Bloomsbury Publishing – best known for the Harry Potter book franchise – saw its share price soar on Thursday after it upgraded sales and earnings forecasts for the full year.
At 645p per share, Bloomsbury was up 7.6%, making it the fourth-biggest riser on the FTSE 250.
The publisher said that “a strong performance in the second half” of the financial year to February 2025 meant trading came in ahead of expectations.
Bloomsbury also said that strong sales and cash generation last year “has enabled us to pay down $7.5 million of the $37 million debt associated with the acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield ahead of schedule.”
Bloomsbury acquired Rowman & Littlefield’s academic publishing division for $83 million last May.
For financial 2025, broker consensus had previously put revenues at £333.4 million, and profit before tax and highlighted items at £39.6 million.
Bloomsbury’s revenues were £342.7 million in fiscal 2024, while corresponding pre-tax profit was £48.7 million.
Strength In Depth
Bloomsbury said that success across its Consumer division during the last year was “broadly based” across its portfolio.
As well as being home to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise, Bloomsbury’s Consumer unit boasts other popular fantasy fiction titles from authors including Sarah J. Maas.
Consumer sales rose 47% in the first six months of the year, with a new tome from Maas – titled Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow – helping the author’s sales more than double year on year.
At its Non-Consumer division, the FTSE 250 business said sales were driven by the acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield, the integration of which it said “is progessing very well.”
Meanwhile, the company said that sales at its Bloomsbury Digital Resources online portal “grew for the full year despite the budgetary pressures… in our core academic markets.”
Robust Performance
The publisher said that “[our] robust performance is powerfully driven by determined execution of the Bloomsbury 2030 vision, focused on our growth, portfolio and people. Our authors, customers, consistent performance, and the scale and resilience of our business continue to underpin the confidence we have in the future.”
The company launched its Bloomsbury 2030 growth strategy last May. Key objectives here include the pursuit of further acquisitions, specifically in academic publishing and in the US, as well as improving the firm’s position in digital publishing and online resources.
Trouble Ahead?
Commenting on the company’s “very positive” results, analyst Fiona Orford-Williams of Edison Group said that “encouragingly, the growth in the consumer division is broadly based, rather than driven from one or two breakout hit titles.”
She said that “the acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield in the non-Consumer division has delivered growth in that side of the business,” adding that “the titles brought in with it are being digitised, which will increase their revenue-generating potential.”
However, Orford-Williams noted that “US academic markets remain under budgetary pressure, and this will limit how far and fast growth in Bloomsbury’s non-consumer business can be achieved for the time being.”
She added that that “meanwhile, the investment is being made in cementing the relevant relationships.”
Bloomsbury is scheduled to release preliminary results for financial 2025 on Tuesday, 22 May.
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