Key Takeaways
☑️ Austrian dividend stocks are not on many radars
☑️ 3 stocks are presented offering a good risk/reward ratio
☑️ Investors need to bring some time and patience
Three Austrian Dividend Stocks I Like
I’m a huge fan of 🇦🇹Austria, having spent lots and lots of time there, mainly in Tyrol and Vienna. I love the people, the food, the culture, the nature, and the general Zeitgeist (from my point of view more easy-going than Germans or Swiss). Its economy in the East (e.g. with Vienna) is fundamentally different from its economy in the West (the region of the Alps).
I recently had dinner with a friend of mine in Singapore, and he asked which Austrian dividend stocks I like. As I hadn’t looked into this, I was happy to be back home and started looking into it.
I started by taking a look at the largest Austrian dividend stocks (ranked by market cap):
| Company | Industry | Market Cap | PE | Div % | Div since |
| Verbund | Utilities | $49b | 24.0 | 1.1% | 2000 |
| OMV | Energy | $14b | 4.2 | 5.7% | 1991 |
| Erste Group | Bank | $10b | 5.4 | 10.6% | 2021 |
| Andritz | Industrials | $4,6b | 12.9 | 3.6% | 2001 |
| Raiffeisen Bank | Bank | $4,4b | 1.8 | 0.0% | 2021 |
| Bawag Group | Bank | $4,3b | 8.4 | 6.3% | 2021 |
| STRABAG | Industrials | $4,0b | 7.4 | 5.2% | 2008 |
| Vöstalpine | Materials | $3,6b | 2.2 | 5.7% | 1996 |
| CA Immobilien | Real Estate | $3,3b | 6.1 | 0.0% | 2012 |
| Wienerberger | Materials | $2,6b | 5.2 | 3.2% | 2011 |
| Lenzing | Materials | $2,1b | 22.7 | 5.7% | 2022 |
| Österr. Post | Industrials | $2,1b | 15.9 | 6.2% | 2007 |
With a market cap of 49 Bio USD, Verbund AG (WBO:VER) is the largest Austrian dividend stock, and the 800-pound gorilla in the room, being 3.5x larger than the second largest, OMV.
Just looking at the market cap, PE, and Dividend however not enough, hence I short-listed those stocks I liked the most, and ran some further comparisons:
| Company | Market Cap (M€) | Rev Growth | PB | ROA | ROIC |
| Wienerberger ⭐️ |
2,660 |
5.9 | 1.15 | 10.79 | 13.95 |
| Verbund |
49,808 |
10.7 | 7.40 | 8.15 | 6.67 |
| Vöstalpine ⭐️ |
3,628 |
2.0 | 0.48 | 10.16 | 11.84 |
| OMV ⭐️ |
14,122 |
7.4 | 0.75 | 5.95 | 11.85 |
| Andritz |
4,674 |
3.0 | 2.74 | 4.66 | 5.50 |
| Erste Group |
10,343 |
2.0 | 0.55 | 0.68 | 0.00 |
Knowing how much focus Buffett puts on the ROE, ROA, and ROIC, I made it my habit to look at those in detail. Three stocks rise above the noise level of 10% ROIC.
1⃣ Wienerberger
Wienerberger (WBO:WIE), a company that manufactures and sells building materials to the residential construction industry, has both a high Return-on-Assets AND high Return-on-Invested-Capital. Further, it doesn’t have any debt (!) and grew its revenues consistently throughout two very tough years (2020 and 2021).
2⃣ OMV
OMV (WBO:OMV), an international, integrated oil and gas and energy company, has a high ROIC, coupled with a low PE of 4.2. As an energy company with thousands of gas stations all over the country, I used myself hundreds of times, paying a noteworthy dividend since 1991 (which is very good for European dividend stocks)!
3⃣ Vöstalpine
Vöstalpine (WBO:VOE), a company that manufactures, processes, and develops steel products, also makes the cut with an ROIC of above 10, paired with a relatively high ROA of 10,16. It pays continuous dividends since 1996 (!), making it one of the only two Austrian dividend stocks with continuous dividend payments since the ’90s. It has an extremely low PE of just 2.
Let’s dig a little deeper into Vöstalpine:
| Market Cap € M | 3,638 | Revenue € M | 16,078 |
| Enterprise Value € M | 5,836 | EPS € | 9.19 |
| PE | 2.22 | Beneish M-Score | -1.92 |
| PE Ratio without NRI | 2.76 | 10-y EBITDA Growth Rate % | 0.70 |
| Forward PE Ratio | 5.50 | 5-y EBITDA Growth Rate % | -0.50 |
| Price/Book | 0.48 | y-y EBITDA Growth Rate % | 149.8 |
| Price/Sales | 0.23 | EV-to-EBIT | 3.14 |
Some further quick analysis of our third dividend stock, Vöstalpine:
- Its market cap sits at 3,6 Bio €
- Its EBITDA (2022) is 2,1 Bio € (!!)
- the company has no debt
- its gross margin % is declining
- its revenue is growing slowly (2% p.a.)
- it pays a regular but unstable dividend
Conclusion
I believe these three 🇦🇹Austrian dividend stocks can be considered good picks for long-term-oriented (five-plus years) dividend investors. Most of them have little to no debt, and are dividend payers (and growers), with above 10% ROICs (the number 1 metric Warren Buffett looks at).
Due to the multiple challenges, Europe is currently facing, I believe the current levels are good buying opportunities, based on the assumption that you only invest cash that you won’t need for years to come.
📖 Read Also
- 3 Best German Dividend Stocks To Buy Now
- 5 European Stocks With 20 Years Of Consecutive Dividend Increases
- The 3 Best European REITs To Buy In 2023
- The 10 Best IT Dividend Stocks – Including My Top Pick
FAQ
What are the best Austrian dividend stocks?
The 3 best Austrian dividend stocks, ranked by highest yield with a market cap of at least $2 Bio USD:
1) Wienerberger (WBO:WIE), a company that manufactures and sells building materials, dividend yield 2.9%
2) OMV (WBO:OMV), an international, integrated oil and gas and energy company, dividend yield 4.6%
3) Vöstalpine (WBO:VOE), a company that manufactures, processes, and develops steel products, dividend yield 4.6%
What are the top highest dividend yield companies in Austria?
How to trade Austrian stocks?
Most international brokers such as Charles Schwab, Trade Republic or Interactive Brokers offer you to trade Austrian stocks directly at the WBO (=Wiener Boerse, or, Vienna stock market). Ticker symbols start with WBO, followed by the respective stock symbol. The three largest Austrian stocks:
(WBO:VER) Verbund – with a market cap of $61b USD, and a dividend yield of 1.19%
(WBO:OMV) OMV – with a market cap of $17b USD, and a dividend yield of 4.61%
(WBO:EBS) Erste Group – Bank with a market cap of $12b USD, and a dividend yield of 8.75%
What is the withholding tax in Austria for stock dividends?
In Austria, a standard 25% withholding tax is instantly deducted when receiving a dividend from one of your dividend stock holdings. If a corporation received a dividend, then the withholding tax is 27.5%. The ‘WHT’ is instantly deducted, and forwarded, to the Austrian the tax office.
What is the Austrian stock market index?
The stock market index in Austria is called ATX (Austrian Stock Index). It consists of the 20 Austrian stocks with the highest market cap:
– ERSTE GROUP BANK AG
– OMV AG
– VERBUND AG KAT. A
– BAWAG GROUP AG
– ANDRITZ AG
– VOESTALPINE AG
– WIENERBERGER AG
– RAIFFEISEN BANK INTERNAT. AG
– MAYR-MELNHOF KARTON AG
– CA IMMOBILIEN ANLAGEN AG
– OESTERREICHISCHE POST AG
– EVN AG
– AT&S AUSTRIA TECH.&SYSTEMTECH.
– LENZING AG
– UNIQA INSURANCE GROUP AG
– VIENNA INSURANCE GROUP AG
– STRABAG SE
– SCHOELLER-BLECKMANN OILFIELD EQUIPMENT AG
– DO & CO AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
– MMOFINANZ AG
Age when reaching FI: 40 in 2018
Left the rat race: May 2017
Living in: Singapore
Number of kids: 2
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