--- title: "Are any ASX Top 20 stocks a strong Buy right now?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/281830872.md" description: "ASX large caps have outperformed the broader market, raising concerns about overvaluation. Despite this, brokers identify Goodman Group, QBE Insurance, and Sigma Healthcare as strong Buy options with over 10% upside potential. Goodman Group is transitioning to data centers, QBE Insurance shows resilience despite AI fears, and Sigma Healthcare is positioned for growth. The ASX 20's performance contrasts sharply with the rest of the ASX, creating opportunities for value investors in the broader index. Overall, selective upside remains in the ASX 20 despite stretched valuations." datetime: "2026-04-07T05:12:56.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/281830872.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/281830872.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/281830872.md) --- # Are any ASX Top 20 stocks a strong Buy right now? Key points: - ASX large caps have surged far ahead of the broader market, creating an unprecedented valuation gap and raising questions about whether the top end of town is now overvalued. - Despite stretched valuations, brokers still see selective upside in a handful of ASX 20 names, screening for Strong Buy ratings and at least 10% upside potential. - Goodman Group (GMG), QBE Insurance (QBE) and Sigma Healthcare (SIG) stand out as consensus Buy ideas, supported by structural growth themes spanning AI infrastructure, insurance resilience, and pharmacy expansion. One of the interesting ASX trends that has been overshadowed by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has been the extreme dislocation between Australia's large cap stocks and the rest of the market. While the ASX was up 3% over February, despite a volatile reporting season, it was driven entirely by the top end of town. As Auscap's Will Mumford told me in a recent interview, "the ASX 20 over February was up about 7.5% and every other part of the ASX was down." And this dramatic market dislocation has created a situation where the P/E spread between the ASX's biggest stocks and the rest of the ASX 200 is now at unprecedented levels. (Source: FactSet, Auscap) Auscap's Tim Carleton says it's made the rest of the index (the ASX 200 Ex-ASX 20) a fertile hunting ground for value investors. That’s throwing up a lot of opportunities in companies that we think are very, very high quality and will deliver very strong earnings growth over time. But is there any value remaining right at the top? To find out, we've run a screen on the ASX 20, filtered by the following criteria: - Rated a Strong Buy by Market Index's Broker Consensus tool - Have at least 10% upside potential Unsurprisingly, the majority of stocks in the ASX 20 have been given Sell or Hold ratings by brokers. But there are three ASX stocks the brokers believe are still offering good upside potential and are a strong consensus Buy. Goodman Group - Broker ratings: - 7 Buy, 1 Hold, 0 Sell - Consensus potential: - 31.92% Industrial and infrastructure real estate developer Goodman Group has firmly hitched its wagon to the AI train, and is currently transitioning from industrial specialist to data centre developer. While it beat expectations with its recent results, it arguably dropped off a lack of updates on its data centre leasing and uncertain earnings growth. Goodman Group 1-year chart (Source: Market Index) Morgan Stanley maintain an Overweight rating on GMG, and believes the market is underestimating the company's upcoming profit-generating events, especially around securing customer contracts for its European data centre developments. Provided it can successfully secure the requisite contracts, Morgan Stanley believes GMG can unlock multi-year earnings flexibility, and data centre earnings may begin to filter through ahead of market expectations. While it has revised FY27 and FY28 earnings downwards, the broker still forecasts strong EPS growth over that period. GMG was also rated a Buy by both David Lloyd and Dushko Bajic in Commsec's special reporting season edition of Buy Hold Sell. QBE Insurance - Broker ratings: - 8 Buy, 0 Hold, 0 Sell - Consensus potential: - 12.47% QBE Insurance reported strong FY25 results in February, with NPAT hitting US$2.1 billion, and adjusted return on equity just shy of 20%. But insurance has been one of the more surprising casualties of the market's AI disruption fears, and meant QBE has underperformed on both a sector level and against the rest of the ASX 200 over the last year. QBE Insurance 1-year chart (Source: Market Index) But unlike the software stocks caught up in the so-called SaaSpocalypse, there's arguments to suggest insurance is better insulated against AI. As my colleague Carl Capolingua argued regarding the AI-led insurance selloff, "for now, markets appear to be pricing in the worst-case scenario." Will Mumford believes the market may have overreacted given the complexities and nuances of the insurance industry - something AI may be ill-equipped to handle. It's quite a complex value chain. These are high stakes areas with complex regulation and where relationships matter. If anything goes wrong with your insurance policy, you want someone to talk to and to blame. ETF Shares' William Taylor sees QBE as a value play, as well as a potential beneficiary of rising interest rates. "QBE is aggressively repricing its premiums to protect margins," he wrote. "This transition toward lower volatility and stable, high quality profits mirrors the harvest phase we are seeing globally, where operational discipline turns structural shifts into an earnings." Morgan Stanley considers QBE its "preferred AI play with offensive growth options," citing higher premium growth from cyber and data centres, limited AI disruption risk, and high cost savings opportunities as potential catalysts. Sigma Healthcare - Broker ratings: - 7 Buy, 3 Hold, 0 Sell - Consensus potential: - 19.70% Pharmaceutical distributor and retailer Sigma Healthcare has suffered as part of a broader selloff in Australian healthcare over the last 12 months, despite strong tailwinds and defensive positioning. Sigma Healthcare 1-year chart (Source: Market Index) It merged with Chemist Warehouse Group in February 2025, with the Chemist Warehouse network growing sales 17.2% to $5.1 billion and promising international expansion. IML's Daniel Moore chose Sigma as one of his two picks for 2026 due to expected growth from Chemist Warehouse. Chemist Warehouse is a category killer format in the high-growth pharmacy sector. We expect they will continue to grow their sales well above the industry with their discount offer. Marcus Today's Henry Jennings also put SIG forward as one of his suggestions for new ASX blue chips and Morgans added the stock to its high conviction 'Best Ideas' list. ### Related Stocks - [QBIEY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/QBIEY.US.md) - [QBE.AU](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/QBE.AU.md) - [GMG.AU](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GMG.AU.md) - [SIG.AU](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SIG.AU.md) ## Related News & Research - [Goodman Group (GMGSF) Receives a Buy from Morgan Stanley](https://longbridge.com/en/news/287133507.md) - [BUZZ-Australia's Goodman rises as Jefferies notes strong data centre pipeline](https://longbridge.com/en/news/287158899.md) - [How network intelligence can help businesses anticipate risks, ensure uptime, and deliver on AI](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286815400.md) - [Is Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) In A Good Position To Invest In Growth?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286824932.md) - [3 ASX Penny Stocks With Market Caps Under A$1B To Consider](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286964656.md)