The A2 Milk Co Ltd (ASX: A2M) share price has slipped by 10% since the company reported its interim results in February.
Its full-year results are due next week. They'll come at a time the infant formula and fresh milk company has been through a horrid year impacted by challenging market conditions.
At the time of writing, A2 Milk shares are down 0.62% to $4.78 apiece.
Below, we take a closer look to see if investors can learn anything from the company's last earnings season.
What happened in the first half of FY 2022?
When the company delivered its half-year results on 21 February, investors sent up the A2 Milk share price by 11.1%.
The company recorded double-digit losses across key metrics except for group revenue, but the market shrugged off the poor performance.
Instead, it focused on the near-term future and what changes were being made to get the business back on track.
A2 Milk's managing director and CEO David Bortolussi commented:
Despite challenging market conditions in China and COVID-19 volatility, we are making good progress stabilising the business. The growth strategy we announced in October last year to respond to a rapidly changing China market has been completed and implementation is underway with good early progress across a range of initiatives.
We remain confident in the long-term China infant milk formula market, and we are growing share in our China label business in-store and online with strong consumer offtake and share growth. The actions we took to address excess infant milk formula inventory last year are proving effective, and we are seeing improvements in English label channel inventory levels, market pricing and product freshness.
After the results were released, A2 Milk shares travelled sideways for the following month before heading south.
The share hit a multi-year low of $3.90 on 10 May on the back of extreme volatility impacting the ASX.
Nonetheless, A2 Milk shares rebounded to a four-month high of $5.22 on 4 August when a media report suggested the company was nearing Food and Drug Agency approval to supply infant formula to the United States.
Since then, the share is hovering just below the $5 mark as investors eagerly await the release of the company's full-year results.
This is expected to occur on Monday 29 August.
A2 Milk share price snapshot
Throughout 2022, the A2 Milk share price has fallen 12% as the company navigates its way through changing market dynamics.
For context, the S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary (ASX: XDJ) is down 17% over the same period.
A2 Milk has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 204.08 and commands a market capitalisation of roughly $3.69 billion.
