“The share prices of financial services company Sygnia and asset manager Ninety One staged the most robust rebounds among the major JSE-listed asset managers last year,” according to a Citywire comparison of the share price performance last year of the nine companies in the JSE asset management section.
According to the comparison, Sygnia shares fell as low as R7.01 in April before nearly tripling to reach a high for 2020 of R20.80 in December for a total gain of 187%. This was the biggest recovery among the major asset managers. The stock closed on 31 December 2020 at R20.14.
Justin Brown of Citywire reports that the key drivers behind these substantial share price gains were results that Sygnia released during the year that showed that the company’s profits had risen sharply and the group had substantially increased its dividend payouts.”For the year ending September 2020, Sygnia reported profit after tax of R206m, up 64% from the previous financial year. During the 2020 financial year, the company declared a total dividend per share of 110 cents, up by 83% from the prior year.”
Others that also rallied significantly after crashing to lows at the end of March, are Ninety One and Coronation. Ninety One’s shares fell to about R20 in March but ended last year up about 120% from those lows. Similarly, Coronation’s share price fell to R24.36 at the end of March, but by the end of the year, the shares had risen almost 80% to close at R43.17.
Click here to access the Citywire article that includes the comparison tables.
“Trusts and directors linked to Ninety One have bought nearly R1bn of shares since its listing, while Sygnia directors are selling with the company’s share price at record highs.” Click here to read a related Citywire article.
