Descripción de la empresa
Western Asset Intermediate Muni Fund Inc. operates as a closed-end fixed income mutual fund that invests primarily in the fixed income markets of the United States through securities managed by Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC, with co-management by Western Asset Management Company. The entity functions within the Financial Services sector and specifically within the Asset Management industry, providing exposure to municipal bonds and related fixed-income instruments for investors seeking specific yield characteristics. The company's market capitalization stands at $108.08M, supported by annual revenue of $7.07M, while the employee count is listed as N/A in available records. These valuation metrics indicate a mid-sized asset management vehicle that relies heavily on fee income generated from its fund assets rather than traditional product sales or large-scale operational overhead, positioning it as a specialized instrument within the broader fixed-income landscape.
Salud financiera
The fund reports revenue of $7.07M over the trailing twelve months with a net income of $1.68M, while EBITDA figures are not available for this specific asset class structure. The significant gap between revenue and net income, where profit margin reaches 23.8%, reveals a cost structure where operating expenses are heavily leveraged against income, yet the company maintains a substantial portion of revenue as bottom-line profit due to the high-margin nature of fund management fees. Free cash flow stands at $904,115, indicating that the company generates sufficient cash from operations to cover its obligations and potentially distribute cash to shareholders without relying on external financing. The gross margin is reported at 100.0%, which is characteristic of the asset management industry where services are intangible and incur minimal direct production costs relative to revenue. Total cash on hand is minimal at $1, while total debt amounts to $49.87M, creating a scenario where debt significantly exceeds liquid assets, though the debt-to-equity ratio of 41.40 suggests a leveraged balance sheet typical for closed-end funds that use debt to finance share repurchases or leverage to enhance yield. The current ratio is 3.02, indicating that the company holds sufficient current assets to cover its short-term liabilities more than three times over, suggesting a conservative stance on immediate liquidity management despite the debt load. Return on Equity and Return on Assets both sit at 1.4%, metrics that reveal that management effectiveness in generating returns on the capital base is currently low, likely reflecting the cyclical nature of municipal bond yields and the specific investment constraints of the fund rather than poor operational execution.
Evaluación de valoración
The trailing twelve-month P/E ratio is 69.77, while the forward P/E is significantly higher at 767.50, implying that the market expects a substantial increase in future earnings per share or that the current earnings base is extremely thin relative to the anticipated growth trajectory. The price-to-book ratio stands at 0.90, indicating that the stock is trading below its book value, which often suggests that the market is valuing the company conservatively or that the asset base is not being fully capitalized in the current share price. The price-to-sales ratio is 15.29, and with EV/EBITDA listed as N/A, these alternative valuation metrics suggest that traditional multiples are less applicable due to the high P/E, pointing instead to a valuation driven by yield and NAV rather than multiple expansion. The 52-week high is $8.01 and the 52-week low is $7.30, meaning the current trading price sits within this established range, though the wide forward P/E suggests potential volatility in how the market prices future earnings expectations against the current book value. The beta is 0.42, indicating that the fund's price volatility is significantly lower than the broader market, making it a less sensitive instrument to general equity market swings compared to large-cap stocks.
Growth & Income
Revenue growth year-over-year is -1.7%, whereas earnings growth year-over-year is 15.6%, implying that earnings are growing much faster than revenue, a dynamic often seen when fixed costs remain static while fee income stabilizes or when tax and expense structures improve relative to top-line fluctuations. As a dividend payer, the fund offers a dividend yield of 6.6% with a payout ratio of 458.2%, which indicates that the dividends paid exceed the reported net income, suggesting the use of retained earnings or distributions from realized capital gains to fund the payouts. This high payout ratio is sustainable in the short term if the fund continues to realize capital gains or if the net income figures are depressed by one-time expenses, but it does not reflect a traditional corporate dividend model where payouts match current earnings. The overall growth and income profile presents a high-yield, low-volatility instrument with negative revenue growth but strong earnings expansion, characteristic of closed-end funds that distribute income to shareholders while managing a portfolio of fixed-income securities that may not be generating proportional top-line growth in the traditional sense.