WAA

 WAA WAM active

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

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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

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📊 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]

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⚠️ 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

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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]

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💡 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.

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ARGO vs WAA (buffett style) sept 2026

Argo Investments (ASX: ARG) is the clear structural winner for a Buffett-style investor, offering ultra-low overheads, ultra-low portfolio turnover, and reliable long-term compounding. [1, 2, 3]

In contrast, WAM Active (ASX: WAA) utilizes a high-frequency trading strategy with heavy fee drag, making it structurally incompatible with Warren Buffett’s philosophical approach to buying and holding elite businesses. [1, 2]

The Core Metrics: ARG vs. WAA

Metric	Argo Investments (ASX: ARG)	WAM Active (ASX: WAA)
Buffett Style Fit	High (Buy-and-hold, ultra-low fees)	Low (High-turnover trading, aggressive fees)
Management Fee	~0.10% – 0.14% (Extremely lean)	1.6% – 2.2% + Performance fees (Heavy)
Trailing P/E Ratio	~25x – 26x (Reflects blue-chip premium)	~3.0x – 6.0x (Distorted by trading profits)
Current Dividend Yield	~4.2% – 4.4% (100% Fully Franked)	~6.0% – 7.1% (100% Fully Franked)
10-Year Dividend Growth	Consistent, smooth upward trajectory	Erratic; dependent on short-term market wins
10-Year Annualized Growth	~9.0% (Slightly beats the ASX index)	Highly volatile; trails index over multi-cycles

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Deep Dive: A Buffett-Style Analysis

1. Long-Term Growth & Investment Philosophy

ARG: Operates like a mini-Berkshire Hathaway for Australia. It owns a highly concentrated collection of the country's most durable economic moats (e.g., BHP, CBA, Wesfarmers). Buffett loves low execution frictional costs; ARG's management expense ratio (MER) is an incredibly small 0.10%. It has successfully matched or beaten the broader index over long horizons by minimizing turnover. [1, 2, 3]
WAA: Uses an active, short-term trading strategy designed to exploit market mispricings and short-term catalysts. Buffett famously remarked, "Our favorite holding period is forever." WAA's business model is the polar opposite, relying on rapid buying and selling. Furthermore, its fee structure (often exceeding 1.6% plus performance hurdles) strips away a significant portion of long-term compound growth. [1, 2]

2. Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Quality

ARG: The ~25x P/E ratio is on the higher side because it represents a pass-through of premium, dividend-paying Australian blue chips. Buffett evaluates earnings based on their "look-through" predictability. ARG’s underlying earnings stream is highly visible and stable. [1, 2]
WAA: The low single-digit P/E ratio (~3x) looks like a value-investor's dream on paper, but it is a "value mirage". It reflects a volatile surge in trading profits from specific fiscal cycles rather than predictable, recurring operational cash flows. [1, 2, 3]

3. Dividend Stability and Dividend Growth

ARG: Buffett values reliable capital returns. Because ARG is a Listed Investment Company (LIC), it saves profits during boom years into an internal reserve. This enables them to smoothly increase or maintain dividends even during major economic downturns. Its dividend growth rate over 10 years is steady, making it a defensive income compounder.
WAA: While WAA boasts a higher nominal yield (~6.0%–7.1%), that yield is far less secure. If the trading desk has a bad year, the capital gains dry up, and the capacity to pay dividends shrinks or undergoes wild swings. WAA is a vehicle for extraction of tactical market returns, not systematic dividend compounding. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

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