Thursday, September 19, 2024

Bell Potter says these ASX shares are strong buys

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There are a lot of great ASX shares for investors to choose from on the local market.

To narrow things down for readers, let’s now take a look at two shares that analysts at Bell Potter rate very highly.

These shares feature on its favoured list for June, which the broker believes offer attractive risk-adjusted returns over the long term. They are as follows:

Regal Partners Ltd (ASX: RPL)

Bell Potter believes that this growing fund manager is being undervalued by the market.

Its analysts highlight that the company has strong organic and inorganic growth potential, strong performing investment funds, and accelerating inflows. The broker commented:

In recent years, Regal has expanded rapidly through strong investment performance, net flows into its funds, launches of new funds, and the acquisition or merger with VGI Partners, PM Capital and Taurus, which have expanded funds under management from $1.1bn in 2017, to over $12.1bn (March 2025). We continue to favour RPL, given its strong organic & inorganic growth potential, and entrepreneurial culture. In the last six months, and following the recent acquisition of PM Capital and Taurus (50%), the firm has shown an acceleration of inflows, strong investment performance (which will give rise to performance fees) and success in marketing new funds. We feel this strong performance is not reflected in the share price and see considerable upside.

Bell Potter has a buy rating and $4.02 price target on its shares. This implies potential upside of 11% for investors from current levels. A ~5.6% dividend yield is forecast over the next 12 months.

Universal Store Holdings Ltd (ASX: UNI)

Another ASX share that Bell Potter is a big fan of is Universal Store. It is a youth focused apparel, footwear and accessories retailer in Australia.

It has a large number of stores under its flagship Universal Store brand. In addition, it is expanding private label brands by growing the stand-alone format of Perfect Stranger and Thrills.

Bell Potter thinks that it has a good growth trajectory thanks to its store rollout and sees scope for margin improvements. It said:

Management execution remains a key strength for UNI and we see good growth trajectory for the name given the building of core brands while growing its store rollout. In our view, the higher margin sales from the majority of private label sales should become a major driver of margin improvement and earnings growth, in an expanded store footprint. While we remain cautious on the overall consumer sentiment, given the return to positive comps while cycling elevated pcp through Jan-Feb, we think UNI is well placed as comps become supportive through the 2H.

The broker has a buy rating and $6.15 price target on its shares. This suggests that upside of 23% is possible over the next 12 months. A ~5% dividend yield is also expected over the period.

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