The WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price has been amongst the best performers on the Australian share market in 2019.
Earlier today the logistics solutions company's shares reached a new all-time high of $31.65. When its shares reached this level, it meant they had gained a whopping 86% since the start of the year.
This puts them in the top ten best performers on the S&P/ASX 200 index behind the likes of Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) and Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA). These two market darlings have gained a massive 137% and 118%, respectively, since the start of the year.
Why is the WiseTech Global share price on fire in 2019?
Investors have been scrambling to get hold of the company's shares this year thanks partly to its impressive first half performance.
In the first half of FY 2019 WiseTech Global delivered a 68% increase in revenue to $156.7 million and a 48% lift in net profit after tax to $23.1 million.
At the time, CEO Richard White, explained: "We continued to deliver high quality growth in 1H19 with revenues up 68% to $156.7m and EBITDA up 52% to $48.5m, a reflection of our strategy to accelerate WiseTech's global growth and industry penetration, driven by geographic expansion, relentless innovation and deepening product capability, all of which saw usage by the world's largest logistics providers increase."
A couple of other key metrics from the first half that caught my eye were its recurring revenues and customer attrition rate.
WiseTech Global reported 100% recurring revenue and an annual customer attrition rate of under 1%. This appears to demonstrate that its growing number of customers are very happy with its platform.
In fact, its customers appear to be so happy with the platform that they are increasing their use of it. During the first half the company experienced a significant increase in existing customer revenue growth.
Looking ahead, management expects the strong growth to continue in the second half thanks to strong demand for its CargoWise platform.
It recently reaffirmed that it expects FY 2019 revenue in the range of $326 million to $339 million and EBITDA in the range of $100 million to $105 million. This will be year on year revenue growth of 47% to 53% and EBITDA growth of 28% to 35%.
Given this level of growth and its positive long term growth potential, I can't say I'm surprised to see its shares rocket higher this year. And despite this strong rise, I still believe it could be a great long-term buy and hold option for patient investors.
