Healius Ltd (ASX: HLS) shares finished today's session in the green, after setting a new 5-year high during intraday trading. The Healius share price jumped to an intraday high of $4.73, before retracing back down to close at $4.67 — 1.74% higher for the day.
Let's take a look at some of today's share price action for the Australian healthcare company.
Market insights from today's session
The Healius share price climbed more than 3% from the open during today's session, beating the previous 52-week high it set on 30 June.
Trading was flat in the first hour of activity, however, the share price action began around 11:00 a.m, with a move from $4.59 to $4.73 intraday, before trending sideways and then slightly lower at the close.
Today's gains marked the highest level for Healius shares since mid-2015.
Trading volume today came in at around 2.5 million shares exchanging hands, which was well above the 20-day average volume-at-time (AVAT).
What could be behind today's gains?
Whilst there was no market-sensitive information specific to the company released today, on 5 July investment banking giant Macquarie increased its price target by ~3% to $4.85 in an equity research report.
The ratings upgrade came following a similar update from JP Morgan on 30 June. In that report, the broker called for a $4.75 price target, which Healius shares almost hit today.
Further, a block trade of 2.14 million Healius shares, which equals 0.4% of the float, was traded today at a value of $10.1 million.
This caps off two block trades for Healius shares over the last two weeks. Block trades can impact a company's share price through their large volume and order flow.
Healius share price snapshot
Finishing in the green over the previous 5 days, the Healius share price has extended its run year to date, posting gains of 25% since the start of the year.
Over the past 12 months, Healius shares have returned around 51%, outpacing the 22% returns of the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) over the same period.
At the current market price, Healius has a market capitalisation of around $2.9 billion with a dividend yield of around 1.95%.
