Are you looking for ideas for your 2015 ISA? Three of master investor Neil Woodford’s picks — AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) (NYSE: AZN.US), Game Digital (LSE: GMD) and Utilitywise (LSE: UTW) — could be worth considering.
Utilitywise
Utilitywise will be less well known to most investors than FTSE 100 pharma giant AstraZeneca and high street video games specialist Game. The company was founded in 2006 and floated on London’s junior AIM market in 2012.
Utilitywise helps businesses get the most value from their energy and water contracts and reduce their energy and water consumption. Earnings have been growing fast, and are forecast to continue rising at around 40% a year for the next two years. A forward P/E of 12 and a PEG of 0.3 suggests that the shares could be outstanding value for money.
Woodford’s fund owns 20% of the company, so if you’re after an exciting smaller growth stock for your ISA, Utilitywise could be one worth looking at.
Game Digital
Having collapsed into administration in 2012, Game was salvaged by private equity and brought back to the stock market in June last year. In September, it was announced that Woodford’s holding in the FTSE 250 company had increased above the 5% disclosure threshold.
Game’s shares took a dive in January after the company announced tough trading over the Christmas period. Woodford began buying more shares with a vengeance. His latest purchase was just last week, and took the fund’s stake in Game to over 13%.
After the Christmas trading disappointment, analysts are forecasting modest earnings growth of 4% for Game’s financial year ending July 2015. However, growth is forecast to accelerate to around 20% for 2015/16. On a P/E of about 12 and PEG of 0.6, this dominant player in the video games retail market could offer long-term growth at a reasonable price.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca has been reinvigorated since the arrival of Pascal Soriot as chief executive in 2012. The shares have risen strongly over the period, but Woodford reckons AstraZeneca remains attractively valued. The company is the number one holding in his fund.
Soriot believes AstraZeneca can generate annual revenue of $45bn by 2023 (last year’s revenue was $26bn). If the chief executive can deliver on that target, this stock could indeed prove to be attractively valued on a current forward P/E of 16.
If you’re looking for a blue-chip heavyweight for your ISA, AstraZeneca has above-average medium-to-long-term growth potential, and may well be worth considering.
