Could the Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price reach $240 by the time Christmas rolls around?

There is a broker out there that currently has that $240 price target on Macquarie.

It’s the analysts at Morgan Stanley that rate the business as a buy with the hefty target. However, it’s important to remember that a broker price target is where they believe the business will be trading in 12 months from now, not just by Christmas.

Why is Morgan Stanley so bullish on the Macquarie share price?

Over the last year, the Macquarie share price has already gone up by around 40%.

But the broker is expecting that the global investment bank can go up another 20%.

A key reason for the bullish sentiment about Macquarie by Morgan Stanley relates to the ‘green’ exposure that the investment bank has and how that could be a strong growth runway for the company.

Last month, the global investment bank gave a profit update for the market. In that, it said that it was expecting its FY22 first half profit to be slightly down on the second half of FY21. But that actually represents a material increase in profit year on year compared to the first half of FY21.

Green exposure

In that profit update, Macquarie outlined a number of green factors.

Relating to climate change, it said that it has financed emissions aligned to net zero by 2050. It has invested A$6.64 in renewable energy for every A$1 invested in ‘conventional’ energy. The goal is for Macquarie Asset Management’s portfolio to be net zero by 2040.

Macquarie says that it has 30 GW of green energy assets in development as at 31 March 2021. It had 14 GW of green energy assets in operation or under management at 31 March 2021.

Talking about Macquarie’s direct operations, it is on track for net zero by 2025. It says that it has been carbon neutral since 2010. The investment bank said that it’s targeting 100% renewable electricity by 2025. Emissions per capita have reduced by 71% from FY20.

The market-facing business Macquarie Capital is playing its part in making profit and helping the world become greener with renewable energy projects and the supply of green energy solutions to corporate clients.

But one of the key operating groups within Macquarie is the Green Investment Group (GIG), described as one of the leading renewable energy developers and investors in the world. It has more than $2 billion of current commitments, with more than 250 projects in development and construction. GIG also has over $45 billion of committed and arranged money to support green energy projects.

What is the earnings estimate valuation on the Macquarie share price?

Morgan Stanley is expecting profit growth from the investment bank over the next couple of years.

Based on that, the broker thinks that the Macquarie share price is valued at 21x FY22’s estimated earnings and 19x FY23’s estimated earnings.

The post Can the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price hit $240 by Christmas? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• What leading brokers are saying about the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price
• Why did the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price have such a great FY22 first quarter?
• Is the Westpac (ASX:WBC) share price a buy for its 7% dividend yield?
• Why the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price hit its all-time high on Friday
• How did the Macquarie (ASX:MQG) share price perform in September?

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 owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie 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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Late last month, we covered the explosive initial public offering (IPO) of Li-S Energy Ltd (ASX: LIS). The battery tech company initially floated on the ASX boards at a share price of 85 cents. But soon after its first hour or two of trading, this company had ballooned as high as $3.05 a share. That was an intra-day gain of roughly 260% for the Li-S Energy share price. Incredible stuff.

So how has this exciting company fared in the days and weeks that have followed this attention-grabbing ASX IPO debut?

Well, the Li-S Energy share price has certainly gone back to what could be described as ‘normal behaviour’ for an ASX share. Over the past 3 weeks, we have seen Li-S Energy bounce around a fair bit. A few days after its IPO, Li-S shares gave up much of their initial gains, and hit a low of $1.82 a share on 1 October.

By the following week though, Li-S Energy was back up at $2.41 a share. After another dip last week which saw the company fall to $2.11, this week has seen the company move back upwards again. As it stands today, Li-S Energy has closed at a price of $2.34 a share, up 4.46% for the day. That happens to be the share price it closed last Monday. It also represents a 23% drop from the high watermark Li-S Energy hit, after its IPO.

It’s possible that the extreme volatility we have seen with this company stems from what it does.

Li-S Energy share price cools after explosive IPO

Li-S Energy is in the business of batteries. Rechargeable batteries to be precise. It is working on a new battery technology called Lithium-Sulphur, which is where the ‘Li-S’ comes from. According to the company, Li-S batteries have the potential to be more energy efficient, lighter, safer, as well as less environmentally taxing than the current and dominant lithium-ion technology that most rechargeable batteries currently use.

As many investors would be aware of, battery technology and renewable energy are hot areas on the markets right now. With countries around the world embracing the ‘net-zero by 2050’ target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, investors have been scrambling to back what could be the energy winners of the future. Judging by what happened with the Li-S Energy IPO, it seems there are more than a few investors who are bullish on this company as a part of that story.

At today’s closing Li-S Energy share price of $2.34, the company has a market capitalisation of $336.32 million.

The post Why has the Li-S Energy (ASX:LIS) share price dropped 23% since its ASX IPO? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Li-S Energy (ASX:LIS) share price falls 15% over its first week on the ASX
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The Rumble Resources Ltd (ASX: RTR) share price has had a disappointing day after the company released assay results from its 75%-owned Earaheedy Project’s Chinook zinc-lead discovery.

While the news looks positive, the market sent the metal exploration company’s stock tumbling lower.

As at Monday’s close, the Rumble Resources share price was trading at 49 cents, 13.27% lower than at end of the Friday’s session.

Let’s take a closer look at what Rumble Resources announced today.

New discoveries at Chinook

The Rumble Resources share price has plunged lower on news the company has extended Chinook discovery’s mineralisation envelope by 44% to 4.1km by 1.9km. Additionally, the mineralisation remains open in all directions.

The company noted it found zinc and lead in several drill holes within 50 metres of the main tenement boundary.

The other side of the boundary houses Rumble’s pending application. The company imagines the strike extends into the tenement under application, which hosts the Sweetwater zinc-lead prospect.

Rumble Resources also reported gold in the assay results.

Furthermore, the company has found silver at the project for the first time. It identified a silver zone with associated copper and arsenic underneath the zinc-lead-gold mineralisation.

What did management say?

Commenting on the news, Rumble Resources managing director Shane Sikora said:

Based on the drilling results to date, field observations and our developing understanding of the geology of this potential tier 1 sediment hosted zinc-lead system, it is becoming very clear there is potential to delineate multiple shallow, flat lying open pittable zinc-lead deposits throughout the 45 kilometres of strike at Earaheedy.

So far, the company has only received results from around 25% of the completed drilling. The drilling program is ongoing.

Rumble Resources share price snapshot

Despite today’s dip, the company’s shares are trading 308% higher than they were at the start of 2021.

The Rumble Resources share price has also gained 206% since this time last year.

The post Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) share price slides 13% on project updates appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why has the Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) share price leapt 12% in a week?
• Why is the Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) share price leaping 11% today?

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper 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 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price went up 1.6% today as it told investors about its investment management news.

The funds management division Colonial First State (CFS) announced that it’s going to partner with Blackrock, one of the world’s largest asset management businesses. CBA is on track to divest 55% in CFS to KKR.

What is Blackrock going to do for CFS?

The partnership with Blackrock relates to the ‘FirstChoice Lifestage’ portfolios. This is for CFS’ MySuper products, FirstChoice Employer Super and Commonwealth Essential Super.

This partnership reflects the desire to continue to improve the performance of these products.

CFS believes that due to the size, breadth and skill of Blackrock’s investment team and resources, it positions CFS’ MySuper offerings to be well-placed compared to large super fund offerings.

With the introduction of the new ‘Your Future, Your Super’ performance test, CFS and CBA are making changes to ensure it has the best chance of exceeding the test.

CFS said:

Partnering with BlackRock and utilising their global scale and international investment skills, technology capabilities and consistent track record of delivering competitive returns, will allow us to improve the performance of our MySuper products more quickly.

BlackRock has a large team, systems and tools already in place to manage against the new Your Future, Your Super benchmark. BlackRock’s global scale will enable us to lower costs, which has already supported a further fee reduction in the administration fee for FirstChoice Employer Super customers.

In Australia and New Zealand, Blackrock manages around $150 million on behalf of local clients.

Blackrock will be providing things like research, recommendations and Aladdin – BlackRock’s proprietary risk and investment system.

Management comments

The newspaper Australian Financial Review quoted Kelly Power, chief executive of superannuation at Colonial, who said this would allow CFS to outperform in the long-term. She said:

I think this makes us a better business. We are adding more capability. This partnership, along with the recent fee reductions, are just more proof points of us being really serious about being a competitor in this industry. We’re really open to partnerships that bring unique capabilities.

BlackRock head of Australasia Andrew Landman said, according to the AFR:

BlackRock is honoured to have been appointed. We have a strong heritage in serving Australian superannuation entities and we recognise it is a great responsibility to help manage the retirement savings of many Australians.

CBA share price gains

Whilst CBA shares went up more than 1.6% today, it should taken in context with the fact that the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) rose 0.26% to 7,381 points.

The post CBA (ASX:CBA) share price up amid $15b MySuper deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Here are the top 10 ASX shares today
• The Westpac (ASX:WBC) share price is up 30% so far in 2021. Here’s why
• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts this Monday
• Why is the WAM Capital (ASX:WAM) share price sliding 4% today?
• 2 gold ASX shares experts are loving right now

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 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Praemium Ltd (ASX: PPS) share price took off today following a positive quarterly update from the investment platform provider.

At the closing bell, Praemium shares finished at $1.245, up 6.87%.

How did Praemium perform?

According to its latest release, Praemium advised it has attained key milestones for the start of the 2022 financial year.

For the 3 months ending in September, the company achieved record quarterly inflows of $1.66 billion. This represents a 37% increase on the prior period and a 126% jump on the September 2020 quarter.

The net platform inflows consisted of $1.25 billion for the Australian platform and $407 million for the international platform. 

In addition, total funds under administration (FUA) also succeeded in breaking an all-time high of $45.6 billion. This reflected a 46% lift in the past 12 months underpinned by new milestones in all global segments.

The Australian platform FUA grew to $19.9 billion, improving 33% on the prior comparable year. And the International platform FUA surged $5.5 billion, up 59% over the same timeframe.

FUA for VMAAS came to $20.2 billion, up 58% compared against the prior year. VMAAS is Praemium’s non-custodial Portfolio Administration and Reporting Service.

What did management say?

Praemium CEO Anthony Wamsteker, touched on the robust result, saying:

We are delighted to report record momentum this quarter. This outstanding result also delivered record FUA levels, which surpassed $45 billion based on annual FUA growth of 46%. We continue to see a solid pipeline of opportunities to support future growth and to deliver on our strategy to become one of Australia’s largest independent specialist platform providers.

Furthermore, Mr Wamsteker also made mention of its international business, adding:

In relation to the proposed divestment of Praemium’s International business, I can report that the formal sale process is continuing to plan. We are now in the due diligence phase with short-listed parties. However, it should be noted that there is no certainty around whether the sale process will result in a binding transaction. The Board will update shareholders and the market in due course.

Praemium share price summary

Over the past 12 months, Praemium shares have doubled in value, with year-to-date up around 90%.

Based on today’s price, Praemium commands a market capitalisation of roughly $627.3 million and has approximately 503.8 million shares outstanding.

The post Here’s why the Praemium (ASX:PPS) share price soared 6% on Monday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• The IAG (ASX:IAG) share price has slumped 8% in a week. Here’s why
• Here are the top 10 ASX shares today
• The Westpac (ASX:WBC) share price is up 30% so far in 2021. Here’s why
• BHP (ASX:BHP) share price lifts amid mine extension news
• Could the Cochlear (ASX:COH) share price hit $260 by the end of 2021?

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Praemium Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Praemium 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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The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price has been struggling over the last week. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been helped by a significant announcement.

On Friday, IAG announced it was being taken to Federal Court. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had launched civil proceedings against the company.

The IAG share price closed on Monday at $4.90 a share. That’s 0.41% lower than it was at its previous close and 8.4% less than it was a week ago.

Let’s take a closer look at the news that’s driven IAG’s stock on the ASX over the last 7 days.

The week that’s been for IAG

The IAG share price had a rough week during which it announced the ASIC charges.

ASIC is alleging the company engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct. The allegations stem from IAG’s subsidiary, Insurance Australia Limited’s practice of increasing premiums while adding loyalty and ‘no claim benefit’ discounts. As a result, some customers were allegedly not given the total discount they were promised.

Insurance Australia Limited issues insurance through many brands. In this case, NRMA insurance customers were affected.

ASIC claims that at least 596,000 NRMA home, motor, caravan, and boat insurance customers were affected by the practice from March 2014 until September 2019.

It claims customers missed out on discounts totalling more than $60 million.

IAG found the practice during a review and reported itself to ASIC before engaging in a remediation program. So far, the company has compensated more than 80% of affected customers.

The IAG share price fell 3% on Friday.

IAG share price snapshot

Despite his week’s dip, IAG’s shares have been performing well on the ASX lately.

They are currently 3.9% higher than they were at the start of 2021. They have also gained around 2% since this time last year.

The post The IAG (ASX:IAG) share price has slumped 8% in a week. Here’s why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• These were the worst performing ASX 200 shares last week
• Why Harvey Norman, IAG, Pendal, and Treasury Wine are dropping
• Here’s why the IAG (ASX: IAG) share price is down 3% on Friday
• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Rio Tinto cuts guidance, Treasury Wine disappoints
• IAG (ASX:IAG) share price on watch as ASIC launches legal action

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper 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 owns shares of and has recommended Insurance Australia 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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Today, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) eked out another positive session. The benchmark index moved 0.26% upwards to 7,381.1 points.

It was a mixed day on the market to kick off the new week. While there were strong performers among the materials, financials, and energy sectors; there were laggards located in the tech and healthcare shares.

However, the question is: which shares delivered the biggest returns to investors on the ASX today? Here are the ten stocks that rose to the occasion:

Top 10 ASX shares countdown today

Looking at the top 200 listed companies, Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX: NIC) was the biggest gainer today. Shares in the nickel mining company added 5.08%. This positive move followed Ord Minnet initiating coverage on the share — giving the miner a price target of $1.10. Find out more about Nickel Mines here.

The next biggest gaining ASX share today was OZ Minerals Ltd (ASX: OZL). The copper-gold miner gained 4.52% despite no announcements from the company. Uncover the latest OZ Minerals details here.

Today’s top 10 biggest gains were made in these ASX shares:

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX: NIC)	$1.035	5.08%
OZ Minerals Ltd (ASX: OZL)	$26.16	4.52%
South32 Ltd (ASX: S32)	$3.99	4.45%
Orocobre Ltd (ASX: ORE)	$9.04	4.39%
Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC)	$7.25	4.32%
IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO)	$9.47	4.18%
CSR Ltd (ASX: CSR)	$5.77	3.41%
Pendal Group Ltd (ASX: PDL)	$7.035	2.85%
Zimplats Holdings Ltd (ASX: ZIM)	$22.80	2.80%
Coronado Global Resources Inc (ASX: CRN)	$1.505	2.73%

Our top 10 ASX shares today countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to ensure you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check-in at Fool.com.au after the market has closed during weekdays to see which stocks make the countdown.

The post Here are the top 10 ASX shares today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• The Westpac (ASX:WBC) share price is up 30% so far in 2021. Here’s why
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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler owns shares of CSR Limited and Lynas Corporation Limited. 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 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 Bruce Jackson.

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As most ASX investors would be at least somewhat aware of, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has enjoyed a very decent run of returns in 2021 so far despite the recent bout of market volatility. The ASX 200 closed today up a miserly 0.07% to 7,367 points, placing its year to date gains at a still-robust 11%. But how has the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price fared?

Westpac is, of course, one of the ASX 200’s major shares, as well as being one of the big four ASX banks. It hasn’t exactly amassed a reputation as a consistent market-beating share either. You could have bought Westpac shares for their current price of $25.56 way back in 2007. That’s a long time to go nowhere.

But let’s not dwell on Westpac’s past and focus on the bumper year shareholders have enjoyed in 2021 so far. Westpac has managed to deliver a year to date gain for investors of 30.36%. That’s roughly triple what the ASX 200 has delivered over the same period.

It also tops the other major ASX banks. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) has ‘only’ returned 23.8% year to date so far. National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) are up 25.1% and 22.5% respectively.

So why this outperformance from Westpac?

Westpac share price tops ASX banking shares in 2021 so far

To understand that, let’s go back to the horror year this bank had in 2020. Firstly, we had the coronavirus-induced share market crash. Like most ASX shares, Westpac suffered heavily in the early months of 2020, falling more than 40% between 20 February and 23 March.

Westpac was also the only big four bank to entirely write off its 2020 interim dividend. The other banks delayed their payments but Westpac skipped its payout entirely, the first time it had done so in decades.

Not only did shareholders have to contend with a skipped dividend but Westpac’s finances were also dealt a further blow when it received a $1.3 billion fine in September for breaching anti-money laundering laws.

These factors may have contributed to Westpac being the worst-performing ASX bank share out of the entire sector (not just the big four) in 2020.

But perhaps Westpac’s wooden spoon last year has helped it regain the most ground in 2021 so far. The bank has indeed had a relatively pleasing year. Biannual dividends have been restored and Westpac’s interim dividend for 2021 came in at 58 cents per share, a good 87% above last year’s final payment.

Then, in August, Westpac flagged that it might be considering a potential capital return program, possibly via a share buyback.

It’s these positive developments, helped no doubt by the contrast with Westpac’s horror 2020, that may have helped give shareholders a 30% capital return on Westpac shares in 20201 thus far.

At the current Westpac share price, this ASX bank has a market capitalisation of $93.84 billion and a dividend yield of 3.48%.

The post The Westpac (ASX:WBC) share price is up 30% so far in 2021. Here’s why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts this Monday
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• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Aristocrat’s $5bn acquisition, Zip falls on Q1 update
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen owns shares of National Australia Bank Limited. 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 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is up around 0.5% after the news that the resources giant has found a way to extend the life of its Yandi iron ore mine.

BHP is one of the world’s largest iron ore miners, so being able to extend one of its iron mines could be useful.

How is BHP extending the life of its mine?

It is being reported by the Australian Financial Review that the Yandi mine’s life can be extended by at least five years.

Previously, it had told investors that this mine would come to the end of its life in 2021.

Why is this mine so important? Asian steelmakers reportedly like it because of the low levels of impurities like aluminia.

It has long been practice for mining businesses to use hyperspectral imaging to determine the value of samples.

But, the AFR has reported that BHP’s iron ore division has made algorithms that can read the hyperspectral images to find which parts of the Yandi geology would be most easily processed by its processing plants that sort Yandi’s saleable iron ore from the unwanted material.

A few years ago, Yandi’s processing plants started experiencing extra clay and moisture from the bottom of the mine.

Iron plays the major role in BHP’s profit, which is an important influencer on the BHP share price.

The AFR quoted the Yandi general manager, Mr Heal, who said:

At the end of the mine life, you have dealt with most of what you believe is the good material and you are left with the leftovers.

Three or four years ago we started to see those problems emerge in our [Yandi processing] plant and it was impacting our throughput because of the constant need to clean up spillage and blockages. Things that would require us to stop the plant, clean it up, hose it out.

Through the application of this index and some smarter ways of doing mine planning and scheduling, instead of having a natural decline at the end of our mine life, the last two years have actually been record years for Yandi because we have cracked this problem.

How much iron ore will it be able to produce?

It was acknowledged that future production volume from Yandi may be around 25% of the 68 million tonnes produced in the year to 30 June. However, it’s possible that BHP may be able to get more than five years of life out of the mine. This could help the BHP share price.

Overall, in FY22 BHP is expecting that it’s going to produce between 249 mt to 259 mt of iron ore. That would be a range of between a 2% drop to a 2% rise compared to FY21. In FY21 it produced 254 mt (up 2% on FY20). In FY20 it did 248 mt of iron ore production.

Is iron ore an important part of the future?

BHP said that after its investment in its potash project called Jansen, the proposed separation of petroleum and exit of its non-core coal assets, BHP will be focused on high-quality iron ore and metallurgical coal for the steel that is needed for infrastructure including for renewable energy, copper to support unprecedented demand for renewable energy, nickel for batteries and potash to make food production and land use more efficient.

The post BHP (ASX:BHP) share price lifts amid mine extension news 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 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 Bruce Jackson.

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The Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) share price has been a decent performer in 2021.

Since the start of the year, the hearing solutions company’s shares have gained 13% to $214.92.

Could the Cochlear share price hit $260 by the end of the year?

The good news for investors is that one leading broker still sees a lot of upside in Cochlear share price.

According to a recent note out of Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG), its analysts have an outperform rating and $256.00 price target on the company’s shares.

Based on the current Cochlear share price, this implies potential upside of 19% for investors from current levels. This potential return stretches to approximately 20.5% if you include the $3.04 per share dividend the broker is forecasting in FY 2022.

All in all, Macquarie appears to see potential for the Cochlear share price to be trading close to $260.00 by the end of the year.

Why is the broker positive on Cochlear?

Macquarie was pleased with Cochlear’s performance in FY 2021 and appears to believe the company is well-placed for growth in the coming years.

This is due to Cochlear being positively leveraged to a recovery in activity levels post-pandemic.

Macquarie is forecasting earnings per share of $4.34 in FY 2022, which will be a 20% increase on the earnings per share it reported in FY 2021.

Looking further ahead, the broker is then forecasting more strong growth in FY 2023. It has pencilled in earnings per share of $5.52, which represents an increase of 27.2% on the broker’s FY 2022 estimate.

Based on this, the broker sees a lot of value in the Cochlear share price at the current level and appears to believe the recent pullback could be a buying opportunity for investors.

The post Could the Cochlear (ASX:COH) share price hit $260 by the end of 2021? 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 shares of and has recommended Cochlear Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Cochlear 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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