Bloomsbury Publishing Share Discussion Threads

[spob] 05/2/2013 13:53

bought in here today 114

looking cheap now on forward pe basis after taking out the cash

and a good yield too

[fozzie] 05/2/2013 11:17

I agree with all that Rm just a tad disappointed as the market in general has been very good, a rising tide usually lifts all boats, and this is so obviously undervalued. Hey ho some more tea and toast!

[rainmaker] 01/2/2013 22:46

Guys welcome to the wonderful world of Value investing-you buy Bloomsbury and two years later,pricewise it's unchanged(actually my current compound return excluding dividends received is around 7% because I bought into weakness so it's not a disaster).I buy Volex in December 2008/January 2009 and two years later it's gone up 20 fold and you sell-I think it's still up around 5/6 fold.I buy Character Group at around the same time and two years later, I've made a 9 fold gain. I buy Mallett some 2 years ago and it's been 50% yet at the moment it's almost back to where I bought it yet I'm up approx 50% on Promethean after just one month.......... but that's value investing for you.

You're disappointed by a share price performance and then you're disappointed again. Warren Buffett says the stock market acts as a relocation centre where money passes from impatient to patience hands and that's very true. Markets will test you and test you again. IMHO you need incredible self belief,tremendous tenacity and an iron will if you're going to succeed.


I think all you can really do is just collect £1 coins for 30/40pence pieces safe in the knowledge that if you continue to to that over and over again that collectively good things are likely to happen.

Look at Value Investor "Ben Value" on my Value thread- he's bought at least two companies that have at least doubled, in fact one is up more than 200%, in just the last six months. If he buys a share and in drops in value he doesn't panic but continues to hold, safe in the knowledge that overall he is very likely to do well.

regards

[cestnous] 01/2/2013 13:39

Yeah; me neither.

[fozzie] 01/2/2013 13:25

Just had to move all my stops down here, again! I know patience is a virtue but this is really testing mine. I did buy at the top, doh!, but will stick with it for now. Great story here i just dont get the drop off from 125 a week ago.

[rainmaker] 30/1/2013 00:22

Hi Elmfield, it's a little bit frustrating as my returns here are 7%pa over the last couple of years but I'm very tenacious and have no intention of selling at anything like current levels.

regards

[cestnous] 18/1/2013 12:10

Simon Thompson (IC today, online)
A publisher for the digital age

Growing demand for ebooks is doing wonders for Bloomsbury Publishing (BMY: 122p), the company best known for weaving its magic with JK Rowling's Harry Potter series and making substantial profits, too.
In the financial year ending 28 February 2012, digital book sales soared from £2.2m to £5.7m, including £3.5m in the final six months. In the first half of the current year to end August 2012 they rocketed a further 89 per cent to £4.5m to account for 10 per cent of the company's revenues and there is little sign that the momentum is slowing. In a trading statement this week, the book publisher revealed that ebook sales ramped up a further 58 per cent year on year in the last four months of 2012.
Bloomsbury's exposure to this fast-growing segment is clearly positive as, for the first time ever last year ebook sales in the US exceeded hardback sales and the rate of sales growth in ebooks for young adults and children exceeded that of adults.
But the rapidly increasing popularity of ebooks does have an impact on the timing of the company's revenues since these sales generally peak in January and February following the sale of ereader devices at Christmas. Moreover, academic sales, another major revenue stream for the publisher, peak at the beginning of the academic year, in September and October. Since these two revenue streams now account for a higher proportion of total turnover, the proportion of the company's profits accruing in the second half of the financial year increases. This not only skews the results, but also means that the risk to earnings is greater, too, which creates uncertainty.
To some degree this is what we witnessed in this week's trading statement when Bloomsbury's chief executive, Nigel Newton, noted that: "We will only begin to have visibility of post-Christmas returns and the important post-Christmas ebook sales over the next six weeks...the results for our 2012-13 financial year will be dependent on these and the completion of several contracts under negotiation." Uncontracted and budgeted rights sales of £2.7m have yet to be signed and there is a risk that these could fall into the following financial year if they are not completed by the 28 February year-end. Clearly, these two factors add risks to broker estimates, which is perhaps why investors have not reacted more positively to the trading update.
Strong pipeline
Still, there is plenty to be positive about and it is worth pointing out that Bloomsbury has been active in acquiring further rights and will be publishing two major potential bestsellers this year: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and Elizabeth Gilbert's novel The Signature Of All Things. Mr Hosseini's bestselling books The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns have been huge hits for Bloomsbury in the past. Also, six of the company's top 10 bestsellers in the UK in the period before Christmas were cookery books and, to build on this, the company is publishing Paul Hollywood's Bread, which will be accompanied by a BBC TV series in March 2013.
Bloomsbury is also the new publisher of the TV MasterChef series, which is produced in over 36 countries worldwide and broadcast in over 200 territories around the world. The multi-year partnership with Shine 360° will see MasterChef branded titles published across multiple markets and territories from autumn 2013 onwards.
Cash-rich balance sheet
The company has also been using its healthy cash pile sensibly to make some smart acquisitions, including New York-based Fairchild Books, a publisher of textbooks and educational resources for students of fashion, retailing and interior design, for $6.1m (£3.8m). Also, the £1.7m bolt-on acquisition of AVA boosts Bloomsbury's market share in applied visual arts, where it is the world's leading publisher, and provides significant opportunities for new digital initiatives. Expect more deals, too, as Bloomsbury retained £7.7m of net cash on its balance sheet, worth 10p a share, at the end of December.


Low rating
Following the trading update, analyst Malcolm Morgan at broker Peel Hunt maintained his full-year pre-tax profit estimate of £11.7m, giving adjusted EPS of 12p and a dividend of 5.5p, for the 12 months to end February 2012. He also held his forecasts for the following year at pre-tax profits of £12.2m, EPS of 12.7p and a dividend of 5.7p. On this basis, the shares, at 122p, trade on a very modest 10 times earnings and offer a yield of 4.5 per cent. Net of cash, that earnings multiple drops even further to nine times prospective earnings. The shares are also priced a hefty 20 per cent below the company's August 2012 net asset value of 150p a share.
So, although we will have to wait for a further update on post-Christmas returns and ebook sales, it is a fair guess that Bloomsbury could be in for some decent digital sales given the bumper number of Kindles and e-readers sold in the final quarter of last year. I am also less concerned about the £2.7m of uncontracted rights sales at this stage because, even if these are delayed into the next financial year, it's not as though they have been lost.
On a risk:reward basis I believe that the risk to Bloomsbury shares is to the upside at this level and, having first recommended buying the shares at 115p in February last year - and having received dividends of 5.25p a share since then - I continue to rate them a decent medium-term value buy.

[elmfield] 17/1/2013 10:58

Good to see, value will out?

[muffinhead] 16/1/2013 18:38

"Six of our top ten bestsellers in the UK in the period before Christmas were cookery books"

austerity survivalism is popular

[tara7] 16/1/2013 07:33

Upbeat trading statement this morning.

[tara7] 16/1/2013 07:33

Upbeat trading statement this morning.

[elmfield] 13/12/2012 12:52

Good to see a buy over 120p.

[elmfield] 12/12/2012 19:48

Hello, Yes, the never ending hunt for real value with the odd highly spec purchase going wrong and right! This is a core holding, hope it does what I think it might.

[cr4zyness] 12/12/2012 19:30

Elmfield long time eh! Nice to see you on here, looks nice chart not bad funds either, sleepy dopes lol

[elmfield] 11/12/2012 17:27

Sure many will say to avoid this, well I am well planted in for the ride plus dividend,

[elmfield] 11/12/2012 16:26

Excellent that the sleepy dopes awake! Holding tight.

[tara7] 11/12/2012 15:03

Traditional media businesses have been hit hard by the recession and the rise of digital technology. David Prosser takes a look at the major players.

Winners

Bloomsbury Publishing

Once Harry Potter ended, the magic might have died at Bloomsbury (BMY). Fortunately, the publisher reinvested all that cash.

Some of it went into acquisitions in the academic publishing market - less fun but much more recession proof. And some went into e-books, where Bloomsbury has become a market leader just as sales have soared.

[tara7] 13/11/2012 08:16

You might like this from my PTO thread.


31/10/2012



Churchill Archive Shortlisted for Digital Innovation Award

The Churchill Archive has been shortlisted for the 'Best Website' FutureBook Innovation Award only three weeks after its official launch.

Now in their third year, the Awards were established to celebrate innovation and recognise teams, companies and individuals involved in the transformation of the book trade. The awards will be announced at the Futurebook conference on 3rd December.

For the full shortlist please see FutureBook's website for details

[summer 18] 01/11/2012 11:42

The one real bright spot was the STRONG ORDERS FOR CHURCHILL ONLINE.

I see the company that sells this for BMY had news out today.

PTO £50,000 FD director buy.

[shanklin] 01/11/2012 11:28

poacher

I tend to agree with what you've posted, which is why I find it strange that, in their recent RNS, BMY identified their high dependence in terms of FY profits on the sales over Christmas of a small number of publications. I thought such a dependence was exactly what BMY was trying to diversify away from.

[poacher45] 01/11/2012 08:21

First of all it doesn't matter when profits are earned. It just matters that they make profits. Secondly if profits are now more biased to the second half it means that overheads will be more biased to the first half. Thirdly the Churchill archive and the drama productions after a hell of amount of work have only just gone online. Fourthly they have only just taken the other companies over which look to be good deals. Give them a chance.

[elmfield] 31/10/2012 21:17

Looks like I may have to sell, doh! Got this one wrong, or can someone tell me why it is worth staying put as we drift down.