While blue chip shares such as Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) and Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD) have had their growth stifled by the pandemic, not all blue chips have been impacted.
Two blue chip ASX shares which are growing at a strong rate are listed below. Here's why it may not be too late to buy their shares:
ResMed Inc. (ASX: RMD)
ResMed is a medical device company with a focus on sleep disorders. It has been growing at a strong rate over the last 12 months despite the pandemic.
For example, in FY 2020, ResMed delivered a 15% increase in revenue to US$2,957 million and a 32% jump in net income to US$692.8 million.
Pleasingly, this strong form has continued in FY 2021. During the first quarter, the company reported a 10% increase in revenue to US$751.9 million and a 37% increase in non-GAAP net income to US$185.4 million. This was driven by robust demand for its core sleep treatment products and increased demand for ventilators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also supporting its growth has been its rapidly growing digital health ecosystem, which reached over 12 million cloud connectable medical devices in 2020. This provides ResMed with strong recurring revenues and a material amount of high quality data.
Analysts at Morgans are fans of the company and currently have an add rating and $30.99 price target on its shares.
Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX: SHL)
Another blue chip growing strongly is Sonic Healthcare. It is a leading medical diagnostics company with operations across the world.
Sonic has been a very impressive performer so far in FY 2021. It recently released its first quarter update and revealed a 29% increase in revenue to $2,144 million and a 71% lift in EBITDA to $580 million. The key driver of its growth has been strong demand for COVID-19 testing services globally. This was supported by a solid performance from the rest of the business during the quarter.
And while this level of growth is expected to moderate in the coming quarters, Sonic has been tipped to deliver a very strong full year result in August by brokers.
One of those is Credit Suisse. It has been pleased with its performance in FY 2021. So much so, it recently put an outperform rating and $39.00 price target on Sonic's shares.
