The Australian Ethical Investment Limited (ASX: AEF) share price has been among the best performers on the All Ordinaries index on Thursday.
In morning trade the ethical fund manager's shares are up a sizeable 11% to $6.15.
This means the Australian Ethical share price is now up an impressive 25% since the start of 2021.
Why is the Australian Ethical share price zooming higher?
Investors have been fighting to get hold of the company's shares this morning following the release of its quarterly update.
According to the release, Australian Ethical increased its funds under management (FUM) to $5.05 billion for the quarter ended 31 December 2020. This was up 16.9% from $4.32 billion at the end of September.
It was also the first time the company's FUM have surpassed the $5 billion milestone.
Management advised that this sizeable increase in FUM was driven by its exceptional investment performance and strong net inflows.
At the end of the period, its Managed Funds FUM had increased 22.4% quarter on quarter to $1.75 billion and its Superannuation FUM had lifted 14.6% over the three months to $3.3 billion.
This means that Australian Ethical's total FUM have now increased by 24.6% for the financial year to date, following record net inflows during the period.
Earnings guidance.
Last month Australian Ethical provided guidance for the first half of FY 2021. With no update provided today, it appears as though the company is on track to achieve this.
This will mean an underlying net profit after tax (UPAT) for the 6 months ending 31 December of between $4.6 million and $5.1 million. At the mid-point, this represents an increase of 11% on the prior corresponding period.
The company advised that "strong growth in Funds Under Management (FUM) was partially offset by the impact of superannuation fee reductions including those implemented in the second half of FY20 and fee and threshold reductions across some managed funds in October 2020."
