The CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) share price finished the session in the green on Thursday at $264.95, up 0.76%. For many years, this blue-chip behemoth has been a star performer of the ASX. Over the five years leading up to the COVID-19 market meltdown in March 2020, CSL stock ascended by almost 200%.
The pandemic has sent this ASX biotech share on a rollercoaster ride. In the past 12 months, CSL shares reached a 52-week high of $319.78 in November 2021. They then took a tumble to a 52-week low of $240.10 in February. In the year to date, the CSL share price is down by 9%.
Which begs the question: Should you buy the dip?
A 9% discount year-to-date
A 9% dip might not sound significant for an expensive stock like CSL but consider this. Before the pandemic, the CSL share price peaked at an all-time high of $342.75 — which might make today's price of $264-ish look a little different in terms of a potential buying opportunity.
And here's what the experts have to say.
Analysts at Citi recently retained their buy rating on CSL and valued the company at $335 per share. That's an enormous price target that signifies a 26% total shareholder return if it were to eventuate.
"Over the next six months, we expect the market to focus on the strong underlying plasma market demand, and the closure of the Vifor deal, both of which should lead to strength in the share price," the broker commented in a recent note.
Citi joins an extensive list of analysts advocating CSL, with 87% of coverage saying buy and just 12.5% saying sell. The consensus price target is $316.60, so Citi sits above the consensus with its analysis. So does Macquarie.
What does Macquarie think of the CSL share price?
The broker is bullish on CSL and reckons there will be a strong growth trajectory until FY24, given a variety of catalysts.
It recently noted that CSL's acquisition of Vifor Pharma lends the biotech giant opportunities in the iron deficiency and kidney disease segments. Not only that, but the Vifor buy enables CSL to diversify into new markets whilst adding new opportunities for research and development (R&D).
It prices CSL at $327 per share on a buy rating, aloft consensus, but not too far off the share's 52-week high of $319 in November.
