Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB) shares have made stockholders very happy this year.
How happy?
Well, on 2 January, shares in the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) biotech company were trading for 31 cents before dipping as low as 26 cents in early February.
But by 25 March, Mesoblast shares had rebounded to 33 cents, up 6.5% for the year.
And soon after, the share price went ballistic.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, shares were up 3.5% at $1.11 apiece.
That's up an eye-watering 258% so far in 2024. (And 326% higher for investors fortunate enough to have bought the February dip.)
Sticking with the year-to-date gains, however, you could have bought 24,242 Mesoblast shares with an $8,000 investment on 2 January.
Today, those same shares would be worth – drum roll please – a whopping $26,909!
(And, since I know you're wondering, if you'd bought shares on 9 February for 26 cents apiece, that $8,000 investment would now be worth a staggering $34,153. In less than three months.)
Here's what's been stoking ASX investor interest.
Image source: Getty Images
Why are Mesoblast shares going gangbusters?
The big boost for Mesoblast shares kicked off on 26 March.
That came after the company released encouraging news from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concerning its remestemcel-L treatment.
Mesoblast is developing remestemcel-L to treat inflammatory diseases, including steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease and biologic-resistant inflammatory bowel disease.
And on 26 March, ASX investors learned that, after examining additional clinical data from Mesoblast's phase 3 study, the FDA had determined the results were sufficient to support the resubmission of Mesoblast's proposed Biologics License Application (BLA) for remestemcel-L.
Mesoblast shares closed up 45.5% on the day, trading for 48 cents apiece.
The share price continued to march higher over the following trading days and rocketed another 71.2% on 2 April to 95 cents a share.
The ASX biotech stock has continued to trend higher since then, after the company revealed it intends to file that resubmission this quarter.
Quarterly update
As for the three months gone by, Mesoblast released its quarterly update for the three months to 31 March on Tuesday, 30 April.
With royalty receipts of only US$1.7 million, the company reported an operating cash outflow of US$11.6 million and a cash balance of US$76.4 million.
Mesoblast shares closed down 8.8% on the day, only to rebound by 11.1% on Wednesday 1 May, as investors refocused on the potential opportunities ahead.
