Bloomsbury Publishing Share Discussion Threads

[disc0dave46] 15/2/2024 19:00

Only 2 brokers, Investec (believe the house broker) & Numis with the FY25 forecast left unchanged (-30% eps to 32.2p).Wouldn't expect Numis to disagree too much with the house broker who is basically reporting what the business tells them. Does seem odd but nothing else to go on!.

[adamb1978] 15/2/2024 17:25

Analyst forecasts for small caps are nonsense. I look at their current year forecasts, but any year beyond that is a waste of time

[disc0dave46] 15/2/2024 12:58

Broker consensus for FY02/24 is 45.8p eps. They've kept the eps forecast the same for FY02/25 (which starts in a few weeks!) at 32.2p, which is a drop of 30%.....the question in my mind is, is that realistic?. They forecast a c10% drop in revenue. Peaks and troughs in best sellers?.

[donald pond] 15/2/2024 08:18

Bought a few. Be amazed if it's not £7 by Easter. They are dominating the bestseller lists

[nigelog] 14/2/2024 18:27

In the FT today.

Analysts at Investec said on Wednesday they believe the business is “fundamentally undervalued”, given the “resilient, accelerating growth [it] can deliver over time”. They now expect profit before tax for the year to be 31 per cent higher, at £48.1mn, with forecast revenue at £329.3mn.

[adamb1978] 14/2/2024 18:16

Multiple is still undemanding for a high quality consistent performer.CEO's age and tenure more likely to drive sales timing I'd have thought, but offer price would need to be >800p

[riverman77] 14/2/2024 17:18

I think the share price rise is due to all the good recent news, not because of any acquisition on the cards. However, wouldn't surprise me if this was snapped up - would make a great bolt on for a bigger publisher, and Nigel Newton might be keen to seel up after thirty odd years. Plenty of cash too which would also be attractive to an acquirer.

[nigelog] 14/2/2024 16:46

We could receive a nice dividend this year, and agree happy to hold them but it was under £4 a few months back, so interesting the share price has jumped to an all time high. A large cash pile as well does make them attractive to a buyer.

[adamb1978] 14/2/2024 14:12

The share price appreciation wouldnt be linked to a potential acquiror buying shares. Its a common myth but very, very rarely happens

[ygor705] 14/2/2024 11:55

Well, the share price of this normally sensible and steady part of my portfolio seems to have suddenly engaged in a bit of space exploration with an ascent that would do justice to a NASA space rocket. Please correct me if I'm wrong but 540p looks to me to be a record high by quite some margin. Bloomsbury has always been a good investment with some pretty canny management. Nice to see that we still have good and able people at the top of at least some of our companies: perhaps they should run for election in Rochdale! On a less encouraging note, I do wonder whether this level of appreciation means that a predator is sniffing around. Personally, I hope not: I'm happy with the current crew.

[18bt] 14/2/2024 08:18

Nice initial response

[adamb1978] 14/2/2024 07:59

Will be interesting to hear any revised forecasts for 2024/5 if anyone sees any

[dicktrade] 14/2/2024 07:28

Agreed Adam I can’t seem to reconcile those numbers at all. Perhaps they are “really really significantly ahead” . Possible i suppose??

[adamb1978] 14/2/2024 07:15

Great statement, but really scratching my ahead about the revenue part.

10% up on £291m = £320m. They did £137m in H1, which would imply £183m in H2.

Surely that can't be right?

That said, I'm more focussed on the bottom line and looks like we're heading for EPS of just over 40p, so PE is just c.12x despite the consistent execution and decent growth.

Still no word on what they're going to do with the huge cash pile...

[panache1] 14/2/2024 07:09

Full year outlookRevenue and profit before taxation and highlighted items are now expected to be significantly ahead of upgraded market expectations for the year ending 29 February 2024.

[panache1] 14/2/2024 07:08

Excellent trading update today.

[blippy3] 12/2/2024 17:46

I hope there's no bid. I want to hold.

[nigelog] 12/2/2024 17:41

Very good run with the share price, anyone think a bid may be on the cards. A few months ago it was over a £1 cheaper.

[adamb1978] 15/1/2024 14:51

How much do you think she earns?!?! Net income of somewhere around £30m....so adding 0.01x to the multiple would probably cover her salary!!!

Pleased that the board/CEO have recognised that their outwardly/investor facing capabilities needed improving either way. They don't get full value for the story/metrics

[18bt] 15/1/2024 13:17

She will need to add a multiple (13x PER) of her salary to make it worthwhile, but I think she has a chance of doing that.

[adamb1978] 15/1/2024 08:27

Good to see a Hear of IR appointed. BMY performs well though it I dont think its as investor friendly as it could be, and therefore share price probably not reflecting the true value of the company. Not sure its RNS-worthy mind you!

[jimmywilson612] 07/12/2023 18:21

Happy to trust management. No need to rush an acquisition, they know the market and if the value or right purchase isn't there to wait. Hoping for a special dividend

[adamb1978] 07/12/2023 13:40

Fair point re timing. Maybe we'll get another ahead of statement in Feb, once we have some upgraded figures.

Still waiting for a large acquisition to land, or some other indication on what the ever growing cash pile is going to be used for