The Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Ltd (ASX: SOL), or Soul Patts, share price is in the green today. That's despite earlier being in the red.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) diversified investment house closed yesterday trading for $33.97. In morning trade on Thursday, shares are swapping hands for $34.29 apiece, up 0.94%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.59% at this same time.
This comes following the release of Soul Patts' financial results for the year ended 31 July (FY 2024).
Here are the highlights.
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Soul Patts share price higher following dividend boost
- Revenue from continuing operations, up 32% from FY 2023 to $831.9 million
- Profit after tax attributable to members, down 28% year on year to 498.8 million
- Net cash flow from investments up 10% to 468.0 million
- Net Asset Value (pre-tax) of $11.8 billion, up 9.3% year on year
- Final fully franked dividend of 55 cents per share, up 7.8% from the prior final dividend
What else happened in FY 2024?
The Soul Patts share price is edging higher following the increased full-year cash generation from the company's Private Equity, Emerging Companies and Credit Portfolios, which helped boost its net cash flow from investments by 10.3% from FY 2023.
This enabled the boosted final dividend, which brings the full FY 2024 dividend payment to 95 cents per share, fully franked, up 9.2% from the prior year. Notably, for passive income investors, this now represents 24 years of consecutive growth in Soul Patts dividends. That's the longest growth record of any company on the ASX.
Eligible shareholders can expect payment on 8 November, either to their elected bank account or in new Soul Patts shares. Earlier this month, Soul Patts announced the introduction of a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP).
The company said that the 8.7% increase in Soul Patts' portfolio to a net asset value of $11.8 billion was driven by strong performance across all of its portfolios. Adjusted for dividends, this represents a return of 12.0% in FY 2024.
On the negative side of the ledger, statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) decreased 27.8% from FY 2023 to $498.8 million, while regular NPAT decreased by 35.8% to $487.6 million. Management said these declines reflect lower profit contributions from Brickworks Ltd (ASX: BKW) and New Hope Corp Ltd (ASX: NHC) within Soul Patts' Strategic Portfolio.
What did management say?
Commenting on the results that are lifting the Soul Patts share price today, CEO Todd Barlow said:
Our strategy of long-term commitment to building value, strength in conviction when making investment decisions, and unconstrained mandate to invest where we can extract the highest quality returns, continues to deliver for our shareholders…
During the financial year, we invested $2.8 billion in high quality resilient and growing businesses. Total transaction activity of $4.7 billion is indicative of an active investment period that has aligned the portfolio more closely with our long-term strategic and investment objectives.
Soul Patts share price snapshot
The Soul Patts share price is up more than 4% in 2024.
