Housebuilder Persimmon (LSE: PSN) has been one of the best performing stocks in the FTSE 350 in the last five years. Its shares have soared by 425% during that time as the UK housing market has enjoyed a purple patch brought about by low interest rates and a lack of housing supply.
Looking ahead, gains of 20%+ could easily be posted by Persimmon in the medium term, since it offers very strong growth prospects at a very appealing price. For example, its earnings are due to rise by 25% in the current year and by a further 10% next year. Both of these figures are well ahead of the wider market’s expected growth rate of mid to high-single digits but, despite this, Persimmon trades on a price to earnings (P/E) ratio of just 13.6, which indicates that a rating expansion is very realistic. Certainly, interest rate rises are on the horizon, but demand for housing should keep housebuilders performing well.
Similarly, Barclays (LSE: BARC) could easily post a rise in its share price of 20%. That’s because it trades on a price to book value (P/B) ratio of just 0.6, so even a rise in valuation of two-thirds would leave Barclays trading at its net asset value, which would still be appealing.
The catalyst to push its share price higher is likely to be a new strategy under a new CEO. This is unlikely to occur until 2016, but a new man/woman at the helm may stimulate investor interest in Barclays through focusing to a greater degree on its investment banking division, for example, or on returning a greater proportion of profit to investors in the bank as a dividend. And, with Barclays being highly profitable and due to increase its earnings at a double-digit rate over the next two years, it may not take much to convince the market that its shares should trade considerably higher than they have during 2015.
Meanwhile, today’s results from veterinary group CVS (LSE: CVSG) show that the business has huge growth potential. That’s because it has only 12% of the UK small animal vet market as well as a negligible portion of the equine and large animal vet markets. And, with the company’s strategy clearly paying off with pretax profit growth of 35% in its most recent year, CVS’s valuation is likely to move much higher.
Clearly, today’s 7.5% rise in its share price is impressive, but CVS could easily rise by another 20%. Its financial standing remains strong and its policy of making multiple acquisitions could lead to further growth alongside excellent organic performance.
On the topic of acquisitions, Judges Scientific (LSE: JDG) also released an upbeat update today. It is on-track to meet full-year expectations and, despite a weak first quarter, it expects the rest of the year to show improvement. As such, the acquirer of scientific instrument companies is currently up around 3% at the time of writing.
Looking ahead, more gains are on the cards for the company’s investors. That’s because Judges Scientific is expected to grow its bottom line by 14% next year and, with it trading on a price to earnings growth (PEG) ratio of just 0.9, it appears to offer excellent growth prospects at a very reasonable price.
