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In Australia, where interest rates currently at record low levels, ASX-dividend stocks are quite popular among investors. In terms of upcoming dividends, WAM Microcap Limited and WAM Leaders Limited are two stocks that have recently declared dividends which will be paid in April 2020. Both of these stocks are part of the WAM Asset Management Group. We have put together data of four WAM Family members who have demonstrated a good track record of paying dividends.
WAM Microcap Limited (ASX:WMI)
In the first half of FY20, WAM Microcap Limited witnessed a 311.9% increase in operating profit before tax to $27.3 million and a 333.1% increase in operating profit after tax to $19.7 million, reflecting strong investment portfolio performance and the growth in assets over the period. During the half-year period, the company’s investment portfolio increased by 18.5%, achieved through diligent research and the intensive schedule of meetings with company management teams.
The Board has announced a fully franked dividend of 3 cents per share, representing a 33.3% increase on the prior corresponding period. As per the company’s update provided on 4 February 2020, the dividend is representing a fully franked dividend yield of 4.2%.
(Source: Company’s Report)
Since June 2017, WAM Microcap Limited has paid 12.75 cents per share in fully franked dividends to its shareholders. This is a result of the company’s investment portfolio’s strong performance since inception. The dividends are in line with the company’s goal of delivering investors a stream of fully franked dividends. The company’s profit reserves currently stand at 28.3 cents per share and form a part of the NTA.
WAM Microcap is optimistic that the Australian housing market has bottomed and sees value in the mining services sector due to improving commodity prices and miners’ requirements for infrastructure investment to maintain production levels.
In the last six months, WMI stock price has increased by 17.58%. At market close on 4 February 2020, WMI stock was trading at $1.470, up by 2.439% intraday, with a market cap of around $202.96 million.
WAM Leaders Limited (ASX:WLE)
In the first half of FY20, WAM Leaders Limited achieved a 185.8% increase in operating profit before tax to $56.2 million a 201.9% increase in operating profit before tax to $43.3 million.
Increase in the profit caused the Board to increase the interim dividend by 22.6% to 3.25 cents per share, as compared to pcp. The dividend has a record date of 16 April 2020 and Payment date of 28 April 2020.
Since the company’s inception in May 2016, WAM Leaders Limited has delivered 13.65 cents per share in fully franked dividends to its shareholders, achieved through the strong performance of the investment portfolio since inception.
During the six months period, the company’s investment portfolio increased by 6.6%, archived through strong portfolio positioning during the period.
Last year as well, the company had achieved strong growth with assets growing by 14.8 percent to $992.3 mn while maintaining the operating profit before tax of $90.1 mn during the period. During FY19, the company paid tax of $10.8 million and dividends of $36.0 million. The growth in assets was the result of the strong performance of the company’s investment portfolio, which increased 10.9 per year during the year. Last year, the Board had declared a 20.0% increase in the fully franked final dividend to 3.0 cents per share (cps), bringing the full-year dividend to 5.65 cents per share, an increase of 13.0% on the previous year.
At market close on 4 February 2020, WLE stock was trading at $1.265 with a market cap of $989.28 million.
WAM Research Limited (ASX:WAX)
During the last financial year i.e., FY19 WAM Research Limited enhanced its shareholder returns through the payment of fully franked dividends. For the period, WAM Research increased the fully franked full-year dividend to 9.7 cents per share, with the fully franked final dividend being 4.85 cents per share which were paid on 18 October 2019. Since the inception of the company, WAM Research has delivered 104.30 cps in fully franked dividends to shareholders (refer below image).
(Source: Company’s Reports)
During CY2019, the WAM Research investment portfolio increased by 23.7% with an average cash level of 25.4%. In December 2019, the portfolio decreased by 1.1% however it outperformed S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by 0.8%. Metal detection company Codan (ASX:CDA) and essential network services company Service Stream (ASX:SSM) were the contributors to the portfolio. During December month, CDA’s stock price increased by 13.2% and SSM share price increased by 7.7%.
At the end of December 2019, WAM Research had a Pre-tax NTA (Net Tangible Asset) of $1.18 per share. The company’s gross assets and liquid assets stand at $229 million and $182.9 million, respectively.
WAX stock currently has an annual dividend yield of 6.78% and is trading at a market price of $1.430 with a market price of $274.74 million.
WAM Capital Limited (ASX:WAM)
Last year, WAM Capital Limited achieved continued growth and was able to increase the shareholders equity to $1,344.4 mn and total shareholder numbers to 34,415, mainly due to the result of strong performance of the company’s investment portfolio and the capital management initiatives taken over the year. During FY19, WAM Capital recorded an operating profit before tax of $6.0 million and an operating profit after tax of $14.5 million and declared a fully franked dividend of 15.5 cents per share, representing a 7.7% yield on the 30 June 2019 share price of $2.02. Since the inception of the company, WAM Capital Limited has provided 238.50 cents per share in fully franked dividends to shareholders.
WAM Capital Limited Dividend since Inception (Source: Company Reports)
During CY2019, WAM investment portfolio increased by 22.4 per cent. During December 2019, the portfolio outperformed S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation index by 1.6%. During the month, one of the contributor was Ooh!Media which witnessed 16.3% increase in its share price during December 2019.
At the end of December 2019, WAM’s NTA was 187.10 cents with gross assets of $1,366.3 million.
WAM currently has an annual dividend yield of 6.95% and is currently trading at a market price of $2.250 with a market cap of around $1.61 billion. The stock is currently trading near to its 52 weeks high price of $2.340.
