Agriculture stock Kakuzi (NSE:KUKZ) has rebounded by 76.9 per cent over the past four weeks to lift the share price to levels last seen 10 months ago.
The share has been on an upward trend, albeit trading on thin volumes, moving from Sh240 on March 29 to close Tuesday trading at Sh424.50 to become the top gainer on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in under a month.
Only Umeme and Unga, with one-month gains of 40 percent and 35.3 percent respectively, have come closer to Kakuzi’s rally despite the daily traded volumes of the agriculture stock averaging below 200 units.
Kakuzi’s share price had on March 20 plunged 37.5 percent from Sh384.25 to Sh240 despite announcing record earnings and raising dividends for the financial year ended December 2022.
The firm raised its dividend payout by nine percent to a record Sh24 per share or a total of Sh470.3 million after net profit more than doubled to Sh845.8 million from Sh319.7 million a year earlier.
The latest gain, which takes its share price to levels only rivalled by the Sh441.25 that was recorded on July 5 last year, means Kakuzi has more than recovered from the sudden plunge that hit it in a day it announced full-year results.
The share last Friday gained 9.97 percent to emerge as the top gainer for the day on trade of 100 shares. It remained unchanged on Tuesday, having not recorded a trade on the day.
Kakuzi opened the year at Sh385 and has since gained 10.3 percent on that price valuation, ranking it among the top 15 NSE counters in terms of year-to-date performance.
The firm’s sales for last year increased 34.5 percent to Sh4.4 billion, which the company attributed to higher production and exports of its key products led by avocado.
Kakuzi said production of Hass and Pinkerton avocados rose and there was also a higher contribution from both macadamia and tea operations.
The firm says it plans to grow avocado exports to the Chinese market which has the potential to become one of the largest destinations for Kenyan fruit.
