The Ausdrill Limited (ASX: ASL) share price climbed 8% to $1.56 today despite the $1 billion member of the leading S&P/ ASX200 Index (ASX: XJO) releasing no specific news to the market.
This makes such a significant share price move for a reasonably large and liquid company rather curious, with potential drivers of the move being a sell side broker rating upgrade or a buy side asset manger buying into the stock.
Ausdrill's share price is still down around 35% over the past year after the mining services company delivered a $61.1 million net profit for fiscal year 2018, which translated into basic earnings per share of 17.4 cents.
It also announced the $697 million acquisition (on an enterprise value basis including substantial debt) of drilling business Barminco and announced an ambitious forecast for 20% – 30% underlying profit growth in fiscal 2019 excluding the impact of the acquisition.
Ausdrill now has $63.1 million cash in hand but more than $480 million in "borrowings" and as such its share price is likely to remain volatile.
