Despite the market sinking lower today, the Smartgroup Corporation Ltd (ASX: SIQ) share price has raced to a new 52-week high of $9.45.
This means the salary packaging and novated leasing company's shares have gained around 50% year-to-date.
Why have its shares rallied strongly this year?
The majority of this year's gain came in August following the release of its half-year results.
In the first-half of FY 2017 Smartgroup delivered an impressive 63% increase in profit after tax to $30.3 million.
The strong result was driven by the successful integration of the businesses it acquired last year and the achievement of its targeted synergies.
This strong performance enabled the company to increase its fully franked interim dividend by 68% to 16.5 cents per share.
Which means its shares provide a trailing fully franked 3.5% dividend at present.
Investors also appear to have responded well to an announcement earlier this week which revealed that the company plans to acquire the assets of RACV Salary Solutions for a total consideration of $34 million.
This acquisition is expected to be 12% accretive to its earnings per share in FY 2018.
