Ramsdens Holdings – yet another unexpected Profits Upgrade could see shares, now 385p, trade back up to the 450p/470p range, TP 587p

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 06.05.2026

This morning’s Trading Update from Ramsdens Holdings (LON:RFX), the pawnbroking, jewellery retail and foreign currency exchange services group, reported a strong first half-year to end-March.

The Teesside-based group, with some 175 stores across the UK and a growing online business, made yet another upgrade to its profit guidance for the full year to the end of September 2026.

In January, the group’s shares peaked at 470p, since when they dipped to 335p before now trading at around the 385p level, where the market capitalisation is some £125m.

The Business

Ramsdens is a growing, 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. 

It does not offer unsecured high-cost short-term credit, but it is fully FCA authorised for its pawnbroking, credit broking activities and as an authorised payments institution.

Trading Update to end-March

The group has today further upgraded its FY26 profit before tax forecast to a range of £28.5m to £31.5m, driven by strong performance across its core income streams, particularly its precious metals purchase division, which has benefited from a gold price approximately 40% higher year-on-year.

Jewellery retail revenue is up 25% year-on-year, and the pawnbroking loan book has grown 24% to £14.1m.

While foreign currency exchange volumes are slightly down, commission is 9% lower due to a shift towards lower-margin online sales.

The company is on track to open between ten and twelve new stores in FY26.

Management Comment

CEO Peter Kenyon stated that:

"We have had a strong start to the year given the economic back drop with our pawnbroking, jewellery retail and foreign currency exchange services all performing well. 

In addition, we have had an exceptional half year for our purchase of precious metals segment due to the continued benefits of a sustained high gold price and the increased weight being purchased.

As a result of the continued strong performance across our diversified income streams and the additional benefit of the very high gold price, we are once again trading ahead of market expectations and currently anticipate profit before tax for FY26 to be in a range of £28.5m to £31.5m."

Broker’s View

On the back of today’s news, analysts Rahim Karim and Jens Ehrenberg, at Cavendish Capital Markets, have increased their Target Price for the group’s shares to 587p (550p).

They state that:

“Ramsdens has announced its third unscheduled trading update in three months, indicating that it now expects FY26 PBT to be between £28.5-31.5m (previously £24-28m).

While much of this upgrade is due to the purchase of the precious metals business, which has benefited from prevailing gold prices, we note the continued strength in the jewellery retail and pawnbroking businesses.

This underlying momentum supports our view that the quality of the Group’s offering and market positioning is underappreciated.”

Their estimates for the current year to end-September are for group revenues to increase to £156.1m (£116.8m), while adjusted pre-tax profits could reach £28.6m (£16.2m), with earnings per share leaping to 63.2p (36.0p), enabling an increased dividend of 25.0p (16.0p) per share.

My View

Ramsdens Holdings shares are inexpensively rated at the current 385p, while a move to at least trade the 450p-470p range can be expected very soon.