Been a big follower of this company over the last few years they have excelent management and they have done very well but due to the nature of the recent markets they have fallen back to very cheap levels and now are worth a buy in my opinion. I know we have 3 historical threads on this one but they havent been used for many months. I like this report on the company today on the results its well worth a read.

Hemscott.

Hornby - Friday 3rd June 2005

It's all systems go at Hornby and another set of excellent results leaves us wondering why the shares have tailed off over the past six months. The UK market offers plenty of scope despite the consumer downturn and the model trains and racing sets maker is ready to cash in on great potential abroad, says Rodney Hobson.


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Hornby told investors at the end of January that Christmas trading, which is obviously a key time of year, had gone particularly well so it is no surprise that in the year to March turnover was up from 39m to 45m and pre-tax profits rose from 36.5m to 7.2m.

In line with the commendable policy of paying half of earnings per share out in dividends, the final divi of 5p takes the total to 7p, up from 6p (allowing for last year's five-for-one share split). Earnings per share rose from 12.2p to 14.78p excluding heavy amortisation of goodwill on the Lima acquisition in Italy, which took the figure down to 13.88p.

Chief executive Frank Martin stressed today that he remained confident despite the slowdown in consumer spending which, he claimed, was having less impact on the hobby market than on other sectors.

He pointed out that there had been solid growth at home and abroad before taking into account additional sales from acquisitions.


Martin said: 'Trading in our core UK market has remained robust during the year. Despite nervousness in the retail sector, our products have retained their popularity and sales have remained good. We are conscious that some retailers are reporting the impact of wider economic pressures but the hobby-based characteristics of our products lend resilience in such times and market feedback remains encouraging.'

During the year Hornby has pressed on with developing its network of concessions in other stores to 121 outlets. Sales in the concessions grew by 34% in the year and represented 15% of total UK sales. This does mean that Hornby is not heavily reliant on a few dominant retailers.

In any case, while Martin will not neglect the home market his eyes are on the acquisitions in Spain and Italy where enthusiasm for trains and racing cars is no less than here.

Hornby has exclusive rights to use images of Fernando Alonso, the Spanish Formula 1 star, and Sete Gibernau, well known to motorbike enthusiasts, on its Electrotren slot racing packaging in Spain, which apparently has more slot racing enthusiasts for size of population than any other country in the world.

In Italy, Hornby bought assets of model maker Lima from the liquidators and has shipped production out to China, where Hornby and Scalextric models are already produced. The first new Lima models will be in the shops in time for Christmas and more will be released in 2006.

It does mean that Lima will be incurring overheads before the sales revenue starts to flow. Although action has been taken to reduce costs by restructuring the Italian operation and holding down the headcount, interim profits will be depressed. Martin said, though, that profits for the year as a whole were unlikely to be affected.

The shares peaked at 280p late last year after a terrific run lasting nearly four years. We believed they were worth hanging on to at 241p after the January trading statement and we still think that was reasonable advice at the time, although they subsequently slipped further back to around 200p, where there seems to be solid support.

The recent weakness is an opportunity to buy in. The shares added 3.5p to 216p this morning.ENDS.

If you look at the figures you will see that the company is on a very low rating of P/E 14.6 which is very cheap for this company. At present I do not have a forward P/E but will try to get one.

Well worth a dabble.

Please DYOR.

cheers GF.

145p now.

Currently 96p. Keep on selling.


Hornby omits final divi
Business Financial Newswire


Hobby products group Hornby reported pretax profits 6.1m for the year to March, down from 9m.

Turnover was up 11% to 61.6m (2008: 55.7m) and underlying pretax profits were 6.3m (2008: 8.4m).

Earnings per share was 11.17p (2008: 16.15p).

No final dividend was declared (2008: 5.8p), the group blaming sterling volatility and the need to retain strong balance sheet.

Total dividend for year is 2.7p (2008: 8.5p).

The group said consumer demand strengthened in final quarter of financial year and has continued strongly since then , but results were constrained by supply chain issues.

A new licence was announced with the Brawn GP Formula One team.

Frank Martin, CEO, commented: ' This has been a challenging year for Hornby. As a result of the weak pound and continuing supply chain issues, our profits and margins have come under pressure. As a result, the Board thinks it prudent not to pay a final dividend. This is a decision that will enable us to strengthen an already healthy balance sheet.

'Our supply chain issues are a source of frustration but we remain committed to and are making progress towards the implementation of a satisfactory solution.

' The diversity of our products across the Group continues to impress and attract customers. We are a broadly based hobby business and the continued demand for our products proves our resilience in times of recession.

'We continue to explore new and exciting ways of extending our product offering. Recently, for example, we have signed an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the Brawn GP Formula One team. Our work with the McLaren Formula One team continues and we wish both Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button the very best for the rest of the season. Further, we have signed agreements with Disney Productions for the blockbuster movie series 'Cars'. We have also agreed an extension of the James Bond 007 licence to cover our Corgi ranges.

' We are also extending our existing online activities by further site development and links to social networking sites. Our websites attract over 65,000 unique visitors per week. Online represents an exciting opportunity for Hornby. The results of our work so far have been very encouraging and highlight our innovative approach to maximising our brand strengths.'

Encouraging comments at AGM today. Prospects look better than for some time, with demand strong and supply chain issues now being slowly sorted out. Gross margins in year to March 2010 will be adversely impacted by forward purchases of US dollars at 1.40., so it will be the year after when growth hopefully returns (always assuming no further collapse in ) Purchase last year premature, but I remain confident in HRN for the medium term, despite their vulnerability to exchange rate risk. Always DYOR.

Bullish comment at AGM last year borne out by trading update today - ahead of expectations and return to dividend payments. Nagging doubt remains their vulnerability to a weak , but time may come when sterling strengthens and in the meantime they appear to have learned to cope. I continue to hold, but always DYOR.

Hornby as produced a very bullish inverse head and shoulders pattern breakout from fridays upbeat trading statement. Looks to be plenty to come here and trading on a undemanding forward P/E of just over 11 to 2011.

Bought a few this morning.



Broker Numis as a buy on it aswell...

Hornby PLC

FORECASTS 2010 2011
Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Numis Securities Ltd
23-04-10 BUY 5.70 10.30 6.80 12.30

2010 2011
Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 5.70 10.30 6.80 12.30

1 Month Change 0.70 1.20 0.00 0.00
3 Month Change 0.70 1.20 0.00 0.00

GROWTH
2009 (A) 2010 (E) 2011 (E)

Norm. EPS -22.94% -14.33% 19.42%
DPS 2.41% % %

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2009 (A) 2010 (E) 2011 (E)

EBITDA 11.98m m m

EBIT 7.30m m m

Dividend Yield 6.20% % %

Dividend Cover 1.41x x x

PER 11.40x 13.30x 11.14x

PEG -0.50f -0.93f 0.57f

Net Asset Value PS 32.22p p p

Bullish Broker note out late Friday.......

Date Broker name New Price Old price target New price target Broker change

23-Apr-10 Numis Buy 137.00p 160.00p - Reiteration

160p SP target

I am somewhat a novice and am therefore unsure does this RNS mean that LLoyds have relinquished voting rights on these shares or that they have reduced their holding?

Sharecast News
Hornby (HRN)
deal in this share
Holding(s) in Company

RNS Number : 8989K
Hornby PLC
27 April 2010

The clue is here -

7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:


Direct / Indirect holdings decreased to below 4%

Cheers skinny guess I was too busy looking at the trees to see the wood

Tipped in Investors Chronicle today....


Mr Bearbull
* Doing versus standing - Mr Bearbull adds 3 holdings to its speculative fund: - Home Retail, Hornby and ITV

These results seem promising although sp has been hammered in recent days
RNS Number : 0616N
Hornby PLC
04 June 2010





HORNBY RESUMES DIVIDEND AS SALES MOMENTUM BUILDS



Hornby Plc ("Hornby" or the "Group"), the international hobby products group, has today announced its results for the year ended 31 March 2010. Hornby owns a number of model railway and slot car brands, Airfix models, Humbrol paints and Corgi die cast models.



Turnover for the year up 5% to 64.7 million (2009: 61.6 million)

Cash generation strong, net debt reduced to 3.2 million (2009: 11.8 million)

Underlying profit before tax* of 5.7 million (2009: 6.3 million)

Reported profit before tax of 5.2 million (2009: 6.1 million)

Statutory basic earnings per share of 9.76p (2009: 11.17p)

Dividend of 5.0p declared (2009: 2.7p)

London 2012 Olympic Games merchandise introduced



* Stated before amortisation of intangibles and net foreign exchange adjustments on intercompany loans



Frank Martin, Chief Executive of Hornby, said,



"We have made excellent progress during the year. Demand for our products has remained robust and we enjoyed a strong finish to the year. Many of our UK retailers have been keen to re-stock after a strong Christmas trading period.



"Given the strong cash generation over the year, we have reduced our debt levels significantly. This has also enabled the Group to be able to announce the resumption of a dividend. This is an important step and demonstrates our confidence in the strategy and the financial strength of the business.



"Looking forward, Hornby is in excellent shape. We have agreed a number of new exciting licenses including collaboration with Disney/Pixar to produce products associated with the new Toy Story 3 Movie. Importantly, we continue to introduce more merchandise associated with the London 2012 Olympic Games. We expect these product lines to perform well as we get closer to the games."

trading well today, Good to see Asset Management Limited have almost doubled their holdings this week

sp has risen 8p in the last two days, hopefully the start of a good upward trend

looking like another blue day so far

Well the SP has finally reached the forcast 160p with no news in the price, looking at the charts it seems to be on a steady climb with lower resistance at 150 upper at 162 any thoughts on future trends for this stock?

Plenty of weakness ahead.

Half year figures today unusually contain no nasty surprises. Given difficult retail market conditions performance imo creditable, albeit key Christmas period to come. They do seem to have rectified the supply issues which have blighted previous efforts to progress in Europe, so on balance reassured. Always dyor.

Best to sell imo.

Yes - the IMS isn't very inspiring!

Inclined to agree, Mitzy. Too many surprises the wrong way.