2 ASX shares highly recommended to buy: Experts

These stocks could deliver great returns!

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There are a certain group of ASX shares that are highly rated by multiple analysts at the same time.

If many investment professionals are attracted to a certain business, it could suggest there's a significant opportunity.

We're going to look at two businesses with the group of ASX shares that currently have the most buy ratings.

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Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL)

Coles is one Australia's largest supermarket businesses. It also has a liquor division which includes Coles Liquor and Liquorland.

According to CMC Invest, there are currently 11 analyst buy ratings on Coles, with no hold ratings and no sell ratings.

The business recently announced its FY26 third-quarter update for the 12 weeks to 29 March 2026.

That third quarter saw supermarket growth of 4% to $9.78 billion, with comparable sales growth of 3.6%. Excluding tobacco, supermarket sales grew by 5.7%. Total revenue grew 3.1% to $10.7 billion, though liquor sales declined by 3.9% to $781 million.

Coles boasted that it achieved above market growth in supermarkets demonstrating "consistent execution over multiple years".

The supermarket business also said that its e-commerce sales grew by 24.8%, with online penetration reached 13.6%.

Coles said that in the early part of the fourth quarter, supermarket sales revenue growth "remained broadly in line with the third quarter", which provides a solid outlook for the ASX share.

The company noted that it has seen an increase in supplier cost price increase requests and higher costs within its own operations, particularly in fuel, freight and packaging. It's actively managing this and will "will mitigate impacts where possible, while balancing the needs of customers and suppliers".

According to the projection on CMC Invest, Coles shares are valued at under 25x FY26's estimated earnings, with a possible grossed-up dividend yield of 4.9%, including franking credits.

Nextdc Ltd (ASX: NXT)

Nextdc describes itself as Asia's most innovative data centre as a service provider – the ASX share is building the infrastructure platform for the digital economy, delivering the critical power, security and connectivity for global cloud computing providers, enterprises and government.

According to CMC Invest, it has seen recent 10 analyst buy ratings on the business, with no holds and no sells. Those analysts are expecting big returns from the business, with an average price target of $19.84 – that implies a possible rise of around 40% over the next year, from where it is at the time of writing.

The ASX share is seeing rapid growth of demand for its data centre services thanks to the growth of AI and cloud computing.

On 20 April 2026, the business reported that, as a result of recent customer contract wins, its pro forma contracted utilisation as at 31 March 2026 had increased by approximately 250MW (or 60%) to 667MW since 31 December 2025

Nextdc also said that its pro forma forward order book as at 31 March 2026 has increased by 247MW (83%) to 544MW since 31 December 2025.

The pro forma forward order book is expected to progressively convert to billing utilisation, revenue and operating profit (EBITDA) over FY26 to FY30. The ASX share continues to bank longer-term financial growth.

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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