Games Workshop Group PLC (LSE:GAW) shares climbed over 5% on Tuesday after the Warhammer owner hiked dividends 40% and said “exciting times” were ahead.
The group, which is in its first year as a FTSE 100 company, published annual results showing pre-tax profits up 29.5% to £262.8 million, on revenues up 19.5% on a constant currency basis to £617.5 million.
Guidance in May was for profit of at least £255 million on revenue of £610 million.
A dividend of 55p per share was declared to lift dividends declared in the financial year to 140p per share, an increase of 40% compared to 2024.
CEO Kevin Rountree said it was a “record year” but “despite our recent successes, we will never take our hobbyists’ support for granted. I wish to thank all of them together with our staff, trade accounts and broader stakeholders for their ongoing support. Exciting times.”
Looking forward, he said a key short-term priority for licensing revenue is to support the deal with Amazon, which was signed in December to provide exclusive rights to adapt the Warhammer 40,000 IP into film and television content, as well as signing “a few” more significant licensing deals.
On Amazon, Rountree noted that the deal is “a long-term partnership with Amazon and there won’t be any significant news in the short term – these things take several years to bring to market”.
However, in the meantime, he flagged was “a taster of Warhammer IP in digital form” with the Warhammer 40,000 episode on Amazon Prime’s animation show Secret Level, a separate initiative to the main contract, which was “well received”.
The shares jumped 770p to 16,030p by lunchtime on Tuesday, closing back in on the record high of 16,750p seen last month.
Analysts at Jefferies said the top-line numbers “reflected a strong year” despite tough comparatives from the year before with the Warhammer 40,000 release.
They said Licensing growth of 80% was “outstanding”, led by Space Marine 2 (SM2).
While the amount of new detail in the report was limited, the analysts noticed that the results noted that tariffs could impact PBT by circa £12 million in FY26 and are “likely to reduce reported gross margin”, although there are plans in place to make up the circa 2% shortfall through efficiencies.
The guidance includes opening around 35 new shops, and that the majority of growth is expected to be driven by trade, with an aims of delivering year-on-year growth in every major country.
“While the combination of tariffs, release cycle and the non-repeat of SM2 is likely to lead to a more muted FY26, we think this is relatively well understood by the market. Meanwhile, core underlying momentum is very strong, underpinning the long-term growth outlook.”
** Update: Adds broker comment **