Are Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) shares worth buying this October? Good question!
One thing I think we can all agree on is that we have moved on from the COVID era of travel restrictions. Australians are back out exploring the world and many ASX travel shares are loving it. Just this week, we saw Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) shares surge to a new post-COVID high of over $6.
But sadly for Flight Centre investors, we haven't seen quite the same level of enthusiasm. Flight Centre closed at $15.36 a share today. That's almost a third off of the $23-per-share value the company was commanding just five months ago. At least it's around 10% above the 52-week low of $13.86 that we saw earlier this month.
Plenty of investors may have made some money off of these recent falls too. That's because this ASX travel share has frequently found itself on the list of the share market's most short-sold shares in recent months.
So where are Flight Centre shares flying to next? Let's see what some ASX experts reckon.
Are Flight Centre shares set to soar?
As my Fool colleague Bronwyn reported on earlier this week, brokers at Macquarie reckon that a positive catalyst for Flight Centre may be inbound thanks to a trading update at the company's upcoming annual general meeting on 14 November:
Macquarie said unemployment rates were still very low and "consumer spending has not declined as feared" in Australia and that could also help travel groups such as Flight Centre.
Earlier this month, my Fool colleague Brooke also looked at a positive rating on the Flight Centre share price that another broker in Morgans gave the company earlier this year.
This broker liked what it saw in Flight Centre's FY2022 results and expects a "strong recovery" this financial year. Although it gave the company a hold rating, it also slapped a 12-month share price target of $18.25 on Flight Centre sales.
Yet clearly opinions are still somewhat dividend on the Flight Centre share price, judging by the ongoing short-seller interest. No doubt this ASX travel share will be one to watch going forward.
