The Australian share market has experienced incredible volatility in recent times as traders express concerns about China's economy and stock market decline as well as other factors such as the impact of rising interest rates in the US and the ongoing Greek saga in Europe.
However, most analysts believe that fundamentals for the global economy are in reasonable shape and that the current volatility is most likely to be a correction rather than a sustained period of decline. With this in mind, long-term investors are scouring the market for opportunities and I think that the three stocks below represent good value at current prices and will provide quality returns over an extended time frame.
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES)
The investment conglomerate best known for its retail companies such as Coles, Bunnings, K-Mart and Target recently reported a $2.4 billion annual profit. Excluding the effects of the sale of its insurance division and a write down in the value of Target, this represented an 8% rise on the previous year. The continued strong performance of Coles and Bunnings are the company's key earnings engines and they remain in a strong market position, despite increasing competition.
Although the company's industrial division struggled with a lower coal price, it is still profitable and could rebound with any recovery in commodity prices. Although the stock is not cheap, priced at approximately 17x forecast FY16 earnings, the share price has fallen 14% from the high reached in February and now, with a dividend yield of almost 5% it represents good value.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)
The owner of realestate.com.au is a highly profitable, growing business that has just reported a 24% rise in net profit. It is the go to site for those searching Australia's booming property market and boasts the advertisement of 93% of Australian residential listings. It is far more popular than its nearest competitor, domain.com.au, with realestate.com.au accounting for 85% of total time spent on the combined sites. The rise in profit demonstrates that REA Group is successfully turning these eyeballs into dollars and signals a bright future for the company.
Despite the impressive growth, REA Group has not escaped the share market downturn and its share price has fallen 20% since February. Savvy investors may consider now the time to buy into this dominant market player.
Senetas Corporation Limited (ASX: SEN)
This small-cap technology business last week showed why its share price has been on fire over the past year when it reported a 47% rise in revenue and 35% rise in net profits for the 2015 financial year. Senetas shares have soared over 200% this year which means they are no longer the bargain they once were. Operating in the high profile cyber security market, Senetas provides high-speed data encryption hardware to businesses and governments that enables data to be safely transmitted between networks. This is a market segment that is gaining awareness and growing strongly. Despite the price rise, I believe Senetas shares are poised for continued growth.
