Wilson Asset Management (WAM) ASX Listed Investment Company (LIC) WAM Global Ltd (ASX: WGB) shares are rising today, up 0.75% at the time of writing to $2.67 a share.
This move comes as the company unveiled its FY2021 full-year earnings results this morning. And it makes for some interesting reading.
WAM Global is one of the more recent WAM ASX LICs to hit the share market, only listing back in 2018. But in the past 3 or so years, this company has certainly made a reputation for itself as a top performer in the ASX LIC space. Its investment portfolio has managed to deliver an average return of 16% per annum over the past 2 years, and 30.7% over the past 12 months.
Image source: Getty Images
ASX LIC WAM Global delivers record profits, ups dividends
Today's numbers probably won't do anything to dent this reputation either. WAM Global reported that it has delivered a record operating profit before tax of $137 million for FY2021. That's up quite a bit from FY2020's profit before tax of $7.1 million. After tax, the company reported a profit of $95.9 million. That's also up substantially from FY2020's $5 million profit after tax.
WAM Global's management tells us that including the dividends paid out, as well as the Net Tangible Asset (NTA) to share price gap of WAM Global narrowing from 18.2% at the start of FY21 to 3.9% at its conclusion, total shareholder return for the financial year stands at 45.9%.
WAM Global had previously flagged that it would be paying out an annual dividend of 10 cents per share in FY2021. And today's results have confirmed it. Investors will be receiving the 5 cents per share final dividend (which comes fully franked) on 4 November this year. That's a 25% increase on FY2020's final dividend of 4 cents per share.
WAM Global will be paying out 10 cents a share for FY21. This represents a 42.9% increase in dividend payments from FY2020's 7 cents per share.
Some of this LIC's top shares
The company also gave investors a glimpse into its current investment portfolio (as of 30 June anyway). WAM Global's largest holding is Irish pharmaceutical company Icon plc (NASDAQ: ICLR), at 3.9% of the portfolio. Other significant holdings include payments giant Visa Inc (NYSE: V) and Avantor Inc (NUSE: AVTR). As well as Electronic Arts Inc. (NYSE: EA) and Chinese e-commerce titan Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG: 0700).
At the current WAM Global ASX share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $627.5 million. With investors receiving 10 cents per share in dividends in 2021, WAM GLobal's ASX shareholders can expect a forward dividend yield of 3.75% on current pricing, or 5.35% grossed-up with full franking.
