Nobody likes to see the sharemarket fall as it has this year. Whether you own shares personally or just through your superannuation, the 7.5% decline we have witnessed so far this year on the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has reduced the overall wealth of many readers.
But they say every cloud has a silver lining, and this broad market sell off is no exception. Several high quality shares have been sold off to the extent they now look like they could be in bargain territory.
I believe the following three shares are great examples of the bargains that can be found now on the Australian market.
Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX: CCL)
Year-to-date Coca-Cola Amatil shares have lost 8.5% of their value. While the company is faced with changing consumer trends, I feel its portfolio of brands is diverse enough to cope with this, especially with its outstanding distribution model.
Although at present Australia is the company's biggest market and accounts for around 70% of total sales. The growing consumer class in Indonesia means there is huge potential for the company's operations there. With a population of over a quarter of a billion in Indonesia alone, I would not be surprised if one day it became its biggest segment.
Priced at 16.3 times earnings, (compared to the Consumer Staples average of 19.4 times earnings) Coca-Cola Amatil's shares look fairly good value at this point in time, in my opinion.
Tassal Group Limited (ASX: TGR)
Tassal Group, which is down 17.8% year to date, disappointed shareholders earlier this month by only producing underlying profit growth of 4.7% despite growing its revenue by over 50%. This was a result of rising costs and lower than expected salmon prices.
Moving forward, Tassal Group's management is now putting a lot of focus on improving its operating margin and unlocking the value of the De Costi Seafood brand it acquired last year.
The sell off of its shares means the company is now trading at just 11.3 times forward earnings. At this price it does become a very interesting option in my view. If management can improve its operational efficiencies then I would expect earnings growth to start to ramp up to the 15% per annum average growth we have seen in the last 10 years.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)
In February alone, the shares of Telstra have dropped by 8%. It would appear as though the market was slightly underwhelmed by the disappointing 0.4% net profit increase in the first half of its fiscal year.
Despite this slow growth I believe the strength of its mobile and broadband operations are enough to warrant making a long term investment in the company. These segments grew 3.7% and 6.7%, respectively, with its mobile segment now accounting for $5.5 billion of its $13.7 billion revenue.
Telstra has had a tough time reinventing itself from being a fixed-line telephone provider to where it is today, but I remain confident that greater levels of profitability are ahead for this iconic Australian company.
With the shares closing yesterday just 15 cents off their 52-week low, I certainly think Telstra could be in bargain territory now. Not only could there be notable share price gains up ahead, at this price the shares yield an estimated forward fully franked dividend of 6%.
