The top performer likely would not have been on anyone's proverbial bingo card ...
Capitec. Picture: Gallo Images/Jacques Stander
Platinum and gold shares aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find many JSE-listed shares that have generated returns in excess of 200% over the last five years.
Sure, there’s the odd mid-cap (think Grindrod) that has booked a return of hundreds of percent (635% when measured on a total return basis), but these are the exception.
According to FTSE Russell data, the JSE All Share’s total return over the five years to 31 July was 96.7%, representing an average compound annual return of 14.5% per annum.
Many retail investors would, if you polled them, select Capitec as the top performer among banks across that same period.
And over five years, Capitec shares are up 179% on the JSE. This is the highest among listed banks (the so-called ‘big six’), and an investor would’ve nearly doubled their money over the period.
On a total return basis (including dividends), Capitec is up 212%. That is more than double the market.
Two banks topped this, though.
But only when measured by total return index (TRI).
The share prices of Standard Bank Group and Investec Limited are up by 150% and 174% respectively over five years. Both trail Capitec on that basis.
However, Standard Bank delivered a total return of 249% and Investec Limited one of 264%.
Quite simply, both have paid out higher dividends, on a relative basis, than Capitec over the last five years.
| Dividends | |||
| Investec Ltd | Standard Bank Group | Capitec | |
| Year-end | 31 March | 31 December | 28 February |
| FY2021 | R8.71 | ||
| FY2022 | R5.09 | R12.06 | R36.40 |
| FY2023 | R7.01 | R14.23 | R42.00 |
| FY2024 | R7.96 | R15.07 | R48.75 |
| FY2025 | R8.64 | R16.95 | R65.10 |
| FY2026 | R8.68 | R79.80 | |
Investec says it has a “progressive dividend policy with a target pay-out ratio of 35% to 50%” when measured in pence per share (the pound-rand exchange rate may distort this). What this return doesn’t factor in is that it distributed additional shares in asset manager Ninety One to its shareholders in 2023, which would’ve made its returns look even better.
Standard Bank Group targets a medium-term payout ratio of between 45% and 60%. For FY25, it paid out 56% of earnings as dividends.
In the last financial year (to 28 February 2026), Capitec paid out 55% of earnings as dividends, but this has increased over the period from around the 50% level (and even slightly lower in the earlier years).
Capitec currently trades on a dividend yield of 1.65%, versus Standard Bank’s 5.11% and Investec’s 5.99%, according to Profile Data.
The difference between the three leaders among listed banks and the laggards is stark.
FirstRand, previously the darling of investors, delivered share price growth of around 100 percentage points less than Investec and Capitec. On a total return basis, it is more than 100 percentage points behind those two banks over the last five years.
Nedbank and Absa are about neck-and-neck when looking at TRI, but both are far, far behind the leaders on pure share price performance. The 56% to 61% level is practically only a third of the growth achieved by Capitec and Investec.
| Bank | Share price move | Total return index |
| Investec Limited | 173.95% | 264.53% |
| Standard Bank Group | 149.73% | 249% |
| Capitec | 179.02% | 212.22% |
| FirstRand | 76.81% | 141.18% |
| Nedbank Group | 60.85% | 136.95% |
| Absa Group | 56.52% | 135.09% |
Regardless of these return levels, FirstRand has regained its spot as the largest bank in South Africa by market capitalisation in recent weeks. It currently has a market value of R566.7 billion, versus Capitec’s R560.6 billion and Standard Bank’s R546.4 billion.
In May, Standard Bank overtook those rivals but given the closeness of these numbers, this tussle will be around for some time yet …
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
