Shares in Games Workshop GAW led the FTSE 250 on Friday, climbing more than 16% to 13,650 pence or £136.50 following a trading update.
The company’s market value is up nearly 40% this year, 140% over five years and nearly 11,000% since the firm floated in 1994. This makes Games Workshop one of the best-performing UK stocks over the last 30 years.
Games Workshop said that trading over the past two months has surpassed expectations, with better-than-expected performance anticipated for the first half of its financial year.
The miniature wargames maker and retailer said it anticipates pretax profit for the six months to Dec.1 to stand at £120 million, a rise of 25% from £96.1 million a year ago.
Games Workshop Investors Wait on Amazon News
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould points to the big uplift in licensing revenue. Connected to this is a deal with Amazon on a Warhammer TV and film series, news of which is likely to feature in the January results.
“The beauty of licensing income is it comes with negligible extra cost for the company and therefore is highly profitable,” he said in a note.
“Games Workshop looks to have significant untapped potential in its intellectual property and fantasy worlds. Globally, it has only just begun to explore market opportunities.”
The company’s core revenue for the period is expected to be more than £260 million, a 10% rise from £235.6 million a year ago, with licensing revenue doubling to £30 million from £13 million a year ago.
Total revenue for the first half of 2024 was £247.7 million.
Games Workshop will release its half-year results on Jan. 14.
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