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Got Milk: Winners win, losers lose as ASX dairy divergence grows wider
Food & Agriculture
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The past month saw a continuation of the recent status quo in ASX dairy stocks, as the sector more broadly continues to struggle for traction.
Over the past year, 11 of the 14 ASX companies with dairy or dairy-adjacent operations have fallen anywhere from 25 to 75 per cent.
Just three stocks have gained ground, two of which — Maggie Beer Holdings (ASX:MBH) and Beston Global (ASX:BFC) — jumped again over the past month while eight stocks fell.
ASX dairy and milk stocks — monthly and yearly performance
| Code | Company | Price | %Mth | %Yr | MktCap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBH | Maggie Beer Holdings | 0.39 | 18% | 215% | $140,228,143 |
| BFC | Beston Global Ltd | 0.1 | 14% | 119% | $84,267,441 |
| HVM | Happy Valley | 0.15 | 11% | -29% | $25,728,463 |
| HRL | Hrlholding | 0.125 | 4% | 51% | $61,722,154 |
| NUC | Nuchev Limited | 0.605 | 1% | -77% | $23,744,909 |
| SM1 | Synlait Milk Ltd | 3.22 | 0% | -51% | $708,204,582 |
| WHA | Wattle Health Au Ltd | 0.5 | 0% | 0% | $115,496,321 |
| BUB | Bubs Aust Ltd | 0.375 | -6% | -65% | $220,599,209 |
| CLV | Clover Corporation | 1.73 | -6% | -24% | $272,748,571 |
| AHF | Aust Dairy Group | 0.047 | -8% | -38% | $24,081,521 |
| JAT | Jatcorp Limited | 0.022 | -8% | -45% | $30,757,497 |
| KTD | Keytone Dairy | 0.14 | -8% | -50% | $38,233,507 |
| BXN | Bioxyne Ltd | 0.019 | -17% | 58% | $12,162,763 |
| A2M | The A2 Milk Company | 5.81 | -22% | -67% | $4,237,441,503 |
| AUK | Aumake Limited | 0.028 | -22% | -52% | $15,059,709 |
Monthly winners
It’s been the best performing food/dairy stock over the past year, and Maggie Beer Holdings continued to track higher in May with a gain of 18%.
The company is still off its January high of almost 50c, but has risen steadily since a May 6 trading update when it flagged ongoing annual net-sales growth in the double digits.
Shares in MBH rose by more than 17% on May 26 after a director’s interest notice which showed that entities related to Maggie Beer had made an on-market acquisition of another 141,302 shares.
The other ASX dairy leader in annual terms, Beston Global, also posted a steady monthly return with a gain of 14%.
The SA-based company, which specialises in dairy products, listed in 2015 with plans to be a China-facing food exporter but has pivoted to focus on the Australian market.
In a letter to shareholders in May, acting CEO Darren Flew highlighted an FT report which identified Beston as the fastest-growing food and beverage company in Australia.
While the stock is still up in annual terms, it has largely trod water since an 81% intraday gain on June 11 last year, when BFC announced the sale of its dairy farms in Mount Gambier to Aurora for $40.4 million in cash.
Rounding out a trio of double-digit percentage gainers over the past month, Happy Valley Nutrition (ASX:HVM) also climbed steadily by around 11% in May.
In early June, HVN confirmed purchase and settlement of a 117 hectare property in New Zealand, where earthworks have commenced ahead of the construction of a state-of-the-art nutritional grade dairy processing facility, the company said.
