While the UK stock market has delivered solid gains over the last year, I’m still seeing attractive investment opportunities today. With that in mind, here’s a look at two top UK growth shares I’d buy right now.
A top share to buy right now
The first stock I want to highlight is Keystone Law (LSE: KEYS). It’s an innovative ‘platform-based’ law firm that allows lawyers to work remotely. Its clients include Virgin Atlantic, RBS, and the BBC.
There are two reasons I see Keystone Law as a great stock to buy right now. Firstly, the economic recovery is creating a high demand for legal services. “The legal market remains very busy,” the company noted last week. I expect demand to stay elevated as the UK economy picks up speed post Covid-19 and people go back to work.
Secondly, its business model has become more attractive for lawyers after the pandemic. Many have experienced the benefits of homeworking over the last 18 months, and there’ll be plenty who wish to keep working this way due to the work/life balance it offers. This should help Keystone grow its business in the years ahead.
Keystone Law posted an excellent set of results for the six-month period ended 31 July last week. For the period, revenue was up 38% year-on-year to £33.7m, while adjusted earnings per share were up 105% to 11.9p.
The company advised that activity remains “buoyant” and that it was confident its performance for the year would be “materially ahead” of market expectations. These results show Keystone has a lot of momentum at present.
One risk to consider here is the stock’s valuation. The forward-looking P/E ratio using analysts’ current earnings forecast is about 47. That’s high. It doesn’t leave a huge margin of safety.
However, I’m comfortable with the valuation risk. I think this stock could easily double or triple in the years ahead as the group increases the number of lawyers on its platform.
Growth at a reasonable price
Another UK stock I believe has significant growth potential is Computacenter (LSE: CCC). It provides technology solutions (cloud computing, networking, cybersecurity, remote work software, etc) to businesses and government organisations globally.
The reason I see Computacenter as one of the best shares to buy now is pretty simple. The pandemic has shown that organisations need to be fully digital. However, the reality is that many still aren’t. This leads me to believe that demand for CCC’s services is likely to remain high in the years ahead as organisations undergo digital transformation.
Computacenter’s H1 2021 results showed strong growth. For the period, revenue was up 29% to £3.2bn. Meanwhile, adjusted diluted earnings per share jumped 56.5% to 73.1p. On the back of this growth, the H1 dividend was hiked by a huge 37% to 16.9p per share. The company also noted it’s on track to achieve its 17th year of uninterrupted earnings per share growth.
A risk to consider is supply-chain issues. Like many other tech companies, CCC is being impacted by the global semiconductor shortage. This could hit near-term growth.
Overall however, I think the stock offers a very favourable risk/reward proposition right now. After a recent share price pullback, the stock trades on a P/E ratio of 19.6, which I think is a steal.
