While many of the biggest ASX financials stocks have seen slow growth in 2026, Cuscal Ltd (ASX: CCL) has brought strong returns.
The S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index (ASX: XFJ) is up just over 2% year to date.
Meanwhile, Cuscal shares have risen over 10% in the same span and over 52% in the last 12 months.
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What does Cuscal do?
Cuscal is a payment and regulated data services provider in Australia.
The group offers a comprehensive suite of payment infrastructure solutions to a diversified client base.
It enables a range of payment types, from physical cards to real-time payments, in the payment value chain and constantly evolves its offerings to meet the demands of a rapidly changing economy.
In the last 12 months, it has risen significantly on the back of a solid, growing business in a hot sector (digital payments). It has also been spurred on by strategic acquisitions and delivering the profit growth to back it up.
Why it can continue
A recent report from Ord Minnett has reinforced that there is still plenty of room for growth remaining.
Ord Minnett said Cuscal's share price has been supported by improved earnings momentum. This has been aided by the two strategically important acquisitions of Indue and Paymark.
In addition, the FY26 price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple that investors have been willing to apply to Cuscal's earnings has risen 21x from 11x at the time of the IPO to 21x currently. We see a forward P/E multiple of 18–20x as appropriate,given Cuscal's strong defensive earnings growth outlook and B2B infrastructure positioning in the payments industry.
We expect FY26 results to beat market expectations, with net operating income (NOI) boosted by ongoing solid transaction volume growth and strong client deposit balances driving net interest income. Company guidance is for "mid-teens" underlying net profit growth in FY26, with Ord Minnett estimating growth of 16.8%.
Upside remains for this ASX financials stock
Looking ahead, Ord Minnett believed the FY27 result will be underwritten by the contributions from Indue & Paymark. It projects further growth into FY29–30 as Cuscal banks the cost savings and other synergies from the acquisitions, and the outlook supports expectations for sustainable underlying net profit growth of 15–20% per annum.
Based on this guidance, Ord Minnett has retained its buy recommendation on this ASX financials stock.
It has also retained its target price of $5.45.
From yesterday's closing price of $4.89, this indicates a healthy upside of over 11%.
