Ramsdens – gold and travel hassles aside, Interims show better than FY2025, shares up 8% at 493p, TP 596p

Mark Watson-Mitchell
6 minutes ago
3 min read

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 03.06.2026

After this morning’s excellent Interim Results released by Ramsdens Holdings (LON:RFX) I expect its shares to rise above the 500p level and improve to trade the 530p to 560p price range.

I do like to see companies announcing unexpected profit upgrades – and that is just what Ramsdens has done over the last four months or so, issuing updates guiding the market that its business was performing a lot better than expectation.

And it has announced another this morning.

The results show that the group made more in its First Half than for the whole of last year!

The Business

Ramsdens is a diversified, financial services provider and retailer, operating in the four core business segments of foreign currency exchange, pawnbroking loans, precious metals buying and selling and retailing of second-hand and new jewellery.

Based in Teesside, the Group’s roots can be traced back to the 1970s, and it opened the first Ramsdens store in Stockton-on-Tees in May 1987.

The Group was admitted to the AIM market in February 2017.

Today, the business operates from over 175 stores within the UK (including one franchised store), while it also has a growing online presence.

Interim Results

This morning’s statement reported that the Group in the six months to end-March saw revenue up 62% to £83.7m (£51.6m), with pre-tax profit soaring 173% to £16.7m (£6.1m), surpassing the full FY25 profit which was £16.2m.

This strong performance was driven by a 130% gross profit increase in precious metals purchases to £17.5m, alongside 26% revenue growth in jewellery retail to £26.1m and an 18% increase in pawnbroking gross profit to £7.3m.

The company has upgraded its FY26 profit before tax forecast to £30m-£33m and is increasing its interim ordinary dividend by 33% to 6.0 pence per share, plus a 3.0 pence per share special dividend.

Management Comment

CEO Peter Kenyon stated that:

"The Group is in a great position.

While the gold profits grab the headlines, the Group has also delivered gross profit growth of 18% in pawnbroking and 31% in retail jewellery.

Customer numbers in FX continue to be strong with total currency exchanged broadly flat.

The Group has maintained a conservative approach to pawnbroking loan to value ratio and provides additional interest rate reductions assisting customers in financial difficulty.

The strong profits we are generating are funding the growth in our working capital assets and an accelerated new store opening program, as well as rewarding shareholders with an increased dividend.

Whilst the economic backdrop remains challenging with increasing employment costs, high interest rates and continued inflation, we remain highly confident in our opportunity to further strengthen the performance of our existing stores while adding new locations, executing against our established long-term growth strategy.

Our balance sheet remains strong and our high level of cash generation provides options on how we allocate our capital to achieve growth.”

The Equity

There are some 32.36m shares in issue.

The larger holders include Interactive Investor (10.98%), Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management (9.85%), TrinityBridge (7.60%), Downing LLP (6.79%), AJ Bell Stockbrokers (4.74%), Peter Kenyon, CEO, (3.56%), Barclays Smart Investor (3.49%), Rowan Dartington (3.34%), and Stichting Value Partners (3.18%).

Broker Views

Analysts Rahim Karim and Jens Ehrenberg, at Cavendish Capital Markets, now have a Buy note out, with a new Target Price of 596p.

Their estimates for the current year to end-September are for revenues of £160.5m (£116.8m), with adjusted pre-tax profits of £30.3m (£16.2m), earnings of 67.0p (36.0p) and paying a dividend of 27.0p (16.0p) per share.

For the 2027 year, they cautiously anticipate a slightly quieter year, with £140.2m revenues, £20.6m profits, 45.5p earnings and a lower dividend at 19.0p per share.

The analysts conclude that, should gold prices remain at current levels, it implies further upside could be crystallised in the context of both their FY26E and FY27E forecasts.

My View

Less than a month ago, on Thursday, 6^th May, I suggested that “the shares are inexpensively rated at 385p – while a move to at least trade the 450p-470p range can be expected very soon.”

Prior to today's results, they hit 460p.

As I stated at the start of this article, I now see them rising way above the 500p level, with at least 550p being an easy objective based upon broker estimates, perhaps even progressing a lot higher still.

SQC Research now sets a new Target Price of 550p.

(Profile 07.11.19 @ 204p set a Target Price of 250p*)

(Profile 14.01.25 @ 235p set a Target Price of 280p*)