The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is enjoying a reasonably breezy day on the ASX boards so far this Tuesday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is up a healthy 0.73% at 7,406 points. But one ASX 200 share is putting those numbers to shame. That would be the Australian Ethical Investment Limited (ASX: AEF) share price.
Australian Ethical shares are currently up 6.87% at $14.62 a share after closing at $13.65 yesterday afternoon and opening at a flat $14 this morning. The price went as high as $14.80 this morning, up nearly 8%.
So with this explosive move higher, you must be wondering what's going on with Australian Ethical today. Is there a new announcement or update from this managed fund and super provider? A fresh dividend announcement? Perhaps a director has picked up a truckload of shares?
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What's happening with the Australian Ethical share price?
Well, unfortunately for anyone who wants a solid answer, there isn't one to give. It's unclear why this company is jumping so decisively higher today.
Yes, there has been no news or announcements out of Australian Ethical this Tuesday. In fact, the last update the company gave was last Thursday. And that was just some routine ASX paperwork. There have been no public director or major shareholder transactions this week either. Or any announcements related to this company's dividend.
One of the last major updates this company gave was its quarterly funds under management (FUM) update last month. As we covered at the time, the company announced a record quarterly inflow of $160 million, resulting in a record $6.54 billion in total FUM. But that was a while ago now, and investors have had plenty of time to digest those numbers.
And ASX fund managers or even financials shares are certainly not enjoying a sector-wide banquet today. As an example, Australian Ethical's fellow fund managers such as Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG) and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX: PTM) are both in the red so far today. The major ASX financials shares (ie, the ASX banks) are having a decent day today. But all four are up between 1 and 2% so far, nothing compared to Australian Ethical.
It's what we think we know that just ain't so…
So what conclusions can we draw? Well, only that we don't know for sure why Australian Ethical is enjoying such a strong day today,
It's possible a large and/or institutional investor noticed Australian Ethical shares fell close to 7% over last week and decided to load the boat. Perhaps an exchange-traded fund (ETF) needed to rebalance its holdings and picked up a large tranche of shares to do so.
Whatever the reason, there will be more than a few shareholders pleased with what today has given them. Not that this is anything out of the ordinary for this company. Remember, Australian Ethical is now up an eye-watering 199% in 2021 alone.
At the current Australian Ethical share price, this company has a market capitalisation of $1.65 billion, with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 148 and a dividend yield of 0.48%.
