Where next for the Ashtead (LON:AHT) share price?

Shares in Ashtead (LON:AHT) have been in an uptrend in recent months, and the question now for investors is whether that price strength will continue.

Finding stocks with the potential to break-out as their popularity grows is a strategy used by some of the world’s most successful traders.

Knowing exactly what drives relative strength in share prices can help you find profitable momentum trades. I’m going to use Ashtead as an example of how this can work.

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How has the Ashtead (LON:AHT) share price performed?

Ashtead is a adventurous, large cap in the Business Support Services industry and it has a market cap of £9,866m.

In terms of relative price strength against the FTSE All-Share index, shares in Ashtead are up by 7.83% over six months and up by 2.58% over one year.

Relative strength is a useful tool in the armoury of technical traders and investors. It’s an instant measure of how a stock has performed in comparison with a benchmark.

And while there are no certainties about which way a stock will move next, research shows that price trends often persist.

Studies by leading experts on momentum show that stocks with the strongest price strength tend to keep up the pace for anywhere up to one year. A big part of the reason for this is down to investor behaviour. In particular, it's caused by:

• Under-reaction - prices are slow to move up because investors are hesitant to bid prices higher in stocks that have already been on a strong run.

• Delayed over-reaction - investors chasing rising prices attract the attention of other investors, who follow them into those trades, pushing prices higher and higher.

In both cases, stocks with positive price momentum often see their prices trend higher.

Next steps

Ashtead is currently among the stocks with the strongest six-month and one-year relative price strength in the market. A look at its StockReport could offer more insight into what’s driving the momentum in its share price - and whether that might continue.

To find more stocks like Ashtead, you'll need to equip yourself with professional-grade data and screening tools. This kind of information has traditionally been closely guarded by professional fund managers. But our team of financial analysts have carefully constructed this screen - Stockopedia’s Price Momentum - which gives you everything you need. So why not come and take a look?