It's been a great day, and week so far, for ASX shares and the S&P/SX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). This Tuesday has seen the ASX 200 rise by another 0.25% at the time of writing, having almost hit a new record high earlier in the trading day. But let's talk about the Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) share price.
Fortescue shares are on fire today. The ASX 200 iron ore mining giant closed at $29.25 yesterday. But this morning, those same shares opened at $29.50 each before climbing to a new record high of $29.75. The shares are hovering around that level at present at $29.70, up 1.54% for the day.
As recently as September 2023, it would have been unthinkable for most investors to picture Fortescue shares at $30 each. After all, that was when Fortescue stock was going for less than $20 a pop.
But as it stands today, these latest gains put the iron miner up a chunky 33.93% over the past 12 months, and up more than 400% since early 2019.
No doubt Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is a very happy man right now.
So why is the Fortescue share price sitting at almost $30 each today?
Why are Fortescue shares at a new record high this Tuesday?
Well, there's little doubt that Forescue's latest quarterly report is helping to lure investors into the stock. As my Fool colleague Bernd covered just last week, Forescue's report covering the three months to 31 December was exceptionally well received.
The company revealed that it shipped 48.7 million tonnes over the period. That brought its shipments for the six months to 31 December to 94.6 million tonnes, the second-highest half-year in Fortescue's history. What's more, the company was able to achieve average revenue of US$116 per tonne. You do the maths.
Fortescue also maintained its guidance for the whole 2024 financial year at between 192-197 million tonnes.
In some other news, we also looked at broker Citi's forecasts for the iron ore price just today. As my Fool colleague reported, Citi is expecting iron ore to surge as high as US$150 per tonne in the coming three months.
As such, it's not difficult to see why investors are fighting over themselves to get a slice of the action over at Forescue. At the current Fortescue share price, this ASX 200 miner has a market capitalisation of $90.05 billion, with a dividend yield of 5.89%.
