Again, when excluding the accrued capital gains incentive fees, total adjusted expenses were up for the year largely due to the usage of the credit facility. Fourth quarter net investment income was $962,000 or $0.37 per share compared with $1.2 million or $0.48 per share in last year’s period. On an adjusted basis, which is a non-GAAP financial measure and excludes the capital gains, incentive fee accrual expense and investment income was $0.40 per share compared with $0.41 per share in last year’s period. For the full-year period, net investment income per share was $1.15 compared with $1.72 per share in 2022. Excluding the capital gains incentive fee accrual, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, adjusted net investment income per share increased 11% to $1.46 per share.
I’m going to move on to Slide 12, which provides a waterfall graph for the change in net asset value during the year. Net assets at December 31, 2023 were $60.8 million, up 5% from the end of 2022. This change reflects the net investment income, along with realized gains and the net change in unrealized depreciation, which more than covered the $3.4 million in dividend distributions to shareholders during the year. The result, the net asset value per share at December 31, 2023 increased to $23.56 per share compared with $22.36 at the year-end 2022. As highlighted on Slide 13, we continue to have a strong balance sheet and significant liquidity position that positions us well for future investments. Cash at year-end was approximately $3.3 million.
We held approximately $7.4 million in liquid BDC and ACV auction shares, which can provide near-term funding capital for investments as we have demonstrated in past periods. In addition, based on our borrowing base formula, Rand has $8.8 million in availability under the senior secured revolving credit facility at December 31, 2023. In total, our liquidity resources is over $19 million. Our portfolio transformation to include more income-producing investments is expected to support an increased dividend level over time. In line with that expectation, we announced during the second quarter of 2023 that we raised the regular quarterly cash dividend by 25% to $0.25 per share and then on a full-year basis, increase the dividend to $1.33 per share.
On February 26, 2024, Rand declared its regular quarterly cash dividend distribution of $0.25 per share for the first quarter of 2024. The dividend will be distributed on or above March 29, 2024, to shareholders of record as of March 13, 2024. With that, I will turn the discussion back to Dan.
Daniel Penberthy: Thanks, Margaret. Our strategy is to continue to grow and scale our business by focusing on debt and related equity investments in privately held lower middle market companies in which we can drive investment income growth and increase the dividend paid to shareholders. We do believe the combination of our current sources of capital with potential proceeds from future portfolio exits and continued investment income growth will provide us the liquidity that will enable us to add these new investments to our portfolio as well as reinvesting into existing portfolio companies that demonstrate continued growth potential. Equally important to our future growth have been the efforts of our external investment advisers and specifically our investment team who are part of the Rand Capital Management, or RCM team.
We believe that the reputation and experience in the investment community does provide a competitive advantage in originating quality investments that meet our investment objective, which of course is to drive current income and when possible, a capital appreciation. We will target opportunities with favorable risk-adjusted returns that are appropriate for Rand. They have been leveraging their vast network of referral relationships and this has resulted in a solid pipeline of investment opportunities for Rand Capital. Going forward, our initial investment into any one portfolio company is expected to be in the range of $2 million to $4 million, of course, with a focus on current cash yields in order to achieve our income-producing goals. Ultimately, with the support of our liquidity position, we believe we can continue to replicate our past success and drive strong returns for our shareholders.
Thank you for joining us today and for your ongoing interest in Rand Capital. We look forward to updating you on all of our first quarter 2024 results, which will be reported in early May. We hope you have a great day.
End of Q&A: Thank you. This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.
