CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) shares have been through the ringer over the past 5 weeks. A "brutal sell-off" sent the share price crashing 18.6% on the company's FY25 results in mid-August. Since then, the stock's value has continued falling.
At the time of writing on Wednesday lunchtime, the shares are down another 1.21% and changing hands at a 6-year low of $197.62 a piece. For the year, the share price is 31.34% lower.
But there are now green shoots suggesting some confidence in the biotech giant's stock is beginning to return.
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Fund managers buy back into the stock
Yesterday, Shuas Nayak, portfolio manager at Allan Gray, told the AFR the fund manager has added CSL shares to its $2.6 billion Australian equities fund.
The fund manager also topped up its holdings in Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) and Amcor CDI (ASX: AMC), taking advantage of a recent drop in stock value amid this year's "brutal" earnings season.
"CSL disappointed during reporting season, and in this market, that's almost a capital offence," he said.
"Now the price has fallen, but the earnings are still guided to grow by the company. And relative to that earnings trajectory, the price assumes those earnings won't come through, which feels quite bearish to us."
Allan Gray isn't the only fund manager to buy back into CSL shares. Fund manager Joe Wright, from Airlie's Australian Share Fund, recently bought CSL stock after the company plunged 17% following its job cuts and vaccine spin-off announcement.
This move was described as taking advantage of "good value" as the share price was considered to be significantly oversold. Wright told the AFR that the market reaction was "frankly overdone".
What's ahead for CSL shares?
CSL said it is expecting to grow its revenue by between 4% and 5% and deliver underlying net profit (NPATA) growth of between 7% and 10% in FY26. This excludes restructuring costs and assumes the company will be unaffected by President Donald Trump's US tariffs. CSL is planning to demerge from its vaccine business, CSL Seqirus, by the end of FY26.
Brokers at UBS have said CSL is targeting medium-term earnings per share (EPS) growth of 15% per year, including net cost savings from research and development (R&D) restructuring.
The broker's analysis suggests cost savings of between US$500 million and US$550 million over three years.
Overall, analysts appear to be pretty bullish about CSL shares. According to TradingView data, 14 out of 19 analysts have a buy or strong buy rating on the stock. The average target price is $284.61, and the maximum is $326.46. This represents an impressive potential upside of between 44.5% and 65.7% over the next 12 months.
