There are some ASX shares that are still generating high levels of growth through this period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These are businesses that are growing revenue rapidly and are expecting to be able to continue achieving strong levels of demand.
In FY21, these companies saw high levels of growth:
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Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX: SHL)
Sonic is one of the world's biggest pathology healthcare businesses.
It has operations in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe. Sonic has been doing millions of COVID tests – it has done around 30 million so far. COVID-19 PCR test volumes were lower in the second half of FY21 compared to the first half, but it's increasing again with the spread of the Delta variant.
The COVID-19 ASX share is also involved with the vaccination efforts. It has become Australia's largest non-government COVID vaccination provider.
In FY21, Sonic saw revenue growth of 28% to $8.8 billion. But profit grew even faster as the company utilised its existing infrastructure which helped improve profit margins. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 81% to $2.6 billion and net profit after tax (NPAT) soared 149% to $1.3 billion.
The Sonic CEO Dr Colin Goldschmidt had some comments about the company's core business performance and ongoing acquisition strategy:
Whilst a huge amount of time and effort has gone into combating the pandemic, we have never lost sight of the importance of continuing to provide our usual high quality medical diagnostic services. Whilst our total revenue grew 28%, our base business revenue grew by 6% on a like for like basis. The base business has become increasingly resilient to impacts of pandemic waves and benefits from our geographical and business diversification.
In addition to organic growth, Sonic continues to focus on synergistic acquisitions and other growth opportunities…We are actively considering further acquisition opportunities, as well as bidding for a number of outsourcing contracts.
Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW)
This ASX share is one of the leading e-commerce retailers in Australia with its furniture and homewares products. It's growing quickly during this COVID-19 period.
FY21 was a record year for the business as it demonstrated high levels of revenue growth and increasing operating leverage. Temple & Webster's FY21 revenue grew 85% to $326.3 million whilst EBITDA jumped 141% to $20.5 million. Active customers increased 62% to 778,000.
The trade and commercial division saw even faster revenue growth, with an increase of 110% year on year.
Management said that whilst lockdowns have accelerated the underlying shift from offline to online, it's continuing to see "strong growth" even when comparing against COVID-19-impacted numbers.
This can be seen in the period from 1 July 2021 to 24 July 2021 where revenue increased by 39% year on year.
Over the long-term, Temple & Webster believes it can capture much more market share and grow its margins after a period of heavy investment.
The company said:
We will continue reinvestment strategy, investing into growth areas of the business to grow our online market leadership position with the ultimate goal of becoming the largest retailer (online and offline) for furniture and homewares in our home market.
