The CSL share price is still trading just 10% above its COVID-crash low. Is it a buy?

It’s probably fair to say that the CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) share price has been stuck in the mud for a while now. CSL shares are today trading at $299.24 a share at the time of writing. That’s up 1.99% today but still leaves the CSL share price down by just under 4% over the past 12 months.

Cast your minds back to February 2020, and we find the last time CSL shares hit an all-time high.

Back then, the ASX 200 healthcare giant saw a high of $342.75. That’s a level we haven’t seen since. In fact, as it stands today, CSL’s current 52-week high stands at $319.78 a share — reached at the end of last year.

Today, CSL shares are still more than 6% under that 52-week high, as well as almost 13% below the all-time record high we saw back in 2020.

The company is also only 10% above the lows that CSL shares reached during the worst of the COVID crash of 2020. Other ASX blue chips have done far better. For instance, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares have soared more than 65% since their COVID bottom.

So CSL shareholders have now endured more than two years of share price stagnation, with only CSL’s sub-1% dividend yield for comfort.

But does this mean it’s the darkest before the dawn for CSL shares? Is the company in the buy zone today?

Is the CSL share price a buy today?

Well, yes, according to one ASX broker anyway. As my Fool colleague James covered last month, broker Morgans recently came out with an add rating for the CSL share price.

Although the broker trimmed its 12-month share price target, it’s still at $321.30 a share. This would result in an upside of almost 11% from the current share price.

Morgans wasn’t overly enamoured with the company’s FY22 earnings results last month, which highlighted that the company’s “near term challenges remain”. But the broker also noted that “underlying growth is solid” and ” strong plasma collection growth and ongoing demand across both Behring and Seqirus underpin strong growth and continued momentum”.

But Morgans isn’t the only ASX expert seeing value in the CSL share price today. My Fool colleague Tony recently interviewed SG Hiscock portfolio manager Hamish Tadgell.

Tadgell named CSL as one of the stocks he would own if the share market closed tomorrow for four years. He described the company as “a late-cycle recovery play and it’s an incredibly good business spending $1 billion a year on R&D, and got so many growth options in it”.

So it seems there is some consensus among more than one ASX expert that CSL shares have a bright future. Shareholders will no doubt welcome these assessments.

At the current CSL share price, this ASX 200 blue chip health share has a market capitalisation of $144 billion.

The post The CSL share price is still trading just 10% above its COVID-crash low. Is it a buy? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Fundie reveals the 2 ASX shares he’d buy and hold for 4 years
• Should all ASX investors be buying defensive shares right now?
• Why is the CSL share price on the slide today?
• Want to snare the next CSL dividend? Read this
• 5 ASX 200 shares turning ex-dividend tomorrow

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has positions in CSL Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended CSL Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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