Earlier this month I wrote an article about two companies that might make it across the $100 a share line. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) both were my favourites going into this race, but since then the running order has changed.
It's beginning to resemble a horse race and maybe that's why a major online bookmaker has set up odds on this "ASX derby".
Currently, Commonwealth Bank is leading the pack at $93.76 a share, up about 11% in the past month. Running in a close second is Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) at $88.44. The hearing aid and cochlear implant producer was in third at the time of my 5 February article, yet has pulled ahead of biopharmaceutical CSL Limited (ASX: CSL).
CSL is keeping a tight pace at $87.36.
What does the bookmaker say? It gives both CBA and CSL odds of $2.50 that they will cross the $100 a share finish line first by the end of this year.
Although in second place in share price currently, Cochlear's odds are $2.75 – a little longer.
Those are the top three, but as you know there are always the long-shots that don't stand much of a chance yet pay off handsomely if they come out of nowhere and win the race.
Macquarie Group Ltd's (ASX: MQG) odds are way out at $81. Well, the investment bank's nickname is "The Millionaire Factory", so maybe it can pull this one off and still make a few more people rich, but right now it is trading at only $68.55.
Trotting behind Macquarie is Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) trading at $63.61, with odds at $101. It may be running with heavy iron ore in the jockey's boots though. The iron ore market doesn't look to be turning around anytime soon and it is cutting costs left and right to protect its earnings.
Bringing up the rear is Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) with odds of $201 and trading at $61.85 a share today. The private hospital operator may not be a strong candidate to win this race, but it may actually have some of the best earnings growth prospects of the companies listed here. It is forecast to grow earnings an average 18% annually over the next two years.
If you don't own any of these stocks, then it doesn't matter which one becomes the $100 derby winner. I would rather find the stocks that have best chance of doubling my money in the next 2-3 years. That prize might go to Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd. (ASX: DMP) or Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG), which had earnings growth in financial year 2014 of 28% and 67%, respectively.
