It's been a bit of a mixed day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and most ASX shares so far this Wednesday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is barely in the green, up 0.025% for the day thus far after surging higher earlier this morning. But let's talk about the A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) share price.
The A2 Milk share price is having a far better day today. This ASX 200 dairy share closed at $6.79 yesterday afternoon but opened at $6.81 this morning before rising up to the $6.92 it is currently trading at. That's a gain worth a healthy 1.99%.
But it was even better for this company earlier this morning. Just before midday, the A2 Milk share price got as high as $6.95 – a new 52-week high for A2 Milk.
Today's gain is just the latest in what has been a very lucrative few months for A2 Milk stock. Remember, this is a company that was asking just $3.70 a share as recently as November last year.
As it currently stands, A2 shares are now up a whopping 63.2% year to date. The company is also up 28.4% over the past 12 months, and has put on a happy 87% since November's 52-week low of $3.70.
Check all of that out for yourself below:
But how has this company managed to stage such an enthusiastic comeback in 2024? After all, A2 Milk has been a bit of a fallen star in recent years, dropping from over $20 a share in 2020 to last year's lows of under $4.
Image source: Getty Images
Why has the A2 Milk share price just clocked a new 52-week high?
Well, today's new high seems to have come unprovoked. There haven't been any news, developments or announcements out of the company itself today, or indeed in quite a while.
However, today's gains are just the latest in a long string of wins for this company. Momentum seems to have been building ever since A2 Milk reported some very impressive numbers back in its half-year results in February.
As we covered at the time, these results revealed that A2 Milk brought in NZ$812.1 million in revenues for the six months to 31 December 2023, an increase of 3.7% over the previous year's numbers for the same period.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) ticked up 5% to NZ$113.2 million, which enabled A2 Milk to increase its net profits after tax (NPAT) by a healthy 15.6% to NZ$85.3 million. The company also revealed at the time that its cash balance was up 12% to NZ$792.1 million.
Investors were very impressed by these numbers, sending the A2 Milk share price up 12% upon their release.
This goodwill has continued ever since, with A2 shares now up 37% since the day before these earnings were made public.
So this momentum from February's earnings appears to have resulted in the new 52-week high we see for A2 Milk today. Let's see how much further this company can climb going forward.
