The AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) share price has staged a remarkable turnaround since late November.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) financial stock closed yesterday trading for $1.315. In early afternoon trade on Thursday, shares are swapping hands for $1.34 apiece, up 1.9%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.3% at this same time, with the benchmark index on a bit of a rollercoaster today following the overnight 0.50% interest rate cut by the US Fed.
As you can see on the chart below, today's gains have pushed the AMP share price up 44% year to date and a remarkable 57% since the close on 22 November.
This also sees the ASX 200 financial stock trading at fresh 52-week highs.
Here's what's been driving investor interest.
What's boosting the AMP share price?
The AMP share price came under pressure in November last year amid deteriorating net interest margins (NIMs).
But it seems investors were premature in bidding down the stock. On 14 February, AMP reported some strong results for the full 2023 financial year (FY 2023).
Highlights included a 6.5% year on year increase in underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) to $196 million.
The company also slashed its net debt by $337 million, while its underlying earnings per share of 6.8 cents were up 19.3% from FY 2022.
"2023 was a year of progress for AMP," AMP CEO Alexis George said of the results.
She added:
We have repositioned the portfolio with the completion of the AMP Capital sales, built momentum in our cost-out program, and resolved a number of significant legacy legal matters.
Investors responded by sending the AMP share price up 10.3% on the day.
And AMP has continued to strike the right chords in the first half of FY 2024.
The company released its half-year results on 8 August.
While total revenue for the six months of $641 million was down 4% from the prior corresponding half year, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of $153 million was up 4.1%. And underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) increased by 5.4% to $118 million.
Likely helping spur investor interest was the strong 22.7% increase in underlying profit of $54 million in AMP's Platform business.
"We have made good progress this half on our key strategic commitments, and we have positive momentum heading into the second half of the year," George said at the time.
The AMP share price gained 13.3% on the day of the company's half-year results announcement.
