The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is in the red today, down 0.5% to 7,276 points. But one ASX 200 share that is bucking the trend is A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M).
A2 Milk is currently up 3.11% to $6.64 today, after closing at $6.01 yesterday and opening at $6.08 this morning.
Why is it up? Well, there might be a couple of factors at play here.
First thing to note is an ASX announcement this morning. This announcement revealed that broker and investment bank, Goldman Sachs, has been rapidly ramping up its ownership of A2 Milk to just over 37.2 million shares now.
Market sentiment might well have been boosted by this apparent show of confidence from a large broker.
Image source: Getty Images
A2 Milk share price on the up
Goldman isn't the only broker showing interest either.
As my Fool colleague, James Mickleboro reported yesterday, fellow broker Bell Potter has just increased its price target for A2 Milk.
Bell Potter reckons the shares are a 'buy' and has slapped a 12-month price target of $8.50 on the company. This implies a potential 12-month upside of close to 40%. So, this is another potential factor supporting the share price today.
Another possible conclusion to draw is that some investors might be thinking the worst is behind the company now.
Remember, it wasn't that long ago (just under a year, in fact) that A2 Milk was a $20 stock. A series of disappointing earnings downgrades have mostly been responsible for the decline in the A2 Milk share price.
It finally bottomed at $5.04 (a multi-year low) back in mid-May. Since then, investors have been slowly crawling back into the stock. The company is up more than 23% from its 52-week low today, with its trajectory since mid-May decidedly on the up.
The current A2 Milk share price gives the company a market capitalisation of $4.53 billion and a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.46. The shares remain down 46.91% in 2021, and 66.96% down over the past 12 months.
