It has often been said that there are three different types of investors in the markets. There are income investors who invest in dividend shares seeking an income; value investors who look for undervalued shares to profit from, and growth investors who invest in high-growth shares looking for share price gains.
All of these styles of investment suit a particular risk profile and lifestyle, and the one I am going to focus on today is the growth investor.
I believe the following three blue-chip shares offer growth investors strong earnings and share price growth prospects.
BT Investment Management Ltd (ASX: BTT)
BT provides super, insurance, investments, wealth management, and planning. In the last five years its shares have produced a fantastic average annual return of 32%. With its shares still down around 30% from their 52-week high, this high level of growth could continue.
At the end of last year BT launched the first phase of its new SMSF offering. This will give advisers, accountants, and clients the ability to collaborate on SMSF accounts through its Panorama platform. I see the Panorama platform as being a key driver in the future and expect it to support the 16% annual earnings growth the market is expecting from BT in the next couple of years.
Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL)
Medibank Private recently reported half-year net profit of $227.6 million, which was up 58% from last year's $143.8 million. While this level of growth may be unsustainable, according to CommSec, analysts anticipate earnings to grow by 18% per annum through to 2018, which I feel to be more than achievable.
It is a crowded market and competition is fierce, but for me Medibank is the market leader and perhaps the first thought for consumers. But with health insurance costs getting higher, the company will have to work hard to prevent people from reducing or cancelling their policies.
Ozforex Group Ltd (ASX: OFX)
Since the Western Union takeover of OzForex was terminated by the latter's management, its shares have taken a major and understandable dive. Western Union were originally willing to pay up to $3.70 per share for OzForex, representing a 100% premium to the current trading price.
The company is undertaking a growth plan which it has named the Accelerate Strategy. Part of this strategy involved changing its name to OFX. The word forex is not widely used in the rest of the world, with FX generally in higher use. So the hope here is that the name change will open the company's services up to the rest of the world.
There is a huge market worldwide for OzForex to work in, and if they can even take just a small slice of this market it would be fantastic for shareholders. If this were to occur I would imagine the 193,000 transactions the company handled in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 (a 22% rise year over year) would be a fraction of the transactions the company would be handling.
Analysts have forecast earnings to grow by around 10% per annum for the next two years. I feel the company's strategy could allow it to grow at a much stronger rate, and feel it is well worth adding to your watchlist.
Foolish takeaway
I believe these three shares are great alternatives to the usual growth shares such as REA Group Limited (ASX: REA), and each has the potential to offer its shareholders strong share price gains in the years ahead. Growth shares do often come with a slightly higher level of risk than the market average, so it is always worth bearing this in mind.
