Shares in The A2 Milk Company have soared following yesterday’s announcement the dairy industry darling’s profit had grown nearly 200 per cent over the past year.
a2 yesterday posted a record net profit of $83.3 million.
Shares grew from $4.50 on Tuesday to a high of $4.82 yesterday after the stock market announcement, and today hit a high of $5.12 at about 2.15pm.
The share price came back down again to settle at $5.03 at 4pm today, up from yesterday’s close of $4.81.
A2 shares hit the ASX in April 2015 at 56 cents, before racing to a high of $2.15 in December last year.
The New Zealand-based company has come a long way since it struggled to enter the stock market in New Zealand in 2000.
Chief executive Peter Nathan has previously said the company was “floundering” when he and managing director Geoff Babidge took over in 2006, as the company launched in Australia, because it had failed to “communicate the key benefit of a2”.
Under Nathan and Babidge’s leadership a2 has grown from a fledgling company on its knees in 2000 to a company now valued at $3.2 billion.
Babidge yesterday told investors the business was in a “robust” position thanks to strong growth in the health food sector, and booming sales of a2 Platinum infant formula in Australia and China, which has helped boost revenue to $505.5 million, up 56 per cent.
Source: The Weekly Times