The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price has been marching upwards off of its lows during the past month. Despite this, the data annotation company hasn't released a price-sensitive announcement since late August. This beckons an eyebrow raise in light of the recent performance.
Shares in Appen settled at $11.08 at the end of Monday's trading session, adding 3.1% in the process. Today's gain means the Appen share price has now delivered a head-turning 23% over the last month. For comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) added 1.3%. Meanwhile, another member of the WAAAX shares, Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) climbed 10%.
So, what gives? Why is a share price that was crushed 65% in the last year suddenly showing some signs of life?
Let's take a look.
Why has the Appen share price been performing the last month?
It wasn't too long ago that blood was in the streets of the Appen share price. Following downgrades to the company's guidance, investors scurried to the lifeboats of a potentially sinking ship. As a result, the value of Appen descended along with the waning sentiment.
Since then, some time has elapsed and the acquisition of Quadrant Global has been completed. At the same time, investors' nerves seemed to have settled as the share price finds a groove around the low double-digit price point.
Additionally, retail market participants don't seem to be the only ones looking at Appen with fresh eyes recently. As we have previously covered, analysts at Citi have retained a buy rating on Appen shares with a 12-month price target of $17.
Furthermore, insiders within the Appen management team and board of directors have been loading up lately. According to notices, Richard Freudenstein and Venessa Liu have both purchased shares during the past few months. Notably, board member Freudenstein bought up $313,941 worth of Appen shares at the end of August.
Considering all these points in conjunction with each other, there is potential the broader market is beginning to see value in the Appen share price.
For reference, the company currently trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 33. This compares to the Australian IT industry average P/E ratio of 45 times.
