It was another busy week for Australia's top brokers. This has led to the release of a number of broker notes.
Three broker buy ratings that you might want to know more about are summarised below. Here's why brokers think these ASX shares are in the buy zone:
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Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW)
According to a note out Bell Potter, its analysts have upgraded this building products company's shares to a buy rating with an improved price target of $32.00. This follows a period of weakness for its share price which dragged it down to an attractive level. In addition, Bell Potter believes that Brickworks stands to benefit from interest rate cuts, which are on the horizon in Australia. So much so, the broker estimates that a 50 basis points decrease to the cash rate by the RBA could boost its earnings per share by up to 4%. Finally, Bell Potter highlights that it thinks an under-appreciated part of an investment in Brickworks is its ability to unlock earnings/value from rent reversion and property developments. The Brickworks share price ended the week at $27.04.
Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR)
Another note out of Bell Potter reveals that its analysts have retained their speculative buy rating on this lithium miner's shares with a trimmed price target of $1.40. This follows news that the company is adjusting its plans for the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project to combat low lithium prices. Bell Potter notes that Liontown's FY 2025 guidance was broadly in line with what it modelled and expects the lower long-term throughput rate to drop Kathleen Valley's production profile by around 5%. It believes this leaves Liontown's balance sheet strong enough to support it through to the end of FY 2025. After which, it expects costs to improve as production approaches steady state over FY 2026 and FY 2027. The Liontown share price was fetching 86 cents at Friday's close.
Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO)
Analysts at Goldman Sachs have retained their conviction buy rating and $201.00 price target on this cloud accounting platform provider's shares. According to the note, the broker was pleased with the company's performance during the first half of FY 2025. It notes that its sales fell a touch short of expectations but its EBITDA was comfortably ahead of them. One of the biggest positives was its much lower than expected operating expense ratio, which underpinned the stronger than expected earnings outcome. Looking ahead, Goldman Sachs continues to believe that Xero has a significant long term growth opportunity thanks to its massive total addressable market. The Xero share price ended the week at $172.61.
