CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) shares have risen as much as 90% from their June low. At this point, the broker community can’t agree on what is next for CSL shares.

The stock bottomed at $90.00 in June, an eleven-year low.

Shares closed Wednesday at $171.21 before easing to $166.89 on Thursday.

Some of that fall is mechanical, because the shares traded ex-dividend on Wednesday ahead of a $2.28 per share dividend payment on 2 October.

Why CSL shares recovered so quickly

The catalyst was a result that looked terrible but read rather well.

FY26 revenue slipped 1% to US$15.8 billion and the company reported a statutory net loss after tax of US$2.6 billion.

That loss included US$7.1 billion of pre-tax impairments and US$799 million of restructuring costs, most of it non-cash.

Underlying net profit after tax and amortisation fell just 2% to US$3.1 billion.

Investors had been warned.

CSL flagged around US$5 billion of impairments back in May and cut its guidance at the same time.

By August the market was ready to treat the write-downs as history.

Interim chief executive Gordon Naylor was upbeat:

FY26 has been a year of reset. We have taken decisive action and created a clear path to return to sustainable growth. Plasma market fundamentals and demand remain robust and momentum is building behind our newer therapies, such as ANDEMBRY and HEMGENIX.

What FY27 has to deliver

The bull case now rests on guidance.

CSL expects revenue to be steady in FY27 with underlying net profit growing approximately 5%.

Consensus had been closer to 2%, so the guidance was a true upgrade.

Behring is expected to grow revenue at a mid-single-digit rate, led by immunoglobulins.

Seqirus is guided to low single-digit growth as US immunisation rates soften.

Vifor is the problem, with revenue forecast to fall about 25% as iron generics enter the market.

Vifor itself was the source of most of the impairments, and it is now shrinking at a quarter a year.

The bulls argue Behring is large enough to absorb that.

The bears point out it has to do so while the group carries the cost of an unfinished transformation programme.

Where brokers disagree on CSL shares

Of 19 analysts tracked, 10 rate CSL shares a hold while nine have a buy or strong buy.

The average 12-month target is $173.04, barely above the current price.

The spread underneath that average is enormous.

The most bullish target sits at $206.76 and the most bearish at $131.49.

Foolish takeaway

The argument now is about whether a business that has just written off US$7.1 billion can compound at high single digits again.

I lean towards the bulls, largely because plasma demand has not been impacted and CSL’s cost reduction programme is starting to yield results.

What I would not do is assume there is still easy money to be made.

The post CSL shares are up 90%. Brokers can’t agree what happens next appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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

Payday superannuation has been the reality for a little over two months. The real question is: has it made you better off?

Employers have been required to pay super at the same time as wages since 1 July 2026.

That replaced a quarterly system that had operated for decades.

What payday superannuation changed

Under the old rules, employers paid contributions quarterly, with payment due within 28 days of each quarter’s end.

Money deducted as super could therefore sit with an employer for up to three months before reaching a fund.

Under the new rules, contributions must reach the employee’s fund within seven business days of payday.

The rate stays at 12%, now calculated on qualifying earnings rather than ordinary time earnings, a slightly broader base that includes relevant salary sacrifice amounts.

A first contribution for a new employee has a longer 20 business day window.

There is no grace period after that, and the Australian Taxation Office now assesses the Super Guarantee Charge itself rather than relying on employer self-assessment.

The superannuation benefit is there, but it is small

Two months in, the practical effect for a fortnightly paid worker is that roughly five pay cycles of contributions are already invested.

Under the old system, most of that money would still be sitting with the employer until late October.

Treasury modelling estimates the change could add around $6,000 to the retirement savings of the average 25-year-old over a full working career.

The larger benefit is visibility.

Unpaid super used to take months to surface, particularly in casual, labour hire and contract roles.

Under payday rules, a missing contribution shows up within weeks.

Where your superannuation goes matters more

This is the part worth spending time on.

More frequent contributions only compound if the money is invested sensibly once it lands.

The Australian portion of most balances is easy to benchmark.

For example, the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS) tracks the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) and charges 0.07% a year.

In FY26 it delivered a total gross return of 6.19%, or 6.12% after fees.

The index itself gained 2.84% in value and paid a 3.32% dividend yield.

With $25.4 billion in funds under management, it remains the largest ETF on the ASX.

Foolish takeaway

Payday superannuation has made most Australians marginally better off, and it has made underpayment far harder to hide.

Neither of those is a reason to change what you own.

The timing of contributions is worth thousands over a career, while the investment option you sit in is worth hundreds of thousands.

I would spend ten minutes confirming the money is arriving, then spend considerably longer checking that your superannuation is in a risk setting that matches how long you have until you need it.

The post Payday superannuation is two months old. Has it made you better off? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Mark Verhoeven 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 Scott Phillips.

It has been a pretty horrible day on the Australian share market.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 1.56% to 8,772 points on Thursday afternoon, putting it on track for its worst session in 6 months.

But you wouldn’t know it looking at Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1).

Megaport shares are up another 3.40% to $18.26 today and have now climbed more than 10% over the past week.

I have been watching this one closely since investors smashed the share price after its FY26 results last month.

Personally, I think the market went too far.

And with the shares starting to move higher again, I think $25 could be back on the table sooner than many investors expect.

Why did Megaport shares get smashed?

Megaport was trading above $22 in August before falling as low as $16 earlier this month.

The big concern was spending.

Management expects capital expenditure of between $1.28 billion and $1.38 billion in FY27 as the company pours money into its growing compute business.

That is obviously a huge number for a company with a market capitalisation of around $4.3 billion.

But I think investors became so focused on the spending that some of the growth numbers were pushed aside.

FY26 revenue increased 37% to $312.2 million, while group annual recurring revenue jumped 62% to $395.2 million.

EBITDA came in at $77.1 million, with a margin of 25%.

And FY27 could be a much bigger year.

Megaport expects revenue of between $620 million and $730 million, meaning revenue could at least double this year.

There is a lot happening here

The part I like is that Megaport isn’t simply spending billions and hoping customers eventually turn up.

The company has already signed several large contracts.

Its three major deals through Latitude.sh are worth around US$359 million combined and cover GPU and CPU compute, networking and storage.

Megaport also operates across more than 1,200 enabled data centres in 30 countries.

With AI requiring huge amounts of computing power and data to move between different locations, I think Megaport is sitting in a pretty good spot if demand continues growing.

Of course, management still needs to execute.

But I believe the recent sell-off gave investors a much better entry price than they had only a few weeks ago.

Could Megaport shares reach $25?

I think they can.

Morgans and Morgan Stanley both have $25 price targets on Megaport shares, while Citi recently lifted its target to $24.60.

A move to $25 would mean another gain of around 38% from today’s price.

I’m not saying it will happen in a straight line. Megaport has shown us plenty of times how quickly its share price can move in both directions.

But if the company keeps delivering on its contracts and investors remain positive heading into year-end, I think $25 during the Christmas rally is very possible.

The post Megaport shares have surged 10% in a week to $18. I think they could hit $25 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Where will the best returns in the ASX 200 be in the next year?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
• CSL shares are up 90%. How much higher can they go?

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. has positions in and has recommended Megaport. 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.