The Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) share price is once again on the climb today. Telstra shares are currently trading for $3.84 apiece at the time of writing.
However, this ASX 200 telco was trading even higher after market open this morning, climbing all the way to $3.88 a share – the company's new 52-week high. In fact, it's the highest the Telstra share price has climbed since before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic early last year.
Telstra, one of the ASX 200's most prominent blue chip shares, has been on quite the run over the past year or two. Year to date in 2021, Telstra is now up a healthy 28.69% on the current pricing. Over the past 12 months, it's up 13.13%. But it has still been a poor long-term performer, losing its investors close to 30% over the past 5 years.
Even so, its more recent gains have been hard to ignore. So what's propelling the telco to these new highs?
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Why is the Telstra share price at a new 52-week high?
Well, a number of developments seem to be giving investors reason to dive into Telstra shares. It's fairly safe to say the sale of half of Telstra's InfraCo Towers business back in June really lit the rocket under the telco.
Back on 30 June, Telstra announced that a consortium of investors had agreed to purchase a 49% stake in InfraCo Towers for a price of $2.8 billion. This gave this business an earnings multiple of 28x, which was the part that really got chins a'wagging.
If Telstra could command such a robust earnings multiple for this sale, perhaps its remaining assets (such as Telstra's fixed-line division InfraCo Fixed) are worth more than the market previously estimated? As a case in point, since the announcement of this sale, the Telstra share price has risen almost 7%.
But that's not all that Telstra has pulled out of its hat in recent months.
The federal government's recent maneuvers to help Telstra potentially acquire the Pacific telco Digicel Pacific has been piquing investors' attention. As has Telstra's recent $350 million acquisition of MedialDirector.
Telstra also got some good news yesterday regarding the regional radio frequency limits. The government sets these limit and Telstra had requested that a 43% limit for telcos be established. The government came back with a 45% limit, which is good news for the company.
All in all, the Telstra share price seems to be responding to a combination of these catalysts and, perhaps as a result, is now exploring the new 52-week highs we are seeing today.
At the current Telstra share price, the telco has a market capitalisation of $45.43 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 25.77 and a trailing dividend yield of 4.17%. Telstra reports its FY2021 earnings this Thursday.
