Over the last five years, the healthcare sector has been a great place to invest. During this time, the S&P/ASX 200 Health Care index has almost returned 100% for investors.
As a comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up almost 33% over the same period. That's triple the return of the ASX 200.
The good news is that with demand for healthcare products and services expected to continue to rise in the future due to ageing populations, better technologies, and increased chronic disease, there's a possibility that this side of the market will continue to outperform over the next five years.
With that in mind, I have picked out two ASX healthcare shares which have been tipped as buys recently. They are as follows:
Healius Ltd (ASX: HLS)
The first healthcare ASX share to look at is Healius. It is one of Australia's largest pathology and diagnostic imaging providers. Healius has been a strong performer in FY 2021, reporting a 16% increase in first half revenue to $953.5 million and a 190% increase in profit to $75.6 million. This was driven by a very strong performance from its key pathology business, which reported a 22% increase in revenue to $711.4 million and wider margins. Positively for the company, demand for COVID-related pathology services looks set to remains stronger for longer due to the Delta strain. This bodes well for its near term growth.
One broker that is bullish on its future is Macquarie. The broker currently has an outperform rating and $4.85 price target on its shares.
Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN)
Another healthcare ASX share to consider is Nanosonics. It is a leading infection prevention company behind the popular trophon EPR ultrasound probe disinfection system. This system protects an estimated 80,000 patients from the risk of cross contamination each day. Nanosonics is also busy researching and developing a number of new products which are due to be launched in the coming years. One of these has just been revealed and is AuditPro. It is a digital platform that has been designed to improve traceability, reporting, and compliance of infection prevention measures for medical devices.
Morgans remains positive on the company and has an add rating and $6.57 price target on its shares.
