Pinned straw:
I'm still positive on both companies too even if they are unlikely to provide the spectacular returns of the past, so expectations have to be pared down accordingly.
However, the price trend in both is decidedly down/negative, so exercising patience with your purchases is the prudent way to go. Don't fight the trend!
@DrPete i think two things, firstly that your criticism of valuations can be levelled at many (maybe all) Australian growth stocks, it is a limited pool and investors wanting exposure to those stocks usually have to pay up. all is fine as long as no hairs appear. that is one of the reasons i started seriously looking at US growth stocks, there are plenty there and sometimes the risk/reward is better, just expands your universe.
in terms of RMD, i think you can paint literally thousands of scenarios based around the ability of weight loss pills to reduce demand for CPAP, ive read some really scary ones. To me that is a part of investing, making judgements on the unknowable future. the future will reveal itself in time. when there is high uncertainty you usually get a high risk premium so that is why it is interesting from the risk/reward scenario, of course, you could still be right, wrong or its a wash depending on the evolution of the facts.
I think there's something to that view @DrPete and I made a similar point with CSL. Especially if (like Howard Marks argues in his recent memo) you think the days of ultra low interest rates are a thing of the past.
If the buy thesis is that we'll see these stocks return to those elevated multiples in the next little while, investors could be disappointed.
On the other hand, if you see the driver of share price appreciation as the ongoing growth in earnings, and that the new lower (potentially more reasonable) multiples will be more or less maintained, then there's still a case to buy. Assuming, that is, profit growth is sufficient, or at least sufficient in the context of the lower risk that comes with higher quality companies.
Ie. The drop in multiples may have returned these stocks to fair value (which by definition allows for good returns). As opposed to providing a great bargain.
A case of great companies at a fair price,.as opposed to fair companies at a great price?