Investors sifting the FTSE 100 for super growth stocks can do a lot worse than to tap into NMC Health (LSE: NMC), in my opinion.
The company is a major provider of private healthcare in the United Arab Emirates, and has already seen earnings swell at a compound annual growth rate of 23% over the past half a decade. And City analysts are predicting that profits are about to pick up speed in 2018, a 45% advance currently being anticipated. An extra 23% advance is forecast for 2019.
Yet despite its proven growth credentials NMC Health can still be picked up for next to nothing. Look past a forward P/E ratio of 33.5 times and this becomes apparent, its corresponding PEG reading standing at a sub-1 reading of 0.7.
M&A mammoth
What’s more, NMC Health carries a bonus in that dividends are expected to keep growing at a stratospheric rate just like earnings. In 2018 the shareholder reward is expected to fly to 19p per share from 13p last year, and again to 24 cents in 2019. These projections yield 0.5% and 0.7% respectively.
It’s not difficult to see why the Square Mile is so bullish on the healthcare star’s profits outlook. A combination of rising population levels and personal incomes in its developing regions should lay the path for strong and sustained profits advances long into the future.
And NMC Health is investing heavily in its operations to capitalise on these fertile conditions. Thanks to a string of asset acquisitions in recent times, the number of hospital beds on its books doubled in 2017 to 1,365 from 679 a year earlier.
The acquisition hunt shows little sign of slowing. In February the Footsie firm boosted its footprint in Saudi Arabia by securing an 80% holding in the Al Salam Medical Group for an initial $37m, a deal that includes a 100-bed hospital as well as two medical centres. It also secured a 70% stake in cosmetics surgery specialist CosmeSurge for $170m.
Just RELX
Another FTSE 100 super growth stock worthy of your attention today is RELX (LSE: RELX).
Recent annual growth may not be as impressive as that of NMC Health, but the bottom line has still swelled by double-digit percentages over the past couple of years. And like the hospital provider, thanks to its decent revenues prospects on foreign shores, the Square Mile’s army of brokers is expecting earnings to continue stomping higher.
Rises of 4% and 5% are forecast for 2018 and 2019 respectively and this leads to predictions of meaty dividend growth as well — last year’s payment of 39.4p per share is expected to stride to 42.2p in the current period and to 44.8p in 2019. Yields stand at a meaty 2.8% for this year and 2.9% for next year as a consequence.
And solid market commentary released this week convince me that RELX should make good on these estimates. The information and analytics provider advised that it is confident it should “deliver another year of underlying growth in revenue and in adjusted operating profit.”
With the business also busy on the M&A front — it has made four acquisitions since the turn of 2018 for an aggregated £668m — the outlook is also bright here. I believe solid market conditions and exciting portfolio reshaping makes RELX worthy of a slightly-toppy forward P/E multiple of 18.1 times.
