When fund managers with billions of dollars under their control decide to invest in an ASX share, it's usually worth a second look.
After all, successful fund managers don't get that way thanks to poor investment decisions. And who would be better to get tips for your next ASX buy than from professionals whose full-time job is scouring the markets for deals.
As such, today we'll be looking at four ASX shares that are currently being favoured by billion-sized managed funds, as reported by the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
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4 ASX shares that fund managers are eyeing off
First up is healthcare giant CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL). The AFR reports that a number of successful fund managers have been buying CSL shares over the past 12 months. They include Chris Kourtis, director of Ellerston Captial, Sam Byrnes of ECP Asset Management and Jun Bei Liu of Tribeca Investment Partners.
Lieu states that:
CSL has been a great compounder over many, many years… You find it in the bottom drawer of so many investment portfolios because it seems to grow year in, year out … and has so many of the characteristics of a quality company.
Analysts at Macquarie are also reportedly bullish on CSL. So much so that one analyst recently told clients that CSL shares "could hit $500 as the company overcame short-term challenges and began to trade at price-to-earnings multiples closer to its decade average".
Another stock to take note of is ASX 200 gaming share Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX: ALL). This company is reportedly the only one outside the ASX 20 to find itself among "the most held [stock] by stock pickers". DNR Capital's High Conviction Strategy and Macquarie's Australian Shares Fund are some of this company's highest-profile backers at the moment.
ResMed Inc (ASX: RMD) is another ASX share to take note of. Resmed has been found to be the "most loved" stock by fund managers on the market. Ellerston Capital, as well as Hyperion Asset Management and Airlie Funds Management, reportedly count as some of ResMed's biggest backers.
A popular REIT to finish off
Finally, let's discuss the popular real estate investment trust (REIT) Goodman Group (ASX: GMG). According to the AFR, Goodman is another stock with broad-based support amongst billionaire managed funds. The landowner has a presence in one out of three managed funds on the ASX. It counts Tribeca, as well as Totus Capital, as some of its most enthusiastic backers.
Tribeca's Liu stated that "Goodman had decades of execution and a good track record". Totus' Tim McGraw was even more effusive:
Goodman is a world leader with Grade A industrial property in tier one cities in Australia, the US and Europe… The company has a large and growing data centre pipeline and, while not cheap versus other listed REITs, Goodman is very cheap relative to other listed data centre landlords.
So there you have it, four ASX shares that top ASX fund managers count amongst their favourite investments right now. Let's see who is right with their picks over the next year or two.
