With the end of the year fast approaching, now could be a good time to look at your portfolio and see if there is room for any new additions for 2022.
To help you along your way, I have picked out 10 ASX shares that are highly rated and could offer strong returns next year. They are as follows:
Adore Beauty Group Limited (ASX: ABY)
Adore Beauty is a leading online retailer in the Australian beauty and personal care (BPC) market. It currently has almost 1 million active customers and generated revenue of $63.8 million from them during the first quarter. This is still only a small slice of the $11.2 billion BPC market. UBS is a fan of the company and currently has a buy rating and $6.00 price target on its shares.
Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)
Breville is a leading appliance manufacturer responsible for a number of popular brands. These include Kambrook, Sage and the eponymous Breville brand. Thanks to its global expansion, burgeoning product pipeline, and favourable consumer trends, it has been tipped to grow strongly over the long term by the team at Macquarie. As a result, the broker has put an outperform rating and $34.37 price target on its shares.
Hipages Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: HPG)
Hipages is a leading Australian-based online platform and software as a service (SaaS) provider connecting consumers with trusted tradies. At the last count, there were over 31,000 tradies using the platform, underpinning strong revenue growth. Goldman Sachs expects this strong growth to continue as it grows its ecosystem into a huge addressable market. The broker currently has a buy rating and $4.95 price target on its shares.
Life360 Inc (ASX: 360)
Life360 operates in the digital consumer subscription services market, with a focus on products and services for digitally native families. Its eponymous app currently has over 30 million active users across the globe. Bell Potter is very bullish on Life360's future and sees a lot of value in its shares at the current level. The broker has a buy rating and $14.75 price target on them.
Lovisa Holdings Limited (ASX: LOV)
Lovisa is a fast-fashion jewellery retailer with a growing store network. It recently appointed Victor Herrero as its new CEO. Mr Herrero was previously the Head of Asia Pacific and Managing Director Greater China for Inditex (Zara, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti), the CEO of Guess, and the CEO of Clarks. Macquarie notes that Mr Herrero has experience in China and India, which will be a key focus for Lovisa. It sees scope for the company to open as many as 1,400 stores in these markets alone. Macquarie has an outperform rating and $25.00 price target on its shares.
Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)
Megaport is a technology company that offers scalable bandwidth for public and private cloud connections, metro ethernet, and data centre backhaul. It has networking equipment in hundreds of data centres around the world, creating a software layer that provides an easy way for users to create and manage network connections. Macquarie is a fan of the company. It recently put an outperform rating and $24.00 price target on its shares.
NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)
NEXTDC is a leading data centre operator with a collection of world class centres across key locations throughout Australia. Combined with its potential expansion into Asia, NEXTDC appears well-placed to benefit from the structural shift to the cloud. Citi is a fan and currently has a buy rating and $15.40 price target on NEXTDC's shares.
Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE)
Orocobre is a top five global lithium mining company with a collection of high-quality assets including Olaroz, Mt Cattlin, and the Sal de Vida brine project. Unlike many lithium explorers and developers, Orocobre is already benefiting from the sky high lithium prices being underpinned by the clean energy transition and the rapid adoption of electric vehicles. This bodes well for its growth in the coming years. Macquarie is bullish and has an outperform rating and $12.00 price target on its shares.
PointsBet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH)
PointsBet is a sports betting operator and iGaming provider. It offers innovative sports and racing betting products and services via a scalable cloud-based platform in the ANZ and US markets. While 2021 hasn't been a good year for its shares, Goldman Sachs believes 2022 will be better. It notes "the significant upside opportunity ahead in what will likely be a transformational CY22 year as it expands its North American footprint as well as ongoing M&A attractiveness to peers." Goldman has a buy rating and $12.79 price target on its shares.
South32 Ltd (ASX: S32)
Finally, South32 is a diversified mining and metals company producing bauxite, alumina, aluminium, copper (soon), energy and metallurgical coal, manganese, nickel, silver, lead, and zinc. Thanks largely to its exposure to a number of in-demand commodities such as aluminium, Goldman Sachs has a conviction buy rating and $4.40 price target on its shares. The broker is also expecting double digit dividend yields for a number of years.
