Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) shares have been a pleasing investment to have held in recent months. Just take yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) closed 0.54% lower. But the Coles share price went the other way, adding 0.48% to $18.81 a share.
Sure, Coles has retreated from the all-time high of $19.28 a share that we saw at the start of this month. But the grocer still remains up 5% in 2022 so far, and around 3% over the past 12 months. In contrast, the ASX 200 is still nursing losses of around 7.5% for both of these periods.
But is there still gas in the tank for Coles shares after these periods of outperformance?
Well, if you ask one ASX broker, the answer is a decisive 'yes'.
Coles shares picked as a buy by ASX experts
My Fool colleague James covered the opinions of ASX broker Citi earlier this week. Citi has recently retained its "buy" rating on the company and lifted its 12-month share price target to $21. if this came to pass, it would represent a potential upside of around 12% from where Coles is today.
Citi reckons Coles will enjoy boosted sales over FY 2023 thanks to the effects of rising inflation. This broker is also pencilling in a big lift in dividends to 75 cents per share for FY 2023, up from an expected 65 cents for FY 2022. Coles has already lifted its dividends substantially in recent years.
As my Fool colleague Brooke noted this week, Coles doled out 35.5 cents per share for FY 2019, 57.5 cents per share for FY 2020 and 61 cents for FY 2021.
If the supermarket operator indeed lifts its dividends to 75 cents per share for FY 2023, it would represent a forward yield of just over 4% (or 5.72% grossed-up with Coles' typical full franking credits) at today's pricing.
But Citi isn't the only expert investor eyeing off the grocer right now. As we also covered this week, Dr Philipp Hofflin from Lazard Asset Management picked Coles as an ASX share that could be held in a difficult economic environment. This was due to the company's lack of debt and "strong" balance sheet.
So it seems that more than one ASX expert is bullish on Coles' future today. No doubt investors will welcome that news.
At the current Coles share price, this ASX 200 blue chip share has a market capitalisation of $25.05 billion, with a trailing dividend yield of 3.25%
