Happy Monday, Foolish readers – the last one before Christmas and a well deserved break for many of you. However, the market marches on regardless, and as ever we'll continue to see some big price movements, holiday season or not.
The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: ^AXJO)(ASX: XJO) traded broadly flat today, losing 0.1% to 5097 points, but these four stocks managed to significantly outperform:
Bellamy's Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL) shares continue to be in high demand, rising 5.4% to $13.72 and setting a new 52-week high. Up 734% in a single year, they must surely be close to setting some kind of record. By contrast, CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) – one of the ASX's most outstanding companies – has grown 650% in the past ten years.
Bellamy's has enormous potential to grow its revenue over the next few years thanks to the size of the Chinese market. Competition is building however, and it's difficult to see value at today's prices.
1-Page Ltd (ASX: 1PG) rose 12.6% to $2.67 today, reversing a long decline that saw the stock lose roughly half of its value from heights of $5 in October. Although there was no company-specific news, it's possible that investors saw opportunity in the falls and are loading up on shares in the hope of 1-Page gaining more contracts and growing revenues in the future.
Although 1-Page remains highly speculative, the company is definitely heading in the right direction and could be an opportunity today.
Shares of Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC) lifted 8% to $2.67 on no company-specific news, although a non-market sensitive update revealed that UBS Group AG took a 5.28% stake in the company in recent days.
Costa is a fairly successful recent IPO, having risen 10% since debut, although as an agricultural business investors will want to demand an extra margin of safety especially since the underlying farmland is held by the Costa family and not the ASX company.
Blackmores Limited (ASX: BKL) gained 4% to $212 as interest builds in its dairy partnership with Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX: BGA) and its ongoing rapid growth in vitamin sales to Chinese consumers. This is a development I think Bellamy's shareholders will want to watch closely, as Blackmores has a great brand presence in China and its vitamin products are often in as much demand as Bellamy's baby formula – which is to say, they're usually sold out.
However it turns out, Blackmores could well rise higher in the near future.
