The Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Ltd (ASX: SOL) (Soul Patts) share price is in focus after the investment house delivered a landmark year to 31 July 2026, with statutory NPAT soaring 502% to $2.19 billion and revenue jumping 96% as a result of the merger with Brickworks Limited.

What did Washington H. Soul Pattinson report?

• Revenue from continuing operations rose 96% to $1.87 billion (FY25: $955 million)
• Statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) attributable to shareholders up 502% to $2.19 billion (FY25: $364 million), including one-off merger gains
• Net Cash Flow From Investments (NCFI) increased 12% to $572 million
• Final dividend of 63 cents per share, fully franked (up 6.8% on FY25); total FY26 ordinary dividends 111c (up 7.8%)
• Net Asset Value (pre-tax) up 10.4% to $13.7 billion; post-tax NAV $14.5 billion (up 27.2% per share basis)
• Available liquidity of $3.8 billion in cash and facilities

What else do investors need to know?

FY26 was transformative for Soul Patts, driven by the completed merger with Brickworks in September 2025. The new group consolidated two of the country’s most recognised compounders and led to a significant reset of Soul Patts’ capital structure, tax base, and portfolio mix. With the cross-shareholding unwound, Brickworks’ results are now fully included from the merger date, with prior holdings equity-accounted.

Beyond record profit, Soul Patts demonstrated active portfolio management, selling down equities including its TPG Telecom stake, divesting the Goodman industrial property joint venture for $1.9 billion, and expanding allocations to global private markets and fixed income. The business remains Australia’s only dividend aristocrat, marking its 28th consecutive year of increased ordinary dividends.

What did Washington H. Soul Pattinson management say?

Todd Barlow, Managing Director & CEO said:

One year on, the Brickworks merger decision has delivered a cleaner capital structure, a stronger balance sheet and great firepower for new investments, without compromising the disciplined governance and capital allocation Soul Patts has always been known for.

What’s next for Washington H. Soul Pattinson?

Looking ahead, Soul Patts says its strong balance sheet and cash reserves give the group flexibility to pursue new investments as opportunities arise, especially during market volatility. Management expects to continue rotating capital into global private markets, with a focus on quality and disciplined deployment. The reactivated Dividend Reinvestment Plan allows shareholders to reinvest in new shares for the 2026 final dividend, with grants expected to grow now that the Soul Patts Foundation corpus has expanded post-merger.

Market conditions remain uncertain, but management is prioritising liquidity management, a continued defensive portfolio approach, and active capital deployment to sectors with long-term structural growth. Soul Patts’ history of resilience and dividend growth underpins its guidance of ongoing value creation for shareholders.

Washington H. Soul Pattinson share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, Soul Patts has risen 16%, outpacing the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is flat over the same period.

View Original Announcement

The post Washington H. Soul Pattinson posts 502% profit surge after Brickworks merger appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Laura Stewart has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips. This article was prepared with the assistance of Large Language Model (LLM) tools for the initial summary of the company announcement. Any content assisted by AI is subject to our robust human-in-the-loop quality control framework, involving thorough review, substantial editing, and fact-checking by our experienced writers and editors holding appropriate credentials. The Motley Fool Australia stands behind the work of our editorial team and takes ultimate responsibility for the content published by The Motley Fool Australia.

Something will jump out at you if you take a look at the WAM Capital Ltd (ASX: WAM) share price right now. It’s not the share price itself, although that is notable for reasons we’ll get to momentarily. No, what’s most striking about WAM Capital shares today is the absolutely stonking dividend yield this listed investment company (LIC) is apparently trading on.

Yesterday, WAM Capital shares closed at $1.18. That was down 0.42% for the session.

At that price, WAM Capital was allegedly trading on a trailing dividend yield of 13.19%.

Yep, no typos, no misplaced decimal points. 13.19%.

The prospect of a 13.2% yield is more than enough to grab any investor’s attention, regardless of whether they even invest primarily for income. After all, that implies that one would get back roughly $132 a year for every $1,000 invested. Incredible cash flow if accurate.

The market rarely offers up these sorts of opportunities, so is this a case of ‘too good to be true’?

Well, let’s work our way backwards to find out. WAM Capital has paid out two dividends over the past 12 months. The first was the October 2025 final dividend worth 7.75 cents per share. The second, the interim dividend from May, was also worth 7.75 cents per share. That 15.5 cents per share in dividends over the past 12 months gives WAM Capital that 13.2% yield at the current $1.18 share price.

Is the 13.2% dividend yield on WAM Capital shares for real?

Case closed, right? Well, not exactly. As any good dividend investor knows, a trailing yield only tells us what an investment has paid out over the past 12 months. It doesn’t tell us a lot about what it might fund over the coming 12 months.

As we’ve discussed many times this year, there were many warning signs that WAM Capital was digging itself into a bit of a hole when it came to future payout ability. Its profit reserve, from which dividends can be funded, has all but run dry. WAM Capital itself acknowledged this reality last month. That was when the company told investors that:

Since FY2020, the Board has maintained WAM Capital’s full year dividend at 15.5 cents per share. Over that period, the dividends paid by the Board exceeded the profits generated, drawing down the Company’s accumulated profits reserve. Maintaining the dividend at 15.5 cents per share is no longer sustainable with the profits reserve available.

As a result, WAM Capital has told investors to only expect a total of 8 cents per share (two dividends worth 4 cents each) over 2027. Those will come partially franked at 60%. That’s a cut worth 48.4%. Ouch.

If that is accurate (WAM Capital could downgrade it even further if necessary), WAM Capital shares would have a forward yield of 6.84% at current prices. Not 13.2%.

Of course, that is still a fairly sizeable yield. But bear in mind that it is largely a result of this LIC’s share price collapse in 2026. Since the start of the year, WAM Capital shares have lost more than 35.3% of their value, including 22.5% since this dividend cut was announced. It’s also worth noting that, as of 31 August, WAM Capital only had 5.7 cents in its profit reserve. This means that, as of today, it doesn’t even have the cash on hand to fund 8 cents per share worth of dividends.

Investors might wish to tread very cautiously indeed here.

The post Insane: Do WAM Capital shares really have a 13.2% yield? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen thankfully has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

Doubling your money with an ASX share in the space of 12 months is not something that happens too often.

But Bell Potter thinks it could be possible with the one in this article.

Though, it is likely to be only suitable for investors with a high tolerance for risk.

Which ASX share?

The share that has caught the eye of Bell Potter is Kinatico Ltd (ASX: KYP).

It is a leading provider of know your people solutions to organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Its CVCheck business currently provides employment screening and verification services to over 10,000 repeat corporate customers.

The ASX share is also focused on the development and growth of a new SaaS-based business which provides real-time workforce compliance management and monitoring via a suite of software solutions.

Bell Potter notes that the macro backdrop is weak. However, it believes there will be limited impact on earnings given management’s ability to adjust its cost base. It said:

There is no change in our full year forecasts but we increase the revenue skew in FY27 to H2 given the weak macro backdrop and the likely continued lengthening of decision making and tender processes which was evident in 2HFY26. The risk is this continues into 2HFY27 as well but at this stage we assume the macro environment improves next half post a couple of likely interest rate rises this half. 

In theory this then translates into some enterprise wins for Kinatico Compliance (KC) and drives strong SaaS growth in 2HFY27. Importantly we also expect Kinatico to adjust its cost base over the course of FY27 so that there is little impact on earnings in both H1 and H2.

It then adds:

We now forecast a 1H/2H revenue split of $19.0m/$22.5m compared to $20.2m/$21.3m previously. This equates to growth of 8% in H1 and 28% in H2 and effectively assumes little if any new enterprise wins for KC in H1 but then a few reasonable wins in H2. The growth in each half is still being driven by strong double digit increases in SaaS revenue – 20% in H1 and 46% in H2 – while we continue to expect modest declines in the legacy checks revenue in both halves. 

The change in skew, however, means we now forecast SaaS revenue as a percentage of total revenue to remain flat at 62% in 1HFY27 relative to 2HFY26 but to then increase materially to 70% in 2HFY27.

Should you invest?

As I mentioned at the top, Bell Potter believes there could be significant upside on offer with this ASX share.

According to the note, the broker has retained its buy rating with a trimmed price target of 34 cents (from 36 cents).

Based on its current share price of 14.5 cents, this implies potential upside of over 130% for investors over the next 12 months.

Commenting on its recommendation, Bell Potter said:

While we are not changing our full year forecasts the increase in skew to 2HFY27 increases the risk profile so we adjust the key assumptions in our valuations accordingly. We reduce the multiple we apply in the EV/EBITDA valuation from 10x to 8x and increase the WACC we apply in the DCF from 10.6% to 11.0%. 

The net result is a 6% decrease in our TP to $0.34 which is still more than double the share price so we maintain our BUY recommendation. We note Kinatico recently announced an on-market share buy-back which is scheduled to commence on 5th October. The company has allocated up to $5m to the exercise and, to quote the company, “represents an opportunity to enhance the value of the remaining shares on issue.”

The post Guess which ASX share could rise 130% appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.