It's been a rather wild Wednesday session for ASX shares so far today. At the time of writing, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has gained 0.24% and is back over 8,304 points after falling as much as 0.3% earlier this morning.
But let's talk about what's happening with the Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) share price.
Qantas shares are happily defying the broader market to push higher this session. The ASX 200 travel stock and national carrier closed at $9.29 a share yesterday afternoon and opened at $9.30 this morning. But soon after market open, Qantas stock pushed as high as $9.37 a share.
Not only is that a new 52-week high for the airline, but a new all-time record high. Not bad for a company that has been around for more than a century (albeit only a few decades on the ASX).
Qantas stock is not the only prominent ASX share that has received a boost today. This Wednesday's trading session has been kind to Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) shares, which hit a new 52-week high of their own ($4.09) this morning as well.
But back to Qantas, today's rise puts the Qantas share price up a healthy 4.25% in 2025 so far. The Flying Kangaroo is also up a whopping 76% or so over the past 12 months. So this has been a very lucrative investment to hold in recent times indeed. For investors who picked up Qantas shares for under $2.20 each back in the depths of the COVID crash of 2020, they would now be up more than 300%.
Check that all out for yourself below:
Image source: Getty Images
Why is the Qantas share price at a new record high today?
Well, that's a bit of a mystery. We haven't had any major news or announcements out of Qantas itself for quite a while. The last major news ticked came out back in mid-December.
As we covered at the time, this wasn't even positive news, with the airline revealing it had agreed to pay out a compensation package worth $120 million to workers who were allegedly illegally fired during the COVID pandemic.
However, it is possible that investors are taking their leads from brokers when it comes to the Qantas share price.
The airline has been the beneficiary of some broker love in recent weeks. As we discussed late last month, broker Morgan Stanley has been telling clients to buy the carrier, giving Qantas an 'overweight' rating. Morgan Stanley also gave the Qantas share price a 12-month price target of $10.50, which implies a potential upside of around 12.7% from current prices.
The broker anticipates that Qantas will benefit from lower fuel prices in 2025, which should allow the airline to continue its share buybacks and even reinstate a dividend this year.
So perhaps this rosy outlook is driving investors into Qantas stock in 2025 so far, and specifically this Wednesday. Let's see how much higher Qantas shares fly from here.
