WAA

 WAA WAM active

https://www.asx.com.au/markets/company/WAA

..................

WAM Active Limited (ASX: WAA) operates as a Listed Investment Company (LIC), meaning its financial metrics look very different from a standard operating business. [1, 2]

Because it functions as an investment fund, its "profit" is entirely dependent on market cycles, and it traditionally carries 0% debt. [1, 2]

Over the last 10 years, WAA has maintained solid consistency, punctuated by an absolute record-breaking year in FY2026 driven by heavily concentrated bets in small-cap resources, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence

....................

📊 Financial Breakdown Over the Decades

1. Profit & Investment Income

The Trend: WAA’s net profit fluctuates significantly from year to year because it relies on the realized and unrealized gains of its stock portfolio. Historically, it captures modest single-digit millions in quieter market years (e.g., $5.8M in FY23, $7.4M in FY24). []
Recent Performance: The company recorded its strongest financial year since its 2008 inception in FY2026. Driven by an astronomical portfolio return of 75.5%, operating profit before tax surged 360% to $48.1M AUD, while operating profit after tax grew to $33.8M AUD. [1]

2. Debt Levels

The Trend: WAA has consistently maintained 0% debt/equity leverage.
Why it matters: As an LIC focused on an active trading style with small-cap equities, it manages liquidity entirely through cash reserves rather than debt. During volatile patches in 2026, its cash holdings peaked at 35.5% to mitigate risk and maintain buying power. [1, 2, 3]

3. Return on Equity (ROE) & Management Effectiveness

The Trend: ROE generally hovers between 9% to 13% during normal market conditions (e.g., 9.1% in FY23, 10.4% in FY25).
Recent Performance: Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) figures place its Return on Equity at 17.29%, driven by the aggressive tailwinds of its underlying portfolio allocations. [1, 3]

4. Dividends & Capital Management

The Trend: Providing a regular income stream via fully franked dividends is a core objective. WAA has a 10+ year track record of paying robust, fully franked dividends. [1]
Recent Performance: Capitalizing on the FY26 windfalls, the board distributed a total of 9.4 cents per share (6.4¢ full-year dividend + 3.0¢ in special dividends), offering a grossed-up dividend yield of roughly 12.7%. [1]

---

⚠️ The Catch: The Share Price vs. NTA Discount

When looking at WAA's 10-year trajectory, a crucial metric for investors is the relationship between its share price and its Net Tangible Assets (NTA). [1, 2]

Even though its underlying portfolio grew at an annualized rate of 13.3% since inception, the Total Shareholder Return (TSR) over the past 5 to 10 years has slightly lagged behind the actual portfolio performance. For instance, while its 5-year portfolio return to mid-2026 was a massive 20.6% p.a., the actual shareholder return was 9.6% p.a. [1, 2]

This lag is due to WAA shifting from trading at a 7.5% premium to NTA back in 2021 to trading at a persistent 9.5% discount to NTA. The stock market has historically undervalued its explosive asset gains, creating an environment where investors can currently buy the underlying assets at a discount

.................

The Net Tangible Assets (NTA) per share for WAM Active Limited (ASX: WAA) typically fluctuates around $0.90 to $1.15 before tax over a rolling 10-year period. [1, 2]

Because WAA operates as an active trading Listed Investment Company (LIC) that distributes a significant portion of its profits as regular fully franked dividends, its NTA does not show a linear capital growth curve. Instead, gains are continuously recycled and paid out to shareholders. [1]

📊 Long-Term NTA Trend Overview

While month-to-month figures move dynamically with market conditions, historical snapshots outline how the pre-tax NTA generally moves:

Recent NTA (Mid-2026): $0.96 (as of July 31, 2026), recovering strongly after an exceptional year where the investment portfolio grew by 75.5%.
Early 2026: $1.02 (February 2026).
Mid-2021: $1.00 to $1.03.
Historical Base (approx. 10 years ago): $1.01 (September 2015). [1, 2, 3, 4]

---

💡 Key Contextual Mechanics

When evaluating WAA's NTA history over a decade, it is crucial to account for two main wealth-degrading impacts on the asset value itself, which are instead passed to investors as total return:

Dividend Decretion: WAA has distributed over 108.9 cents per share in fully franked dividends since its inception. Because paying a dividend directly lowers the company's cash balance, each dividend payout permanently clips the NTA down by that exact cash amount. [1, 2, 3]
Performance Fees & Tax: In high-performance periods (such as FY2026), sizable corporate tax obligations and performance fees create a variance between gross investment portfolio returns and the ultimate net tangible assets reported to the market. For example, in FY2026, the portfolio returned 75.5%, but performance fees and tax narrowed the pre-tax NTA increase to 51.7%. [1]

For the exact monthly breakdown across the entire 10-year archive, you can view the official filings directly on the Wilson Asset Management WAA Product Page or pull the historical statutory monthly announcements from the ASX Company Profile for WAA.

............

......................