Piet Viljoen’s stock pick is rocking

Calgro M3’s share price has increased significantly over the past two months, rising by over 25% between 15 March and 17 May 2024, when well-known fund manager Piet Viljoen identified the stock as a great investment.

Viljoen is an award-winning portfolio manager and executive director at Merchant West Investments, who has achieved exceptional performance with his equity funds.

He won a 2023 Raging Bull Award for the Best South African General Equity Fund on a risk-adjusted basis over five years. He also won a Raging Bull award for the Best South African Equity General Fund in 2022.

At the 2024 BizNews Conference in March, Viljoen said two JSE-listed companies stand out as great investments – Argent Industrial and Calgro M3.

Calgro is a property and property investment company specialising in integrated residential developments and the development and management of memorial parks.

Calgro M3’s share price performance over the past two months has proven Viljoen right, as the company’s share price has increased significantly since this pick was made.

Just as Viljoen predicted, the company showed a strong performance and used the cash it generated wisely.

The company bought back 25% of its shares over the last five years. In its latest results, its earnings per share (EPS) increased from 15 cents per share four years ago to 192.01 cents.

On 15 March 2024, Calgro’s shares closed at R4.65. On 17 May, they were trading at around R5.85.

The biggest jump came after Calgro released its annual results for the year ended 29 February 2024.

The company’s gross profit margin increased to 27.25%, while EPS increased to 192.01 cents per share, up over 25% from February 2023.

Headline earnings per share increased to 189.87 cents per share, up from 153.18 cents per share in 2023.

The company’s net debt-to-equity level was also stable at 0.63. It achieved a loan-to-value of 31.97%.

Calgro also achieved its highest-ever net asset value per share, which increased by 40.60% to R13.37.

These impressive results led the company to declare a maiden dividend of 9.49 cents per share.

The chart below shows Calgro M3’s share price since Viljoen made his pick on 15 March 2024 to 17 May 2024.