This content is only available within our institutional offering.

22 May 2025
Bloomsbury Publishing : Focus on the long-term vision - Buy

Sign in
This content is only available to commercial clients. Sign in if you have access or contact support@research-tree.com to set up a commercial account
This content is only available to commercial clients. Sign in if you have access or contact support@research-tree.com to set up a commercial account
Bloomsbury Publishing : Focus on the long-term vision - Buy
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (BMY:LON) | 500 5 0.2% | Mkt Cap: 408.5m
- Published:
22 May 2025 -
Author:
Alastair Reid -
Pages:
6 -
Delivering again: FY25 revenue of £361m was up 5% (flat organically), with PBT of £42m – both were slightly ahead of even the previously revised consensus. EPS at 41.45p was notably ahead, helped by a lower tax rate, and the FY dividend grew 5% to 15.43p, supported by the strength of the balance sheet (YE net cash £17m). By division, Consumer grew 3% (despite 49% growth the previous year), whilst Academic Publishing was down 10% organically – but the key Bloomsbury Digital Resources business was up 2%. More broadly, the group’s performance in a year with no new Sarah J Maas title shows the strength of the diversified content offering.
Looking to the future: In the near-term, management highlight that trading is broadly in-line with consensus expectations on a constant currency basis. From a strategic perspective, budget headwinds remain in academic publishing, but we note that management are progressing opportunities to monetise their academic content via AI licensing deals and that there are increasing efforts to target the longer-term global opportunity in higher education with the opening of a new office in Singapore. Separately, the company has announced that the CFO is stepping down after 7 years in the role to focus on a portfolio career – we would expect a smooth and orderly transition to a future successor in due course.
Attractive valuation: On forecasts, we tweak down revenues 1-2%, reflecting dollar weakness and broader macro uncertainty, and we more prudently cut PBT by 8 / 12% in FY26/27E. The stock is trading at c9.5x CY26E EBITDA on our new forecasts – we continue to believe this is a fundamentally significant undervaluation given the structural growth opportunities for growth the business has, supported by its virtuous flywheel.