5 Best Shares to Buy Right Now in Australia

Finding the best shares to buy on the ASX requires more than just scanning a screener or chasing whatever is up this week. We focus on companies with strong competitive positioning, visible earnings growth, and a catalyst to drive the share price higher over the next 12 months. Every stock on this list has been through a full research process covering financials, industry dynamics, valuation, and management quality.

We update this page regularly as new research is published. The five stocks below represent our most recent work, ordered from newest to oldest. Each summary covers the key points of the investment case, with a link to the full write-up for those who want the detail.

Last updated 26 October 2026.

Table of contents [hideshow]

• 1. Our Top 5 Stocks To Buy Right Now on the ASX
• 2. How We Pick Stocks for This List

Our Top 5 Stocks To Buy Right Now on the ASX

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO)

Buy, 12-month price target A$176.30 (20.5% upside), ~4.5% dividend yield, fully franked. Rating and price target from institutional sell-side research; upside based on prices at time of publication.

Rio Tinto is a diversified miner listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and its two biggest businesses are iron ore and copper. It runs the Pilbara iron ore system in Western Australia and the new Simandou mine in Guinea, owns the Oyu Tolgoi and Kennecott copper operations, and also has bauxite, alumina, aluminium and a lithium business in Argentina. The September quarter was in line with expectations. Group copper production was 205kt, and Oyu Tolgoi produced 114kt, up 27 per cent on a year earlier. Global iron ore sales were 90.8Mt, up 3 per cent, and Simandou reached an annualised production rate of around 10Mtpa. All 2026 production, sales and unit cost guidance was left unchanged, including 800 to 870kt of consolidated copper production.

Copper is forecast to deliver around 45 to 50 per cent of group EBITDA in 2026, rising to around 60 per cent by 2030. The research forecasts EBITDA to grow by around 30 per cent from 2025 to 2030 as Oyu Tolgoi, Simandou and the Pilbara replacement mines ramp up. Simandou is close to first ore through its port, and the 60Mtpa run-rate in the second half of 2028 was reaffirmed. Rio Tinto is also selling non-core assets. It has announced more than US$2 billion of capital release so far this year and is on track for around US$5 billion by the end of 2026, cash that can help pay down debt. EBITDA is forecast to ease to US$25,303.7 million in 2027, the year lower gold grades at Oyu Tolgoi, falling molybdenum output and Pilbara port works all land.

The shares closed at A$146.27. Institutional sell-side research has a 12 month price target of A$176.30, which is 20.5 per cent above that close. The target was trimmed by about 1 per cent from A$178.60 after small forecast cuts to reflect the result, lithium prices and higher net debt, and the rating is unchanged. Earnings per share are forecast at US$7.87 for 2026, against US$6.70 in 2025. The trailing dividend of about A$6.63 per share is a 4.5 per cent yield, and it is fully franked, so an Australian resident who can use the franking credits gets more after tax than the cash amount alone. The main risks are commodity prices, heritage approvals in the Pilbara, which is around 50 per cent of the group’s value, and delays to growth projects. The thesis depends on growth over several years, with the fully franked yield providing income in the meantime. Read the full article on Rio Tinto here.

Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL)

Buy, 12-month price target A$1.90 (32.9% upside). Rating and price target from institutional sell-side research; upside based on prices at time of publication.

Bellevue Gold is an Australian gold producer listed on the ASX. It runs a high-grade underground mine that feeds its own processing plant, which has an expanded capacity of 1.35 million tonnes a year. In FY26 it reported revenue of A$576.3 million and underlying EBITDA of about A$238 million, ahead of market expectations, at a margin of about 41 per cent. The beat came from lower corporate costs. Statutory net profit was much smaller at about A$7 million. Cash and gold on hand totalled about A$206 million, leaving net cash of about A$106 million after A$100 million of debt. FY27 guidance is unchanged at 150,000 to 170,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of A$2,800 to A$3,100 an ounce, even though a slow change of mining contractor means the September quarter will come in below plan.

Bellevue Gold sold gold forward at an average price of A$3,004 an ounce, and its remaining hedges sit at roughly half of spot. That is why near-term free cash flow looks thin and why the shares have lagged some key peers. The company has been delivering into its hedges ahead of schedule, has no contractual deliveries due until the fourth quarter of FY27, and aims to clear the book by the end of FY27. Once it does, more of every ounce is sold at the market price. EBITDA is forecast to rise from A$237.5 million in FY26 to A$348.6 million in FY27 and A$593.3 million in FY28, the first full year of largely unhedged sales. The company also has spare plant capacity and has lifted exploration, with about 30 per cent of underground drilling metres now aimed at resource definition and exploration. The base forecasts include no extra ounces from either. The Ore Reserve fell to 1.0 million ounces from 1.3 million ounces, so the drilling has to rebuild it.

The shares closed at A$1.43, and the forecasts already include both the hedge drag and the soft September quarter. Only FY27 was revised. FY28 and FY29 revenue and EBITDA forecasts were left unchanged, because the contractor problem cost ounces in one quarter rather than lowering the mine plan. Institutional sell-side research has a 12 month price target of A$1.90, which is 32.9 per cent above that close. The target was trimmed by about 3 per cent from A$1.95 after the result. The board did not declare a final FY26 dividend, so returns depend on capital growth. The main risks are a fall in the gold price, a contractor handover that takes longer to settle, and exploration that fails to rebuild the reserve. Read the full article on Bellevue Gold here.

Chrysos (ASX: C79)

Buy, 12-month price target A$10.26 (50.9% upside). Rating and price target from institutional sell-side research; upside based on prices at time of publication.

Chrysos is the company behind PhotonAssay, a technology for testing mining samples, which it places with laboratories and direct-to-mine customers under lease agreements. Its earnings depend on how many units are deployed and how many samples flow through them, so exploration activity and the gold price both matter. Revenue was A$88.1 million in FY26, the year to June, and EBITDA was A$27.1 million. The company signed 24 leases in FY26 and entered FY27 with 41 signed leases yet to be deployed. Western Australia is its most established market, with 15 deployments, and manufacturing capacity is about 18 units a year.

Chrysos missed deployment guidance in FY26, and the market doubts it can install the roughly 13 units expected in FY27. A lease-by-lease review of the 41 signed leases picks out 24 units with a high chance of going in. Six were already being installed at the FY26 result, and installs typically take six to eight weeks. Another 8 are signed with Tier 1 counterparties and are going into existing regions or Western Australia. The last 10 include existing Tier 1 customers in new regions and first-time customers in places such as Scotland. Five more units were at or near site waiting for the site to be ready, so 11 units were either being installed or awaiting installation. Fifteen separate customers are waiting on a unit. Direct-to-mine customers are a rising share of leases, and their addressable market is about twice that of the laboratories. Junior capital raisings and a real-time sample volume tracker, the two lead indicators for sample volumes, were both strong in September even as gold pulled back.

The shares rallied about 20 per cent over two sessions after the August result, then gave back much of that gain as gold fell and deployment worries returned. The stock closed at A$6.80 on 15 October. Institutional sell-side research has a 12 month price target of A$10.26, which is 50.9 per cent above that close. Forecasts call for 7 deployments in the first half of FY27. Revenue is forecast to reach A$115.1 million in FY27 and A$176.1 million in FY29. EBITDA is forecast to grow faster, from A$40.1 million in FY27 to A$76.4 million in FY29. Earnings per share are forecast to rise from A$0.02 in FY26 to A$0.26 in FY29. Read the full article on Chrysos here.

Worley Ltd (ASX: WOR)

Buy, 12-month price target A$13.00 (31.8% upside), ~5.1% dividend yield, unfranked. Price target and upside based on prices at time of publication.

Worley is a global engineering and project delivery company serving the energy, chemicals and resources sectors, with over 40,000 people in more than 40 countries and FY26 aggregated revenue of A$12.0 billion. The September investor briefing was held in Houston for a reason. The Americas now generates A$6.2 billion of that revenue, a little under 52 per cent of the group, and it grew 17.3 per cent in FY26 while Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell 11.3 per cent and Asia Pacific fell 22.0 per cent. Underneath a flat group top line, professional services revenue fell from A$7,124 million to A$6,187 million while construction and fabrication rose to A$1,988 million and procurement rose 24.1 per cent to A$3,830 million. That is the company moving out of the drawing office and into the physical delivery of projects.

That shift is normally where engineering companies get hurt, and the contract mix is why we think this one is different. Reimbursable work was 77 per cent of FY26 revenue, and the annual report states plainly that Worley does not, and will not, take on competitively bid lump sum turnkey work. The 23 per cent that is fixed price is generally lump sum engineering, procurement and construction where the earlier phases are already done and the scope is known, plus short services contracts averaging under six months, and management has said it is not doing lump sum construction and is not taking lump sum risk for how subcontractors perform. Bookings rose 23 per cent to A$15.5 billion, backlog finished at A$13.8 billion with the company expecting over 62 per cent of it to convert within twelve months, and the CP2 Phase 2 expansion, expected to be larger than Phase 2 itself at 11.7 million tonnes a year, is not in that backlog figure yet.

At A$9.86 the stock trades on 12.6 times the 78.2 cents of underlying earnings it delivered in a year that carried A$58 million of Middle East disruption, and it sits about 2.6 per cent above its twelve month low of A$9.61 after falling roughly 29 per cent over the year. Institutional sell-side research has a 12 month price target of A$13.00, which is 31.8 per cent above that close. FY27 is guided to mid to high single digit growth in both aggregated revenue and underlying EBITA, and the share count came down 5.5 per cent in FY26 with another A$300 million buyback still running. The 5.1 per cent yield is unfranked, so for an investor able to use franking credits it is worth less after tax than a fully franked dividend of the same cash amount, but it is covered at 64 per cent of underlying earnings while you wait. Read the full article on Worley here.

Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN)

Buy, 12-month price target A$12.45 (32.6% upside), ~4.2% forward dividend yield, fully franked. Price target and upside based on prices at time of publication.

Qantas spent FY26 absorbing a $610 million increase in its fuel bill and $420 million of net earnings impact from the conflict in the Middle East, and still delivered $2.06 billion of underlying profit before tax on 96 cents of underlying earnings per share. The more interesting number in the result sits in the segment tables. Qantas International earned a 3.7 per cent operating margin on $9.9 billion of revenue, against 11.3 per cent for the domestic airline, 12.0 per cent for Jetstar and 21.7 per cent for Loyalty. The largest revenue line in the group contributes the least to earnings, which is also why it is the only division where fixing the structure is worth a lot of money.

The fix is a fleet program rather than a trading recovery. The A330s being retired carry around 9 to 11 per cent premium seating, while the A350-1000ULRs arriving for Project Sunrise are configured at 41 per cent and the incoming A350-1000LRs at more than 40 per cent. A premium seat generates roughly 3.8 times the unit revenue of an economy seat on the international network, and the newer aircraft burn less fuel per seat on top of it. Seventeen aircraft arrived in FY26 and up to 31 are due in FY27, the first Sunrise aircraft lands in April 2027, and the A380 fleet starts phasing out from calendar 2028.

Qantas has now put a date on where that leads, guiding the international segment to a 10 to 12 per cent operating margin from FY32 against a longstanding target of more than 8 per cent. That is a long wait and the aircraft have to arrive on schedule, but the mechanism is contracted rather than hoped for, and the near term revenue setup is strong with total unit revenue guided up 8 to 10 per cent in the first half of FY27 across both domestic and international on flat capacity. Loyalty grew earnings 12 per cent to $625 million and is guided up another 5 to 7 per cent in FY27, which pays part of the wait. Read the full article on Qantas here.

How We Pick Stocks for This List

Our selection process draws on institutional-grade research combined with our own analysis of each company’s competitive positioning, earnings trajectory, and valuation. We focus on ASX-listed businesses with clear catalysts, strong or improving returns on capital, and management teams with a track record of execution. Every stock on this list carries a Buy rating with a defined price target and investment thesis.

We are not trying to pick the next speculative runner. The companies featured here are profitable, have established market positions, and offer a risk-reward profile that we think makes sense for investors looking to build long-term wealth through Australian equities. We refresh this list as new research is completed, typically every few weeks.

If you would like to discuss any of these names, request a callback or call us on 1300 889 603.