Here at the Motley Fool, we've been checking out how some of the ASX 200's blue-chip shares have performed in the most recent quarter.
In Australia, we run on a July-June financial year. That means the first quarter of said financial year (1 July – 30 September) has just wrapped up. So today, we're looking at the CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) share price, and how it performed over this period.
CSL is one of the largest shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). It was actually the largest share for a while last year, pipping Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP). As it stands today, CSL is the ASX 200's No. 2 share, recently overtaking BHP, which has been suffering due to falling iron ore prices.
CSL used to be known as one of the ASX's top growth shares. Its share price exploded over 2017, 2018, and 2019, but has been struggling more recently in the shadow of the pandemic.
So how did CSL shares fare over this most recent quarter?
CSL outperforms ASX 200 in FY22 first quarter
CSL shares started on 1 July at a price of $285.19. They finished up at $293.40 on 30 September. That means the CSL share price appreciated by around 2.88% over the quarter. That's a fair bit above what the ASX 200 managed — an increase of roughly 0.26%.
As it stands today, the CSL share price last traded at $290.46 as of Friday's close (up 0.83%). The company is up 1.92% year to date in 2021.
However, it's still down around 1.65% over the past 12 months, and close to 14% from the company's all-time high, which it hit way back in February 2020. Even so, the company is still up by about 175% over the past 5 years.
Could CSL shares be a buy right now?
With the quarter CSL just had, and its distance from its all-time high, many an investor may be wondering if the company might be a buy today. Well, as my Fool colleague Tristan covered last week, there are a couple of brokers who think it might be.
Credit Suisse is one such broker. It currently rates CSL shares with a 12-month share price target of $315, albeit with a 'neutral' rating. That implies a potential upside of roughly 8% from here. Credit Suisse still reckons CSL can grow its profits, even if competitive threats are rising for the company.
At CSL's last share price of $290.46, the company has a market capitalisation of $131.26 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 40.64, and a dividend yield of 1.01%.
