The only British public wargaming company is GW so we inevitably look at them - to be fair they apparently no longer see themselves as a game company but a model company.
The key results are summarised in the table above by Sandwyrm and I reproduce them here without permission. The figures are inflation adjusted.
Operating profit has crept up infinitesimally but has barely reached 2010 levels despite the massive cost cutting in shop and design staff and the move to larger high-margin models.
Revenue as taken another tumble - despite the upward rise of cost per model and the move to cheaper plastic - supposedly because of the high value of the Pound Stirling.
I have noticed that both the flagship stores in the south east regional shopping centres at Bluewater and Lakeside have closed, presumably to save on rents, and the rest have moved to a one person semi-open basis.
Anyway, the markets like it with a small jump in share price following a buy recommendation on Motley Fool, who see cost reductions as the key to profit and are unconcerned by the concomitant revenue fade.
Worth a punt on the shares or not?
Is it common in the UK to present financial information like this, with time going backwards?
ReplyDeleteHow would know? I'm a biologist,
DeleteI listen to someone from the Motley Fool regularly on the World Service and he's a capitalist cockwomble!
ReplyDeleteHe regularly struggles to defend lack of rights, low wages, slave labour, lack of democracy in Tiger Economies etc...But always does...defend them that is!
If a post-Thaterite-Raganomic Bush-B.Lairist planet-destroying capitalist says they're worth buying, they probably are, but make sure your grand-kids know it was you who helped kill them and everything else on this wonderful world, looking for a few extra shekels...
Choke, some warning please. Coffee all over the monitor.
DeleteInteresting but irrelevant! I do not care how much money they make only if they make good games or not. And recently it has been the NOT!
ReplyDeleteMy take but I suspect they don't care.
DeleteWell, I wouldn't put any money on GW. Looking at the steady loss of revenue.. it sort of sends a clear signal, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, we all know why that decline continues and short of a major management purge it is not much of a chance of any change. At least not a positive one.
Yeah, it's difficut to see what stops the decline. they can't keep firing people and raising prices.
DeleteLOL
ReplyDelete20p final dividend though and the share price has nudged up. With GW shares I always say buy at £2 sell at £5, and I wish I'd taken my own advice I can tell you! My take of the shares is anything north of 5 is a potential sell - but you have to consider your tax position. There's no sense in selling just to increase your tax bill and 5 or thereabouts looks stable. In the long term - if there is a long term - GW have to do something dramatic with the business - and AoS for all its bravado isn't that.
ReplyDeleteGW has always been good for dividends. Long term, more iffy. I still don't grasp their new business plan. But then, what do I know.
Delete