The rally for shares in Safaricom continued on Friday’s (Aug 25 2017) trading session with the stock touching a new all time high of Sh 26.75 in what is proving to be the stock’s breakout year.
A price 26.75 per share would bring the Safaricom’s market cap to about Sh 1.1 Trillion, which is nearly half the value of the company’s listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
What’s fueling this rise in share price?
The stock has risen by more than 40% on a Year to Date Basis and up by over 70% since 9th March 2017 when it hit a low of 15 on the proposal to separate M-Pesa from the Telco.
It appears that investors are in a hurry to get a piece of the company’s Dividend of Sh 0.97 ahead of the company’s book closure on Friday 1st 2017.
There is a lot of anticipation about the company’s plans to expand M-Pesa services to cover all African markets, apart from South Africa, where M-Pesa already failed and Tanzania, where the service is already doing well under its sister company Vodacom.
CEO Bob Collymore adds stake
According to it’s latest (2017) Annual Report, the company’s CEO Bob Collymore has upped his stake in the Telco after purchasing an additional 296,400 shares worth Sh7.5 million. Bob Now owns 1.52 Million Safaricom shares.
Under bob collymore’s tenure, the company’s share price has risen by more than 480% from Sh 4.68 posted on 1st November 2010 when he took charge. SCOM’s market cap under has also grown by nearly Sh 900 Billion since he took over.
Related; Safaricom to launch E-Commerce site dubbed “Masoko”
