The S&P/ASX 200 index may be sinking lower again on Friday, but that hasn't stopped the Freedom Foods Group Ltd (ASX: FNP) share price from racing higher today.
In afternoon trade the diversified food company's shares are up a sizeable 4.5% to $4.93. This compares to a 1.8% decline by the S&P/ASX 200.
Why is the Freedom Foods share price racing higher?
There appears to be a couple of catalysts for this strong share price performance on Friday.
The first is a broker note out of Goldman Sachs earlier this week which has given its shares a lift.
According to the note, Goldman has retained its conviction buy rating and placed a $6.25 price target on this diversified food company's shares.
Even after today's solid gain, this price target implies potential upside of almost 27% over the next 12 months.
Goldman likes Freedom Foods due to the strong growth potential of its nutritional dairy and plant-based beverages businesses. Combined with a positive long-term macro outlook, it believes the company is well-placed to deliver an EBITDA CAGR of 50% from FY 2019 through to FY 2022.
Insider buying.
Another catalyst for today's share price rise is news that insiders have been buying a considerably number of shares.
In fact, there have been no less than seven change of director's interest notices released this week.
The biggest purchase came from the Perich family. They picked up 472,938 shares at an average of $4.24 per share through an on-market trade last week. This equates to a total consideration of just a touch over $2 million.
Also buying shares was its chairman, Perry Gunner. He picked up 99,068 shares through market trades on February 28 for a total consideration of ~$435,000.
And finally non-executive director Trevor Allen bought 10,000 shares through an on-market trade on the same day for a total consideration of $43,608.
Judging by their purchases, these directors appear to believe the company's shares are trading at an attractive level right now.
