Some of the leading investment banks and brokers up and down Australia have been busy updating their S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) recommendations again this week.
Amongst them there were three buy recommendations which stood out for me, so I decided to take a closer look and see if there's an investment opportunity here. They are as follows:
Amcor Limited (ASX: AMC)
The shares of packaging giant Amcor have edged higher today following the release of a research note from Credit Suisse revealing that it has added Amcor to its conviction buy list in place of Mantra Group Ltd (ASX: MTR). Amcor's shares have yet to fully recover from the drop caused by its one-off charge of $350 million relating to its Venezuelan business, and I completely agree that they are a buy at this price. With the Venezuelan business issues behind it and the shares changing hands at 20x trailing earnings, I feel it is a great opportunity for buy and hold investors to start an investment.
Fairfax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ)
According to CommSec, Goldman Sachs recommended Fairfax Media as a buy yesterday. Whilst I admittedly do like the company's Domain property advertising website and see it as a real growth driver for the media company, I'm not entirely convinced the rest of the business will be able to pull its weight enough to complement this growth. But at 14x estimated FY 2016 earnings and providing a fully franked 5.1% dividend it certainly is an attractive investment.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)
On the other hand, Goldman Sachs' recommendation to buy Realestate.com.au operator REA Group is one I would agree with. The company is not only the dominant player in the Australian property listings market, it also has bright prospects in the US with Move and in Asia with MyFun and iProperty. At 37x trailing earnings the shares may appear a little expensive. But I believe the company's growth prospects justify the premium. In FY 2015 the company posted an impressive 19.5% increase in revenue to $522.3 million, and so far this year things are going even better with half year revenue up 20% to $314.8 million. This for me makes REA Group an outstanding investment today.
