On Thursday the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) pushed higher and closed the day within sight of its four-month high at 6,169 points.
With the market in fine form it will come as no surprise to learn that a number of shares climbed to 52-week highs or better yesterday.
Three that caught my eye are listed below. Here's why they are on a high right now:
The Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG) share price hit a 52-week high of $15.85 yesterday. The appliance maker's shares have been on a strong run after its first half results came in ahead of expectations. In the first half of FY 2019 Breville posted a 15.4% increase in revenue to $440 million and a 19.7% lift in net profit to $43.5 million. A key driver of this growth was its successful expansion into Germany and Austria. Management intends to build on this with the launch of its Sage brand into Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland in April. It then has its eyes on the Spain market in FY 2020. If this is successful it could underpin further solid earnings growth in the coming years.
The Dicker Data Ltd (ASX: DDR) share price continued its solid run and reached an all-time high of $3.33 on Thursday. Investors have been fighting to get hold of the shares of the wholesale distributor of computer hardware and software since the release of an impressive full year update in January. Dicker Data beat its profit guidance by 8% when it achieved profit before tax growth of 15% to $46 million. This allowed the Dicker Data board to declare a final dividend of 7 cents per share, bringing its full year dividend to 20.2 cents fully franked. This was an increase of 20% on FY 2017's dividend. With a trailing yield of 6.1% and a positive outlook, I still think Dicker Data is a great option for income investors.
The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price stormed to a decade-high of $95.60 yesterday after the market responded positively to the release of its full year results. In FY 2018 the mining giant generated US$7 billion of free cash flow and delivered a 6% increase in earnings per share to 512.3 U.S. cents. This strong performance was ahead of expectations and allowed the Rio Tinto board to declare a final dividend of 180 U.S. cents per share and a special dividend of 243 U.S. cents per share. These two dividends alone offer a yield greater than the average on the ASX right now. Investors have until March 7 to buy shares to qualify for them.
