The surprise ASX stock topping the list for global fundies

Foreign buyers in the ASX has dwindled over time, as valuations have made the Australian equities market the second-most expensive in the world, after the US.

But there’s one ASX stock that’s still held by more than 10% of global funds and it’s probably not a name you’re likely to guess.

It’s not ASX heavyweights like BHP, CSL or Wesfarmers.

It’s certainly not CBA (more on that in a separate wire) or any of the other big banks.

It’s not even crowd favourite Pro Medicus.

It’s Brambles (ASX: BXB).

The Australian logistics company and pallet specialist that started life as a Newcastle butcher is far from the biggest name on the ASX.

But there’s a number of reasons global fundies are keen on Brambles (and keen on keeping it into their portfolios).

According to data on 332 global funds from Steven Holden at Copley Fund Research, Brambles is held by 10.24% of them, with a total AUM of $231 million.

Second is BHP, held by 9.94% of global funds (with AUM of $742 million), and third is Fortescue (held by 7.23% of funds).

Despite being a potential loser in Trump’s tariff war, the stock has continued to impress in 2025, and even shrugged off Liberation Day dramas without a sweat.

While it has recently trimmed its sales growth forecasts as a result of flagging demand, that is off the back of years of consecutive earnings and profit growth.

It has established itself as a market leader in Australia, Europe and the UK and is up 55% over the last 12 months, outperforming the ASX 200 by 49% over that time.

It has also addressed one of its prevailing issues, says First Sentier Investors’s Christian Guerra.

“In the past, the lack of cashflow has been one of the criticisms of this company, and that was, I think, well founded,” said Guerra.

“But the new management team has turned that around with better control over their asset pool - being the underlying pallets - and they've got a bit of pricing power now with their customers, given they're looking after their customers in probably a smarter way.”

But it does remain the biggest question mark for the company.

“They've had pretty good improvement in free cash flow over the last two financial years, but we think there's still a fair way to go yet in terms of cashflow improvement,” said Guerra.

It’s also been called a sell by Morgan Stanley, with analyst Niraj Shah writing in a note that “we see poor medium term cash generation with elevated pooling capex (currently) and incremental transformation capex going forward.”

What else are global funds holding?

While Brambles unexpectedly tops the list, there’s fewer surprises in the list of the 10 most-owned ASX stocks:

The most notable absentees are the Big Four banks, but outside our Aussie bubble, it's no surprise global fundies might be turned off by their crazy valuations. 

So while Aussie investors continue to pile into CBA, global funds are finding value elsewhere in the business end of the ASX.

Should we be taking a leaf out of their book? 

You can learn more about Copley Fund Research here