One area of the market that I think has particularly strong long-term growth prospects is the healthcare sector.
This is due to increasing demand for healthcare products and services, thanks to the combination of population growth, better treatments, increased chronic disease burden, and ageing populations.
In light of this, I think the following three healthcare shares could be great buy and hold options:
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)
I think this global biotech giant would be a great buy and hold investment option right now. Over the last decade the company has provided its shareholders with market-beating returns, thanks to strong earnings growth driven by the quality of its products and its high level of investment in research and development. The good news is that I believe it is well-positioned to replicate this success over the next decade, especially given its growing plasma collection network and pipeline of potentially lucrative therapies.
Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME)
Pro Medicus is a healthcare technology company that provides a full range of radiology IT software and services to hospitals, imaging centres, and healthcare groups worldwide. These include a suite of radiology information systems (RIS), picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), and e-health solutions, which Pro Medicus management believes constitutes one of the most comprehensive end-to-end offerings in radiology. Demand has been strong for its offering, leading to the company posting a 59.4% increase in half-year revenue to $25.3 million and a 79.9% jump in underlying half-year net profit after tax to $9.2 million earlier this year. Due to its sizeable market opportunity, I believe similarly strong growth is possible over the medium-to-long term.
ResMed is a leading developer of sleep treatment products. A recent presentation revealed that there are an estimated 1 billion people impacted by sleep apnoea worldwide. The vast majority of these people are undiagnosed and could be at risk of life-threatening conditions such as chronic daytime fatigue, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and depression. I expect more of these undiagnosed cases to be diagnosed over the next decade, which is likely to lead to increasing demand for ResMed's industry-leading products and services.
