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.

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.

This is a company of the past... its toys have past its era. Children nowadays are not interested in toy trains anymore.

Thomas and his friends

Were you ever a model train enthusiast? I was when I was young, and I had a whole set of Hornby stuff. I'm really pleased that Hornby is still going as an independent listed company, and we're expecting full-year results on Friday.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, over the past few years when people have been worrying about their mortgages, their savings and their jobs, profits have fallen off as there have clearly been more important ways to spend money. And there was no dividend paid in 2010.

But things look to be picking up, with nice earnings recovery expected for this year and next. And the current forecasts put the dividend yield as high as 8%. With a market cap of just under £30m, it's the kind of tiddler that's out of favour these days -- but it might just be worth a closer look.

Hornby Plc, the international models and collectibles Group, will announce its full year results on Friday 8th June 2012.

Friday June 8 =

• 2012 was meant to be a year when Hornby could hang out the bunting. It won the right to make a variety of Olympic-themed products from die-cast London buses to a rather funky Olympic velodrome Scalextric track. But its Christmas trading update was very disappointing, suggesting consumers were both trading down to cheaper products and not that interested in wenlock and mandeville keyrings.

Investors will be hoping that this situation has been reversed and the Olympics, along with the company’s diversification into areas other than train sets, is starting to pay off. WH Ireland is forecasting revenues to increase from £63.4m to £68m, and pre-tax profit to edge up from £4.1m to £4.8m.