The Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX: AGE) share price is on fire this past week and finished Friday's session at 11.5 cents each.
Over the last 7 days, Alligator Energy's shares have climbed 113%, extending their gain over the past month to 342%.
In fact, if you zoom out a bit and look at Alligator's share price chart since mid-August, you'll see what looks like a hockey stick – with a handle that's climbed until today.
Let's take a look at what's at play here.
Image source: Getty Images
What's fuelling the Alligator Energy share price lately?
There are 2 main factors driving these impressive returns for Alligator Energy shareholders in the near term. First is a key update and the second being the price of uranium. Let's cover the key update first.
In the announcement made earlier today, Alligator outlined several "updates for its projects and team". These cover the company's key uranium projects and some corporate news.
Specifically, the projects in question are the Samphire Uranium Project, Alligator Rivers Uranium Province – Nabarlek North Project and Big Lake Uranium. Investors can find more detailed progress for each site individually on the company's announcement.
The second major catalyst pushing the Alligator Energy share price higher today is the prices that uranium is fetching in the spot commodity markets.
The price of uranium has skyrocketed from US$30/lbs to just shy of US$50 per pound since 16 August. That's a 65% increase in just one month.
Checking this with Alligator's share price chart, it's clear to see that it made its jump from the same time as the giant move in uranium pricing – in mid-August.
This makes sense because Alligator Energy is an ASX resource share that produces a commodity – in this case, uranium – and therefore it is considered a price taker. As such, its share price can and does fluctuate with volatility in the broader commodity markets.
Given this relationship and the fact that uranium prices are just short of reaching 10-year highs, it starts to make sense why the Alligator Energy share price has stormed higher this week.
Alligator Energy share price snapshot
The Alligator Energy share price has been a major performer on the ASX this year to date and has posted a mammoth return of 945%.
What's more, is that over the past 12 months, it has increased by a whopping 2,200%. However, it's important to check absolute values as well as percentages in finance.
Doing so we see that the Alligator Energy share price has increased from $0.005 (0.5 cents) to 11.5 cents over the past year – a gain of 10 cents per share.
Nonetheless, speculative investors who banked on Alligator Energy this time last year are enjoying a significant return over the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s gain of around 15% in that time.
