AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) shares are climbing higher in Tuesday morning trade.
At the time of writing, the ASX financial shares are up just over 3% and changing hands for $2.26 each.
The increase is good news for investors after the financial services company's shares crashed around 16% earlier this month after a third-quarter solvency report, published by China Life Pension Company (CLPC) on 30 October 2026 and which noted a net profit decline, caused investors to sell up.
The decline also raised a red flag with the ASX, which then issued a price query to AMP on Monday 2nd of November requesting information about a significant increase in the volume of AMP securities traded that morning.
AMP holds a 19.99% strategic equity stake in CLPC, making it a primary component of its Partnerships & Group reporting segment, and its contributions flow directly into AMP's overall profitability.
It looks like profit-taking investors started selling off their shares after the news created near-term earnings concerns and offshore volatility for AMP. However, the company maintains that its FY26 partnership guidance is unchanged.
Since the selloff, AMP shares have rebounded around 6%.
The shares are up around 23% for the year-to-date and 31% higher than 12 months ago, at the time of writing.
Image source: Getty Images
Why are the shares climbing higher again today?
There isn't any price-sensitive news out of the company this week.
But AMP announced yesterday that it has completed its $150 million on-market share buyback. This takes the total completed on-market share buyback for FY26 to $300 million.
It's not unusual for share prices to climb higher following a completed buyback because buying back shares reduces the total number of ordinary shares on issue. This automatically boosts per-share financial metrics like earnings per share (EPS).
Are AMP shares a bargain buy? Or have they reached a ceiling?
In my view, as a business, AMP has performed strongly this year.
It has managed to execute an operational turnaround in 2026, improving its earnings and reigniting investor confidence, and posted a strong financial result.
Over the course of the year, its assets under management (AUM) have climbed, its wealth business has improved, it has boosted its interim dividend, and it has also completed a series of share buybacks.
As part of its third-quarter FY26 cash flow and business update in October, AMP confirmed a 20% increase of its platforms net cash flows.
The update follows the company's first-half FY26 results announcement in August where it revealed a 33% increase in underlying NPAT and an 8.2% increase in AUM.
Experts are mostly confident that AMP can keep outperforming, too.
TradingView data shows that the majority (five out of nine) of analysts have a buy/strong buy rating on AMP shares. Another three have a hold rating and one rates the stock as a sell.
However, all agree there will be some element of upside ahead.
The average $2.59 target price implies an upside of around 15%, at the time of writing. That's just 3% shy of the $2.66 eight-year high that AMP shares reached in late September.
At the latest $2.26 trading price, I think AMP shares look like a bargain buy for a financially sound and growing business with a robust projected upside.
