The AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) share price has been on quite an impressive run of late. Today, AMP shares are going for $1.29 each, up a healthy 1.33% for the day so far.
While AMP remains in the red for the year to date (down 0.4%), the financial services company has climbed an impressive 32% over just the past six months, leaving behind its sub-$1 share price:
A major factor behind AMP's recent success was the well-received earnings report the company delivered last month. As we reported at the time, 10 August saw AMP reveal that it had brought in $1.42 billion in revenues for the first half of the 2023 financial year. That was a 31% rise on the same period last year.
Statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) fell by 44% to $261 million. However, underlying NPAT shot up 23.9% to $57 million. AMP also declared an interim dividend of 25 cents per share, which was flat on last year's payout.
On the day these earnings came out, AMP shares jumped by 4.55%, and by another 8.7% the following day. So it seems investors enthusiastically approved of what the company had to say for itself.
But now that AMP shares have run up so enthusiastically over the past six months, what does the future hold? Could the AMP share price have further to climb?
Is the AMP share price still a buy today?
One ASX investor who thinks so is Wilson Asset Management (WAM). In its fund update for August, Wilson discussed its views on the AMP share price, which is held by its WAM Stategic Value Ltd (ASX: WAR) listed investment company (LIC).
Here's some of what WAM had to say on AMP:
AMP's share price increased 11.9% during [August] as the company delivered better-than-anticipated results for the half year ended 30 June 2023. In addition to reducing costs during the first half of calendar year 2023, AMP reached an agreement to settle a shareholder class action with the settlement amount being met by available insurance proceeds. AMP continues to utilise available cash for accretive capital management initiatives.
Since August 2022, $610 million has been returned to shareholders with a further $140 million expected to be returned by October 2023 through the payment of the interim dividend and a residual on-market buy-back. We believe that the settlement of the class action, continued effort to simplify the business and reduce costs, as well as further capital management initiatives commencing later this year will continue to drive share price performance in the medium term.
So WAM clearly thinks AMP has further to run, which explains its current presence in the WAM Strategic Value portfolio.
We'll have to wait and see if WAM is indeed on the money with the AMP share price here. But if AMP does continue to undertake share buybacks and other capital management initiatives, it might well prove to be supportive of a higher share price.
