Ocado has been crowned the best performer of the FTSE 350 so far this year as confidence in the online grocer continues to grow.
At the turn of the fourth quarter of 2018, Ocado’s share prices have jumped a whopping 126 per cent from 329.5p in January to 898.8p this month.
“Ocado’s been the stand out performer so far this year after sealing a deal with the US supermarket group Kroger to license out its technology,” Hargreaves Lansdown’s senior analyst Laith Khalaf said.
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The deal, announced in May, sent Ocado’s shares skyrocketing 44 per cent.
Kroger, which serves around 9 million people per day and boasts around 2800 stores, announced that it would implement Ocado’s technology across its warehouses in exchange for a five per cent stake in Ocado.
Khalaf added: “13.5% of the company’s stock was out on loan to short sellers at the beginning of this year, so there are hedge funds nursing some pretty charred fingers out there.
“Ocado still needs to turn promise into profits, but the last twelve months have seen the company confound its critics.”
Ocado has struck numerous partnerships over the past year, after coming under pressure from investors over a delay in securing international deals after missing a self-imposed deadline of the end of 2015.
Other deals so far locked in by Ocado include one in France with supermarket giant Groupe Casino, in Canada with Sobeys and in Sweden with ICA.
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