TOL - 25th May, 2026
Buy Hold Sell: 3 sectors and 6 ASX stocks growth investors are circling now
Where is the ASX growth opportunity today? Oscar Oberg and Alex Shevelev analyse 6 stocks exposed to key market themes.
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At any given point in the market cycle, there are certain sectors and themes where investors go hunting for growth. Sometimes it’s driven by disruption. Sometimes it’s recovery. And sometimes it’s simply because the market has become too pessimistic about quality businesses with long runways ahead of them.
Right now, a few pockets of the ASX are attracting attention. Fintech and financial infrastructure businesses are trying to prove they can scale profitably. Software and SaaS names are attempting to emerge from one of the sharpest valuation resets in recent memory. And in healthcare and medtech, investors are once again searching for companies capable of delivering structural growth in an uncertain economic environment.
In this episode Livewire’s Chris Conway is joined by Oscar Oberg from Wilson Asset Management and Alex Shevelev from Forager Funds Management to run the ruler over some of the stocks and sectors they believe could be poised for growth.
From beaten-up software names to healthcare innovators and financial infrastructure plays, this episode is packed with ideas for investors.
This episode was filmed on Wednesday, 20th May 2026.
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Edited transcript
Chris Conway: Hello and welcome to Livewire's Buy Hold Sell. My name is Chris Conway. At any point in the market cycle, there are sectors or pockets of the market where investors are typically hunting for growth. In today's episode, we're going to explore some of those areas of the market and also run the ruler over a handful of stocks. To do that, I'm joined by Alex Shevelev from Forager Funds Management and Oscar Oberg from Wilson Asset Management. Before we get to the stocks, Oscar, I'll come to you first. Why is the FinTech payments financial infrastructure space that we're about to talk about appealing to you at the moment?
Oscar Oberg: Oh, it's not appealing would be what I'd say and I'd say Wilson Asset Management's been a contrary indicator to payments companies listed on the ASX, particularly over the last five years. I mean, there was a point in time where I said we're banning ourselves from investing in these companies, and I think the mistake we've made historically is the ones exposed to the consumers tend to be a bit more competitive and subject to offshore competition. However, I have broken that promise over the last 12 months and there is one payments player that we quite like that's exposed to infrastructure. So on the whole, I think, look, it is an exciting space because there's structural changes around the shift from cash to cards and so forth, but I just think the company's listed in the ASX, but probably underperformed would be fair to say over the years.
Chris Conway: We might get to that stock that you like in a minute. So first up, we're going to talk about Cuscal. It's Australia's largest independent provider of end-to-end payment and regulated data solutions outside of the big four. Oscar, I will stay with you, buy, hold, or sell on this one.
Oscar Oberg: Oh, it's not appealing would be what I'd say and I'd say Wilson Asset Management's been a contrary indicator to payments companies listed on the ASX, particularly over the last five years. I mean, there was a point in time where I said we're banning ourselves from investing in these companies, and I think the mistake we've made historically is the ones exposed to the consumers tend to be a bit more competitive and subject to offshore competition. However, I have broken that promise over the last 12 months and there is one payments player that we quite like that's exposed to infrastructure. So on the whole, I think, look, it is an exciting space because there's structural changes around the shift from cash to cards and so forth, but I just think the company's listed in the ASX, but probably underperformed would be fair to say over the years.
Cuscal (ASX: CCL)
Oscar Oberg: (BUY) Look, it's a buy and we were almost embarrassed that we missed this one at the IPO, but it was for the reasons I just talked about was we've been burnt so many times on payments companies and probably didn't understand it. But where we think, we bought it about nine months ago, it's done very well for us, but where we think the market doesn't understand the business is this, very simplistically, it's exposed to transaction volumes and not value. And obviously it's a very tough market at the moment, particularly in consumer, but this business has just gone from strength to strength. It's actually upgraded its total transaction value or total transaction growth for this year, and we think that can be maintained over the medium term.
It did an acquisition called Indue back in August and the company set out the 15 to 20 million synergies to be achieved by 2029. Now if you assume that they are successful around that at the current share price implies a price of earnings multiple valuation of 10 times. So we think once the market starts to pricing success of that acquisition and understands the business more, that it is an infrastructure provider as opposed to a B2C payments provider, we think it can rerate its valuation to say 20 times earnings, and in time we think the share price can double.
Alex Shevelev: (BUY) It is a buy for us as well and as you would think because it is our largest investment at the moment in the Australian shares fund. Look, echoing a lot of the stuff that Oscar said, this is actually a business that's quite a high quality infrastructure provider. Its market position is quite strong now. They've bought this Indue business. It was the only real other competitor to them and they have absorbed that business sounds like in a pretty straightforward fashion. They've made a subsequent acquisition in New Zealand and the growth here is really pretty impressive. With those acquisitions, you're talking about doubling FY25 net profit by the time you get to the 2029 financial year. Very impressive for a business of this quality and with the infrastructure tailwinds that you subsequently have.
There is another little part of that business, they've taken a bet on a regulated data services. That at the moment is a loss-making part of a business. And so people looking at that, subtracting the rest of the business's profitability, subtracting that from the rest of a business and ending up with a reasonably high multiple. Over time with the synergies, with that business coming back into neutral or positive territory, it's really going to fuel the improvement in the net profit there. And the other thing, this is almost a billion-dollar business now, and so we're at a point where investors are really going to have to start to take notice of this business.
Tyro Payments (ASX: TYR)
Alex Shevelev: (BUY) It is a buy for us and I recognise it's had an interesting listed history on the ASX. This was a very rapidly growing business when it first floated. We got involved with it a little while after that when the growth rate had slowed right down. But what we were seeing and continues to be the case is quite impressive control at the operating cost line. So what we're seeing here is actually the business can still grow high single digits through increasing the number of merchants they service, especially in the health vertical that they have quite a good share in and they can see that free cashflow number improve over time disproportionately. So it's a buy for us and it's a business that we should hopefully see plenty of free cash flow from over the next little while.
Chris Conway: Oscar, it's down 10% over the last year. Are you seeing any value there? Buy, hold, or sell?
Oscar Oberg: (SELL) Oh, I'm jaded on this one. I'm a sell. Look, we've been big shareholders in this in the past and our view is the board should have sold the business years ago when they had the opportunity. Look, again, competition is what scares me on this one. Look, the stock is cheap. It wouldn't surprise me if I woke up tomorrow and there was a takeover for it one day. But look, in terms of play in consumer recovery, we think there's better options in different sectors. So for me, it's a sell.
Chris Conway: Next up, we're going to dive into the software and SaaS recovery space, a very spicy part of the market at the moment for obvious reasons. Again, before we get to the stocks, Alex, I'll ask you, why is this an area of interest for Forager at the moment?
Alex Shevelev: It is a very interesting part of the market at the moment. I mean, financial year to date, the tech index is down about 30%. So there's been a lot of upheaval in this space, large companies down dramatically from some pretty hefty valuations admittedly, but all of that is filtered through to the small caps as well. And there are definitely pockets, which I'm sure we'll talk about shortly, of value in that small cap tech bucket.
Chris Conway: Alex, I'll stay with you. First up, we're going to talk about Catapult Sports made famous by the GPS trackers that all the NRL and AFL players wear, but obviously does a lot more than that now in terms of the tech helping teams and athletes around performance. Buy, hold, or sell for you on Catapult Sports.
Alex Shevelev: (BUY) This is a buy for us. The business actually put out a very healthy set of results. They grew their annualised contract value, which is sort of a run rate recurring revenue number, by about 18% organically in the year just gone. At the scale that they're operating at, that is a really impressive result. On top of that, they've made a couple of acquisitions which is actually, they've actually driven that number to 28%. This is a 4% churn revenue stream. Clients continue to use it, very few ever stop. And so every year you're getting an increase in that revenue because you don't have much of prior year's revenue to make up.
Oscar Oberg: (SELL) Oh, I'm jaded on this one. I'm a sell. Look, we've been big shareholders in this in the past and our view is the board should have sold the business years ago when they had the opportunity. Look, again, competition is what scares me on this one. Look, the stock is cheap. It wouldn't surprise me if I woke up tomorrow and there was a takeover for it one day. But look, in terms of play in consumer recovery, we think there's better options in different sectors. So for me, it's a sell.
Chris Conway: Next up, we're going to dive into the software and SaaS recovery space, a very spicy part of the market at the moment for obvious reasons. Again, before we get to the stocks, Alex, I'll ask you, why is this an area of interest for Forager at the moment?
Alex Shevelev: It is a very interesting part of the market at the moment. I mean, financial year to date, the tech index is down about 30%. So there's been a lot of upheaval in this space, large companies down dramatically from some pretty hefty valuations admittedly, but all of that is filtered through to the small caps as well. And there are definitely pockets, which I'm sure we'll talk about shortly, of value in that small cap tech bucket.
Catapult Sports (ASX: CAT)
Chris Conway: Alex, I'll stay with you. First up, we're going to talk about Catapult Sports made famous by the GPS trackers that all the NRL and AFL players wear, but obviously does a lot more than that now in terms of the tech helping teams and athletes around performance. Buy, hold, or sell for you on Catapult Sports.
Alex Shevelev: (BUY) This is a buy for us. The business actually put out a very healthy set of results. They grew their annualised contract value, which is sort of a run rate recurring revenue number, by about 18% organically in the year just gone. At the scale that they're operating at, that is a really impressive result. On top of that, they've made a couple of acquisitions which is actually, they've actually driven that number to 28%. This is a 4% churn revenue stream. Clients continue to use it, very few ever stop. And so every year you're getting an increase in that revenue because you don't have much of prior year's revenue to make up.
Then a lot of that incremental revenue is now dropping through to free cashflow. The business has outlined what that is in the year just gone. That was over 40% and should continue to increase. So you're actually in a path now of dramatically improving free cashflow outcomes as well, and meanwhile, there are many products that they're now putting out there. Yes, everyone knows the GPS trackers. The video products have been around for some time, and now we have other products as well that have been added into the mix that are just... it's an opportunity to sell to those same teams and Catapult has this amazing distribution to these professional teams.
Chris Conway: Oscar, I'll swing to you. The results that Alex was just talking about, of course, with today, we're filming on the day of the results release, I think it was up 20% or circa 20% at one stage, maybe closed up around 10%, but down 25% over the past year, so reasonably volatile. Buy hold or sell for you, Oscar?
Oscar Oberg: (HOLD) I'm a hold. I agree with Alex, the top line growth and their annualised recurring revenue's been very, very strong. Unfortunately, the world's changed and there's a lot of one-off costs and capitalised costs and share-based payments and so forth which means it's loss-making after accounting for that. So look, for us at the moment, we think there's other technology stocks that will rally first before Catapult once the market settles. So for us, yeah, it's a hold.
Fineos Corporation (ASX: FCL)
Chris Conway: Next up we're talking Fineos Corporation, specialising in cloud-based core systems designed exclusively for the life, accident, and health insurance industries. Oscar, I'll stay with you. Buy, hold, or sell on Fineos.
Oscar Oberg: (BUY) We like this one, this is a buy, and like a lot of fund managers, we've been going through our technology holdings over the past number of months and done a lot of travel and worked out who's going to be impacted by artificial intelligence and who's not. We think Fineos is a winner and the reason is is their customers are incredibly conservative. These are the largest insurance companies in the world. A lot of them haven't even moved onto the cloud. They're still on-premise because they're obviously highly regulated and important data of their clients. So they will have to move, but they will need to move onto a modern technology platform which is what Fineos can provide them.
Chris Conway: So buy for you, Oscar. Alex, I'll swing to you, buy, hold or sell for Fineos.
Alex Shevelev: (HOLD) For Fineos, it's a hold for us. This is a business we've owned previously and a lot of positive characteristics that Oscar's outlined there. They have built really a pretty impressive product over time and they've been really focused on building that product. Some of the growth in the subscription revenue and where that subsequent growth is coming from is a little bit more difficult for us to get our heads around. So for the time being, we're staying out of that despite the quality of a product and the very impressive operating cost control.
Oscar Oberg: (BUY) We like this one, this is a buy, and like a lot of fund managers, we've been going through our technology holdings over the past number of months and done a lot of travel and worked out who's going to be impacted by artificial intelligence and who's not. We think Fineos is a winner and the reason is is their customers are incredibly conservative. These are the largest insurance companies in the world. A lot of them haven't even moved onto the cloud. They're still on-premise because they're obviously highly regulated and important data of their clients. So they will have to move, but they will need to move onto a modern technology platform which is what Fineos can provide them.
Fineos does not charge on a per seat basis. It charges on a consumption basis. So ultimately as they bring in more artificial intelligence products and their clients start using them more, they should win out. And so there's long-term guidance set out there by Fineos's management and we think they'll beat that, and we do think this will be a beneficiary of artificial intelligence, particularly on the top line, which is what we're all trying to find at the moment.
Alex Shevelev: (HOLD) For Fineos, it's a hold for us. This is a business we've owned previously and a lot of positive characteristics that Oscar's outlined there. They have built really a pretty impressive product over time and they've been really focused on building that product. Some of the growth in the subscription revenue and where that subsequent growth is coming from is a little bit more difficult for us to get our heads around. So for the time being, we're staying out of that despite the quality of a product and the very impressive operating cost control.
Chris Conway: To round out, ladies and gentles, we're going to talk about the healthcare and medtech space. So Oscar, I'll swing back to you. What's appealing about this cohort, broadly speaking at this moment in time?
Oscar Oberg: Nothing. It is the worst.
Chris Conway: Ageing population, though.
Oscar Oberg: I mean, geez, who would've thought, the healthcare sector? I mean, years ago it used to be the best given ageing population and so forth, and then COVID hit and then costs have just gone through the roof. But there is value there, there's no question. You just got to get... the costs, particularly if you think pathology, you think radiology has been a really big headwind also in private hospitals as well. So look, we just need the inflation to settle. And then again, the long-term thematic is just is you can't get a better sector than healthcare. But geez, it's been a tough sector. It has been very, very tough.
Paragon Care (ASX: PGC)
Chris Conway: The first stock we'll talk about in the space is Paragon Care, manufacturers and distributes medical equipment devices and consumable products across Australia and New Zealand and Asia. Oscar, I'll stay with you. Buy, hold, or sell for Paragon?Oscar Oberg: (HOLD) Hold for us. We were a big shareholder in this one and we did sell out. It wasn't anything to do with the management or the board, but we just felt their balance sheet had too much leverage and they're having an issue with Infinity which is a pharmacy group that effectively has fallen away and had insolvency problems. So we need that fixed up and if the balance sheet was to sort itself out, we'd revisit again. But for us, look, it's fallen a lot so it's a hold here.
Chris Conway: It's been code blue this year. It's down 65% over the last 12 months. Alex, buy, hold, or sell for you on Paragon?
Alex Shevelev: (BUY) It's a buy for us.
Chris Conway: Value there.
Alex Shevelev: It's definitely a value play. It's something that's a more recent entrant to our portfolio, but we had held it back in the original days of the first iteration of the merger to make what is now Paragon some years back. Look, I think to Oscar's point, the management here has built a business and ground out some impressive growth from a pretty tough business. We're under no doubt that this is actually pretty difficult business to operate, under very slim margins, but they've done a good job with it so far. We think they can continue to do that again. We hopefully get some balance sheet relief here as some of that Infinity cash gets sorted over time, and they do have this other business in Asia that has been growing reasonably quickly which should help the overall business growth improve over time.
Integral Diagnostics (ASX: IDX)
Chris Conway: Next up we'll talk Integral Diagnostics, one of the largest providers of medical imaging services across Australia and New Zealand again. Alex, I'll stay with you. Buy, hold, sell for Integral?Alex Shevelev: (HOLD) It's a hold for us as well. It's one again that we've owned previously, but situation continues to just be a little bit messy. So GP referrals, margins, it's just not as clean as would be nice for that space, but completely recognise the position that the business is in now. It's quite a healthy market share, especially post the acquisition of Capitol a little while ago. So understand strong business, but just a bit too messy for us to get involved, so a hold.
Chris Conway: Oscar, down 20% over the last 12 months. Any value there for you?
Oscar Oberg: (BUY) It's a buy for us, and I would agree with Alex. It is a very, very simple business that for some reason is made very difficult and messy and it's very frustrating and one of the reasons why we've gone substantial in this company because we want to instigate change. Yeah, looking at it, I mean, the frustrating part about this business is trades I think are seven times enterprise value to EBITDA multiple. I think private transactions and the Healius radiology business transacted for double that. So something's not right in the market, but there is value there, there's no question, and revenue growth will be underpinned by the deregulation of MRIs, also the lung cancer screening.
Chris Conway: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. A massive thank you to both Oscar and Alex for this entire series of Buy Hold Sell. If you liked this episode in particular, make sure to give it a like, and don't forget to follow our YouTube channel. We're adding lots of great content every single week.
There's a new CEO coming in, which I think will be a good thing for the business. I think there's an opportunity to take out costs. We also think there's opportunities to potentially sell parts of the business. We think there's competitors that probably more suits some of the businesses that they own rather than Integral, and I think the balance sheet for Integral has been an issue for investors for a long, long time. So we think the board should definitely pursue that option and get that balance, reduce the debt in the business, and then potentially look at a buyback because it's ridiculous where the share price is trading now given it'll appear that this year it looks like it's going okay and there's very strong long-term growth tailwinds. So for us, it's a buy, but it's a frustrating one.
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Buy Hold Sell is a weekly video series exclusive to Livewire. In each episode two fund managers give their views 'Buy, Hold or Sell' on five ASX listed companies. Not recommendations, please read the disclaimer and seek advice where appropriate.
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Livewire Markets
Buy Hold Sell is a weekly video series exclusive to Livewire. In each episode two fund managers give their views 'Buy, Hold or Sell' on five ASX listed companies. Not recommendations, please read the disclaimer and seek advice where appropriate.
Expertise
Livewire Markets
Buy Hold Sell is a weekly video series exclusive to Livewire. In each episode two fund managers give their views 'Buy, Hold or Sell' on five ASX listed companies. Not recommendations, please read the disclaimer and seek advice where appropriate.
Expertise
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