Whilst yesterday's market selloff was hugely disappointing, every cloud has a silver lining.
The silver lining for investors is that it has pulled the shares of some high-quality companies down to even more attractive prices.
Three top shares that I think would be great buy and hold options are listed below. Here's why I like them:
Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)
The recent market volatility has hit the shares of Appen hard, potentially creating a buying opportunity for investors that are prepared to hold onto them for the long term. As Appen is a global leader in the development of high-quality, human annotated datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence, I believe it is well-positioned to increase its earnings at a strong rate over the next few years due to its exposure to these two fast-growing markets. Its shares have traded at a significant premium in the past, but at 27x estimated FY 2019 earnings, I think they are attractively priced now and offer a compelling risk/reward.
Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL)
Another top growth share that has been pulled down to an attractive level is Aristocrat Leisure. Even though the leading gaming technology company posted a 34.3% lift in full year NPATA to $729.6 million last month, its shares have sunk notably lower. So much so, they are now changing hands at just 19x NPATA. I think this is a bargain level given its positive long-term growth prospects and I'm clearly not alone with this view. Last week the company experienced some heavy insider buying.
Xero Limited (ASX: XRO)
Xero could be another quality buy and hold option for investors to consider this month. I've been very impressed at the way the accounting software provider continues to grow at a solid rate. For example, in the first half of FY 2019 the company saw its revenue jump 37% to $256.5 million thanks to the addition of 193,000 net subscribers and a 6% lift in its average revenue per user metric. Due to the quality of its product, the shift to cloud-based accounting, and its expansion overseas, I believe Xero could continue this strong form for some time to come.
