Macquarie Group Ltd
It's been a positive week for investors in Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG), with the wealth management company reporting that it expects full-year results to be at the upper end of expectations. Furthermore, Macquarie has also raised the prospect of raising equity in order to fund acquisitions, which could also give its bottom line a major boost over the medium to long term.
Of course, Macquarie's share price was firmer on the news and, despite now being up by an incredible 23% since the turn of the year, it still offers excellent value for money. For example, it trades on a price to earnings growth (PEG) ratio of just 1.46 and this highlights that it represents growth at a reasonable price. As such, it could be worth buying right now and looks set to deliver further outperformance in the future.
National Australia Bank Ltd.
Being a shareholder of National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) has been a worthwhile experience in recent years, with the banking play delivering a total shareholder return of 24.6% per annum during the last three years. And, looking ahead, there could be much more to come.
That's because NAB has superb income prospects, with it currently offering a fat, fully franked yield of 5.4%. As such, with interest rates looking set to fall, investor demand for high-yield stocks such as NAB could rise and push the bank's share price northwards.
Furthermore, NAB also has an impressive track record of dividend per share growth, with them having risen at an annualised rate of 6.2% over the last five years. This shows that even if inflation does increase from its current 1.7% level, a real terms increase in income should be on offer with NAB.
Ramsay Health Care Limited
Another stock that has a great track record when it comes to dividend increases is Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC). Its shareholder payouts have risen at an annualised rate of 17.5% during the last five years but, despite this, its shares still offer a yield of just 1.5%.
The reason for this is Ramsay's stunning share price growth, with it being up a whopping 21% in the last three months alone. Looking ahead, there could be more strong performance to come, since Ramsay has superb growth potential in Australia, Europe and Asia.
In fact, this spread of operations could be a major benefit to the company and could help it to take advantage of a weakening Aussie dollar. As such, its profits could gain a short-term boost and help to push its share price even higher during the course of 2015.
