S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) real estate stock Aspen Group Ltd (ASX: APZ) is marching higher today.
Aspen Group shares closed yesterday trading for $5.18. During the Friday lunch hour, shares are changing hands for $5.24 apiece, up 1.2%.
For some context, the ASX 300 is up 1.2% at this same time as well.
Taking a step back, however, Apen Group shares have strongly outperformed the 2.8% 12-month gains delivered by the benchmark index.
Indeed, if we add in the 11 cents per share in partly-franked dividends the ASX 300 real estate stock has paid out over the past year, then the accumulated value of Aspen shares has surged 40.1% in 12 months.
And according to Joe Wright, deputy portfolio manager on the Airlie Australian Share Fund, the company is well-positioned to keep outperforming in the year ahead.
Here's why.
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ASX 300 real estate stock in the sweet spot
"We love residential property developer and operator Aspen Group," Wright said (quoted by The Australian Financial Review).
"There continues to be a huge undersupply of affordable housing in Australia, which is exactly the area that Aspen looks to serve," he added.
Summing up his bullish outlook on the ASX 300 real estate stock, Wright concluded:
Joint chief executives John Carter and David Dixon are experienced operators with a fantastic track record of buying land well and building houses that are reasonably priced and people want to live in.
It means there is a lot of demand, and that's led to significant earnings growth and returns which we expect to continue over the next five years.
What's the latest from Aspen Group?
Aspen released its Q3 FY 2026 update on 9 April, with management noting that the company is "well on track to achieve earnings guidance for FY26 and FY27".
As for that earnings growth Wright mentioned above, for the nine months to 31 March the ASX 300 real estate stock reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $43.1 million. That's up 45% from the same nine-month period in FY 2025.
Management maintained full year FY 2026 EBITDA guidance of $53.3 million.
Also growing strongly was the company's realised development profit, which leapt 153% year on year to $19 million in the first nine months of this financial year.
Aspen Group management noted, "By the end of March, we achieved 88% of development profit guidance [of $21.5 million] for FY26, and we expect to achieve 100% in May."
