As any investor in A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) would know, whatever highs the company has seen, they haven't been recent. A2 Milk shares are one of ASX's most eye-catching fallen angel shares of recent years. It was only a few years ago that the A2 Milk share price was giving investors incredible returns. Between April 2015 and April 2018, the company rose an extraordinary 2,000% or so.
But more recent history has been as equally brutal to investors as it was kind years ago. At the current (at the time of writing) share price of $5.33, A2 Milk is now down 4.5% in 2022 so far, and 33% over the past 12 months alone.
I drink your milkshake…
So what was the A2 Milk share price's last all-time high? And when did the company hit this high watermark? Let's take a look.
A2 Milk last saw an all-time high back in July of 2020. It's hard to believe that was only a few months after the market lows of the 2020 crash. So back then, A2 Milk hit an all-time high of $20.05 a share. Yes sir, $20.05.
That means that on today's pricing of $5.33, A2 Milk shares have now lost a staggering 73.4% of their value since that date a little less than two years ago.
Falling demand, the closure of many Chinese daigou trade routes and inventory issues have all arguably contributed to this loss. More recently, we also got the news that A2 Milk would have to contend with a new competitor product in the infant formula arena from fellow ASX dairy company Bubs Australia Ltd (ASX: BUB).
Is the A2 Milk share price a buy today?
So with this steep fall, many an investor might be wondering if A2 Milk shares are a buy at these levels. Well, one broker who reckons they might be is Bell Potter. As my Fool colleague James covered last week, ASX broker Bell Potter has recently retained a buy rating on A2 Milk, with a 12-month share price target of $7.15. That would imply a potential upside of almost 34% on current pricing.
The broker reckons A2 Milk will be able to double earnings per share (EPS) by FY2026 and sees a likely recovery in A2 daigou exports.
No doubt investors who are still holding on to A2 Milk will have their fingers crossed that prediction turns out to be accurate.
At the current A2 Milk share price, this ASX dairy company has a market capitalisation of $4.01 billion.
