As most investors would be aware, 2022 hasn't given the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) the easiest start to the year. Even after today's rather healthy gain, the ASX 200 Index remains down around 6% over the year to date. But that loss looks relatively tame compared to that of the Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co Ltd (ASX: SOL) share price.
Soul Patts shares have recorded a 1.47% gain so far this Tuesday and are currently going for $25.55 a share at the time of writing. But since New Year's Day, the company has lost a meaty 17.2% from its share price. That's a loss that's close to triple that of the ASX 200.
It seems even its status as ASX dividend royalty isn't enough to counter market underperformance for a couple of months. Soul Patts is an industrial conglomerate that functions more like a Listed Investment Company than your conventional ASX business these days. It owns vast swathes of a number of other ASX shares. These include TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG), Brickworks Ltd (ASX: BKW), and New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC), amongst others.
Soul Patts is often described as ASX dividend royalty due to its impressive streak of giving investors annual dividend pay rises. Unlike any other share on the ASX 200, Soul Patts has managed to raise its dividend every single year since 2000. That includes over the course of the pandemic thus far.
So is the Soul Patts share price a buy today?
With the company's share price down by 17% so far this year, it's also fallen more than 37% from its all-time high back in August last year.
So that might posit the question: Is the Soul Patts share price a buy today after these steep drops in value?
Well, as it happens, our own Chief Investment Officer Scott Phillips, reckons it just might be. Here's some of what Scott said on a recent episode of AusBiz's The Call:
I like Soul Patts a lot… The last time they put out some numbers, they'd beaten the market over 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 years… So when you're buying Soul Patts, you're buying those listed investments… the share price is actually cheaper than the total value of those investments, so you're getting those investments at a discount.
But you're also getting the fourth generation of the family that has run the company for more than a hundred years. It's a really high-quality business, it's been run really really nicely… If you're a long term investor, this is THE cornerstone position for your portfolio.
So there you have it.
At the current Soul Pattinson share price, this ASX 200 stalwart has a market capitalisation of $9.26 billion, with a dividend yield of 2.42%.
