This weekend could be an opportune time to research ASX shares that are not widely known.
Smaller businesses may have the potential to produce good returns because they are at an earlier point of their growth journey.
Here are two to think about:
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Pacific Current Group Ltd (ASX: PAC)
Pacific Current is a fund manager which invests in boutique asset managers around the world. Some of the investments include GQG, ROC, Proterra, Pennybacker and Victory Park. One of its newest investments includes Astarte Capital Partners.
The ASX share supports its investments with both capital and expertise to help them grow. Those investments have been growing quite a lot during FY21. Its economic relationship with each fund manager is different, so it benefits somewhat differently from each investment as they grow.
In the last three months of FY21, the company said that total funds under management (FUM) controlled by asset managers within its portfolio increased 15.4% to $142.6 billion. That included "strong" inflows at GQG, ROC, and Victory Park.
At the time of that quarterly update, the Pacific Current CEO Paul Greenwood said:
Over the last few months we have seen signs of broader FUM growth across our portfolio, which bodes well for FUM growth in FY22 and beyond.
The ASX share is currently rated as a buy by the broker Ord Minnett with a price target of $6.90. The broker is attracted to the growth of Pacific Current's underlying profit (excluding performance fees).
According to Ord Minnett, the Pacific Current share price is valued at 11x FY21's estimated earnings with a projected grossed-up dividend yield of 8.8%.
Healthia Ltd (ASX: HLA)
This is a small cap ASX share that offers a number of healthcare services including podiatry, physiotherapy, hand and upper arm therapy, pilates, orthopaedic, optometry, retail footwear, custom orthotic manufacturing and medical supplies.
The business has been rapidly expanding thanks to both organic growth and acquisitions.
In the FY21 first half result the business reported revenue growth of 38.9% to $61.5 million. The underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin increased by 486 basis points year on year to 17.87%. This helped underlying earnings per share (EPS) jump 78.2% to 6.86 cents.
Healthia is aiming to improve its organic growth with initiatives like further enhancing its centralised support functions to clinical teams, finding additional opportunities to co-locate services, introducing services into existing locations and working on new ways to engage its teams.
The ASX share expects to deploy a minimum of $20 million of capital per annum for new allied health acquisitions.
Healthia's board have been pleased with the profitability of the business, which is why it implemented an interim dividend of 2 cents per share.
