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23 May 2024
Bloomsbury Publishing : Accelerating along the road to 2030 - Buy

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Bloomsbury Publishing : Accelerating along the road to 2030 - Buy
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (BMY:LON) | 486 -87.5 (-3.6%) | Mkt Cap: 396.8m
- Published:
23 May 2024 -
Author:
Alastair Reid -
Pages:
6 -
Breaking records: Bloomsbury FY results have once again broken records – with growth of 30% leaving revenues at £343m and PBT up 57% to £49m, 4% ahead of even recently upgraded forecasts – management highlight the performance reflects the broader strategy of entrepreneurial diversification. By division, Consumer was the standout, with revenues up 49% on the back of demand for Sarah J Maas. Non-Consumer fell 4% given the impact of the unwinding of excess US academic funding, but encouragingly BDR saw a re-acceleration to 2% growth for the FY, after declines in H1. Bloomsbury ended the year with net cash of c.£66m, and this underpinned impressive yoy FY DPS growth of 25% - fundamentally reflecting confidence in the business. Trading for FY25 is expected to be slightly ahead of the current consensus.
The flywheel keeps spinning: Most impressive however in our view are the prospects for Bloomsbury longer-term – although no new title is expected from Sarah J Maas in fiscal FY25, we believe she is increasingly becoming a sustainable, global source of demand, and the strength of the balance sheet provides meaningful potential upside to forecasts once deployed for accretive M&A. Looking further out, the Bloomsbury 2030 strategy is a re-iteration and evolution of the recent strategy, re-enforcing the growth prospects we have long believed in.
Plenty more to go for: On forecasts, upgraded underlying assumptions underpin an increase of mid-single digits to revenues and profits, and this underpins our target price increase to 700p. Bloomsbury currently trades at c.9x CY25E EBITDA – we continue to believe significant upside remains as forecasts and multiples both expand. For us, Bloomsbury remains a key pick in the sector (as set out here).