Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) has more than 100 years of history of owning and operating assets with a focus on real estate, renewable energy, infrastructure, and private equity. Total global assets under management are worth $690 billion, notes Gordon Pape, editor of Internet Wealth Builder.
Over the long term, however, Brookfield has been an outstanding performer and the stock has gained 2,496% on a split-adjusted basis since my original recommendation back in 1997.
The company posted a record year in 2021, reporting what chief financial officer Nick Goodman described as “our best results to date”. Fourth quarter revenue was $21.8 billion, up from $17.1 billion in the same period of 2020. For the full year, the company reported revenue of $75.7 billion compared to $62.8 billion the year before. Note that the company reports in US dollars.
Net income attributable to shareholders in Q4 was $1.1 billion ($0.66 a share, fully diluted). That was up from $643 million ($0.40 a share) the year before. Full-year earnings attributable to shareholders was just under $4 billion ($2.39 a share) compared to a loss of $134 million (-$0.12 per share) in the prior year.
Funds from operations (FFO) for the year was $7.6 billion ($4.67 per share), of which $2.6 billion was from asset management. For 2020, FFO was $5.2 billion ($3.27 a share). Brookfield announced an 8% dividend increase, to US$0.14 per quarter (US$0.56 a year). The stock yields 1% at the current price.
“The scale and quality of our businesses, combined with their cash generating profile and embedded inflation protection, will provide us with a strong tailwind as we continue into 2022,” Mr. Goodman said.
The company expects the strong performance of 2021 to continue into this year. Brookfield has $92 billion in capital to deploy into new investments. Action now: Buy.