In December, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched a $1.1 billion package to fund Australia's "ideas boom" for the next four years. If successful, perhaps one day we will see one or two recipients floating on the Australian Stock Exchange and be able to invest in them ourselves.
Until then, though, there are already a number of quality tech companies on the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) which we can invest in. I have picked out three which I believe offer strong growth ahead that could help you beat the market. The three shares are as follows:
- Computershare Limited (ASX: CPU) – The market was expecting a lot from Computershare this year, but in its interim results it vastly underperformed. While a strong U.S. dollar is great for some companies, it isn't for Computershare which must convert its global earnings back into US dollars for reporting purposes. Earnings will be down this year, there's no getting away from that, but I feel the market has factored this in now. If the company can make a success of proposed deals that put them in the loan and mortgage servicing business in the United States and United Kingdom, then earnings might just ramp up in the next couple of years. The shares look cheap priced at just 12.4 times estimated forward earnings compared to the average price-to-earnings ratio over the last 10 years of approximately 18. The company does face stiff competition from Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX: LNK), but I believe it could still be a good investment today.
- Myob Group Ltd (ASX: MYO) – If you run a small to medium-sized business there is a good chance you are one of the 545,000 businesses that use MYOB's business management software. The total number of users grew a great 8% year over year in the last financial year. Better yet, the average revenue per user grew by 5% to $379. This helped the company achieve revenue growth of 10% and pro forma net profit growth of 22%. I believe recent reports of an increase in Australian small businesses to 2.1 million, offers MYOB plenty of room for growth in the years ahead. As MYOB's management team expects revenue to grow at a similar rate in the next 12 months, I think this is definitely a share worth adding to your watchlist.
- iSentia Group Ltd (ASX: ISD) – One of the world's leading media intelligence companies, iSentia, is another I would keep a close eye on. The company provides a plethora of media monitoring, tracking, and analysis services, and counts iconic global brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Disney, and Microsoft amongst its increasing client list. The acquisition of content marketing agency King Content appears to have been incredibly astute, with the company recently being awarded the coveted agency of the year award at the annual Content Marketing Institute's Orange Awards. The shares have dropped considerably since climbing as high as $4.95 in December, and could now be classed as good value.
