Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG), as of this morning, has joined the small but growing list of ASX companies that have now disclosed their FY2020 full-year earnings in this August reporting season.
By all indications, it has been well received by investors — judging by the 2.7% the market has added to Magellan shares today (at the time of writing). And fair enough too. The company did deliver a 20% rise in net profit after tax and a 10% bump for its dividend. Not bad for a year containing a pandemic and a share market crash.
So at its current level of $63.34 per share, is the Magellan share price a buy today?
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What's new at Magellan?
Magellan is amongst the largest fund managers in the country. It has exploded in value in recent years as it drew in investors with its globally focused, outperforming funds. For some context, 5 years ago Magellan was only asking around $19 a share. Fund managers are often quite cyclical or volatile companies as investors tend to pile in when markets are booming and pile out again when market's crash.
We saw this in play earlier in the year, when Magellan went from around $75 a share to roughly $35 in the space of a month back in March and April. However, the share price has quickly rebounded in recent months, helped by massive fund inflows and continued outperformance during the market crash. To illustrate, Magellan's flagship Global Fund has returned -0.25% over the past 6 months, which compares nicely against the -13.7% that the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has delivered over the same period.
Magellan has also announced a few new developments over the past week or 2. It will be restructuring its unlisted Global Fund and its listed equivalents — the Magellan Global Trust (ASX: MGG) and the Magellan Global Equities Fund (ASX: MGE) — into a ~$15 billion consolidated fund that will offer both open- and closed-ended units.
Along with its earnings today, Magellan also announced it will be expanding into offering low-cost, diversified exchange-traded products under a new 'MFG Core' brand. According to reporting in the Australian Financial Review (AFR), these new 'Core' funds will offer management fees of just 0.5% per annum and will follow an 'active ETF' model.
Is the Magellan share price a buy today?
I think Magellan is a great company and one that any ASX investor can consider adding to their portfolios. It's reasonably priced (in my opinion) right now at nearly 15% off of its 52-week high for one. I also think that the new initiatives that Magellan are pursuing are very positive and will likely lead to strong growth in the months and years ahead. Thus, I would absolutely consider the current Magellan share price a buy today.
