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26 Oct 2023
Bloomsbury Publishing : Setting new records - Buy

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Bloomsbury Publishing : Setting new records - Buy
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (BMY:LON) | 501 5 0.2% | Mkt Cap: 408.9m
- Published:
26 Oct 2023 -
Author:
Alastair Reid | Darren Milne -
Pages:
6 -
Impressive growth: Bloomsbury has once again delivered double digit revenue & profit growth in H1 – revenue grew 11% to £136.7m, with profit also up 11% to £17.7m. EPS grew 14% to 17.47p, with net cash at £39.1m. Management note that they see significant opportunities for acquisitions, with the ‘virtuous flywheel’ we have previously highlighted of cash generation and investment continuing to take effect, and the ongoing diversification strategy is increasingly smoothing profitability during the year, leading to a rebalancing of the dividend (H1 now 3.7p).
Consumer growth, Non-Consumer resilience: By division, Consumer saw 17% revenue growth in H1, supported notably by 22% growth in Children’s, with both Sarah J Maas and Samantha Shannon seeing impressive growth in demand in the fantasy segment. Non-Consumer grew 2%, with Academic & Professional consolidating its revenue base post significant BDR growth last year and against a backdrop of normalised government funding for academic institutions post Covid. Subscriptions increased further to become 47% of total BDR revenue and the business is on track to meet the 5-year 40% organic growth BDR target.
Equity under-valued: Overall, management note they are confident in achieving the Board’s expectations for the FY, and we leave forecasts broadly unchanged (barring benefits from a lower tax rate in the current year). Bloomsbury currently trades at <7x CY24E EBITDA – we believe this fundamentally mis-prices the company and the resilient profit growth we expect it to deliver over the medium-term.