It's been a positive day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and ASX shares this Thursday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has lifted by 0.18% to 7,515 points after climbing as high as 7,548 points earlier in the session. But one ASX 200 share that is doing even better is Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS).
Telstra shares are on a roll today. Sure, the 0.12% gain the telco has recorded at present doesn't look that impressive. But earlier this morning, Telstra hit $4.18 a share. That's a new 52-week high for the ASX 200 blue-chip veteran.
Telstra shares are now up around 15.5% since the company's last 52-week low of $3.62 that we saw back in September last year.
It's also very close to a new five-year high for Telstra. Back in January 2022, the company rose as high as $4.22 a share. But you'd have to go back to 2017 to find the last time the Telstra share price was above $4.31 a share:
Of course, this is not an all-time high for the company. Not even close. Back in Tesltra's early ASX days in the late 1990s, the company got pretty close to asking $9 a share. We're not even halfway to that historical high water mark today.
But it's been a long time since Telstra was at those kinds of prices. The closest the telco got to those heights was back in early 2015 when it looked like the company was closing in on $7. But it wasn't to last, and Telstra fell a nasty 60% or so between early 2015 and mid-2018.
But enough history. So why are Telstra shares tilling new highs today?
Image source: Getty Images
Why are Telstra shares at a new 52-week high today?
Well, it's got nothing to do with anything out of the company itself, since Tesltra's last ASX announcement was back on 4 January. So perhaps investors are taking note of what ASX brokers have been saying of late.
As my Fool colleague James covered this morning, ASX broker Morgans has given Telstra shares a buy rating, complete with a 12-month share price target of $4.65.
The broker reckons Telstra shares are undervalued today, given the value of the company's underlying infrastructure assets. It's also predicting Tesltra will maintain its generous dividend policy over the next few years.
Fellow broker Goldman Sachs has an equally bullish outlook on the telco as well, with its own share price target of $4.60.
So it's possible that investors are taking these brokers at their word and are buying into Telstra and driving up its share price. No doubt Telstra investors will be unable to find too much fault in what is happening.
At the current Tesltra share price, this ASX 200 telco has a market capitalisation of $48 billion, with a dividend yield of 3.97%.
