The listed investment company (LIC) WAM Capital Limited (ASX: WAM) recently announced its FY21 report. Is it a great ASX dividend share?
FY21 Result
LICs generate their profit from the changes in value of shares in the portfolio. Investment gains make profits and investment declines causes accounting losses in the report. So there can be some big swings year to year, like FY20 (a loss) and FY21 (a big profit).
WAM Capital reported that it achieved a record operating profit before tax of $343.3 million, up from a loss of $47.2 million. It saw a record operating profit after tax of $266.6 million (up from a loss of $26.7 million).
During the year, the WAM Capital investment portfolio increased by 37.5% before fees, expenses and taxes. It outperformed the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 7.3%.
The LIC generated a total shareholder return (that’s the share price plus dividends) of 28.9% for FY21.
WAM Capital dividend
The WAM Capital board decided to pay a final FY21 dividend of 7.75 cents per share, bringing the full year dividend to 15.5 cents. That was the same as the last financial year.
WAM Capital has paid a 7.75 cents per share dividend every six months since 2018.
Is WAM Capital a great ASX dividend share?
That’s a good question and I think it needs various perspectives.
When you look at the current fully franked dividend yield of almost 7%, you can see that it has a very solid dividend yield. High yields can often mean a cut is coming on with some ASX shares, but WAM Capital has grown or maintained its dividend every year since the GFC. That’s a strong record.
However, there has been a price to that dividend. WAM Capital’s share price is almost exactly where it was five years ago (and the underlying value – the net tangible assets (NTA) per share hasn’t changed too much either).
LICs generate their profit from investment returns. WAM Capital has been paying out almost all of its profit generated out as a dividend over the last few years.
One of the difficulties is that WAM Capital trades at a premium to its NTA share, being the underlying value. At 31 July 2021, it had a pre-tax NTA of $1.89 compared to a share price of $2.21. That’s a premium of 17%. Not great value at the moment.
It also means that the 15.5 cents per share dividend represents a fully franked yield on NTA of 8.2% (and 11.7% including the franking credits). So WAM Capital needs to produce after-fee returns in the realm of that 11.7% just to maintain the fully franked dividend and profit reserve in the longer-term.
The WAM Capital performance has been strong since the onset of COVID-19. In FY21 its gross portfolio performance was 37.5%. Over the long-term the performance has been solid as well. In the last decade the gross portfolio return has been an average of 14% per annum and since inception in 1999 the gross performance had been an average of 16.6% per annum. But in the last five years, the average gross return has been 11.9% per annum (which excludes fees and includes this great year in FY21).
I think it will be a difficult, but not impossible, task for the portfolio to produce very strong returns in the medium term from here with interest rates not going any lower and shares having gone through this boom period. WAM Capital is also a much bigger business after making (smart) acquisitions. It’s harder to make strong returns the bigger your company becomes, just ask Berkshire Hathaway.
But WAM Capital may be able to do it. The LIC is positioned in businesses that could eventually benefit from the ‘reopening’ after COVID-19 like Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX: VEA), Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) and Event Hospitality and Entertainment Ltd (ASX: EVT).
Final thoughts
I’m looking for ASX dividend shares that may be able to produce capital growth and good dividends over time. WAM Capital ticks the dividend box, but its yield and fees make the capital growth part difficult.
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