundamental technological shift.

In the longer-term, the business could also decide to expand with its faith tools into other countries or regions.

According to Commsec, the Pushpay share price is valued at 16x FY23’s estimated earnings.

Volpara Health Technologies Ltd (ASX: VHT)

Volpara is an ASX tech share in the healthcare space. It provides software for both the analysis of breast screening images as well as enterprise-wide practice management that helps with productivity, compliance, reimbursement and patient tracking.

The Volpara share price has fallen 33% since the start of the year.

This business is trying to help as many women as people to identify breast cancer as early as possible. In the US, it has a market share of around 35% of US women being screened. This has been steadily climbing thanks to organic growth and acquisitions.

Its annual recurring revenue (ARR) continues to grow quarter on quarter. It has reached US$21.5 million at the end of its third quarter, up US$1.1 million on the second quarter. The business reports having a very low churn of customers. The gross profit margin is very high, at more than 90%.

Volpara aims to maintain its strong growth rate, while driving down net operating and investing cash outflow and utilising the data it’s collecting to help women globally.

The ASX tech share’s average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to grow at as it sells more software products to clients. At the end of the third quarter, ARPU was US$1.47, with an average of US$1.65 for deals in that third quarter.

The post Down over 30% in 2022: 2 compelling ASX tech shares 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. owns and has recommended PUSHPAY FPO NZX and VOLPARA FPO NZ. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended PUSHPAY FPO NZX and VOLPARA FPO NZ. 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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If you have room for a new growth share or two in your portfolio in March, then you could do a lot worse than the highly rated shares listed below.

Here’s what you need to know about these growing companies:

Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)

Megaport could be a grow share to buy. It is the leading cloud connectivity and networking solutions provider benefiting from its first mover advantage in a market experiencing structural tailwinds.

The company recently caught the eye of analysts at Goldman Sachs, which put a buy rating and $19.90 price target on the company’s shares.

While the broker acknowledges that its shares are not conventionally cheap, it believes they deserve to trade at a premium given Megaport’s strong growth potential thanks to its exposure to the $129 billion spent on fixed enterprise networking across its current geographies.

Goldman commented: “While MP1’s does not screen as absolutely cheap, we believe its multiple reflects (1) a scarcity of opportunity for investors in Australia to get exposure to the public cloud adoption theme, (2) its competitive landscape being relatively more benign than peer group, and (3) its structural tailwinds having more visibility and resilience than its peers (i.e. public cloud migration a global theme). We note that MP1 is now also trading at the lower end of its historical EV/Sales range.”

Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME)

Another ASX growth share that could be in the buy zone is Pro Medicus. It is a healthcare technology company that provides industry-leading software to facilitate the clinical assessment of medical images.

Demand for its software from many of the largest healthcare institutions continues grow as they shift away from legacy systems and into the cloud. This has underpinned strong growth over the last decade.

The team at Bell Potter appear confident this will continue. Following Pro Medicus’ half year results, the broker retained its buy rating and $55.00 price target on the company’s shares.

Bell Potter commented: “PME’s 1H22 revenue grew by 40% or $12.7m vs pcp to $44.3m. The revenue increase represents 22% growth over 2H21. EBIT margin was maintained at ~66% and EBIT grew by 61% to $29.1m. NPAT increased by 52% to $20.7m. PME remains a high priced healthcare technology offering that continues to deliver impressive top line growth and earnings leverage.”

The post Brokers name 2 exciting ASX growth shares to buy in March 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 MEGAPORT FPO and Pro Medicus Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended Pro Medicus Ltd. 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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