Watching stocks over the short-term is often an experiment in futility; on August 1st 2015 we looked back at the state of Games Workshop’s stock price and general financial health.

It has been little over a month since GW released its Annual Report. Behind the current sane sounding CEO, we saw GW sales still slide, but primed for a rebound with a new focus on products and customers going forward. Interesting, it took rumormongers about the same time to actual read the report and quote what I and CEO had said about the future of GW. The current big question though is the global china freak-out going to have any effect on GW stock?

GW likes us to believe, repeating it a few times, that short term global economic trends really don’t have any effect on GW, so the current Chinese problems should test their proposition. Is it also possible the somewhat rosier than expected Annual Report could help the stock go higher even in the face of global headwinds?

Here let us look at how GW stock did over the last month to find out.

All things considered it was a good month. The stock is up almost 1% taking dives along with all markets, but mostly staying above water, I guess not having production in China is a good thing.

How do things look year-to-year in comparison though?

The stock is currently running 2% under for the year, which is actually a good sign when compared to last year. GW could run into a rough patch if  the last few years pattern holds over the course of the 4th quarter.

The only other news last month was newish CEO Kevin Roundtree bought some 4,000 shares increasing his stake in the company to a whopping 0.06%! In comparison the power behind the throne Tom Kirby still owns almost 7%.

In addition, with most annual reports we sometimes get the wider financial community chiming in. It seems one of those financial websites Stockopedia wrote an article about GW. In it they told investors it is a good time to buy GW stock, beyond that they get a little side tracked with this “insight” into the mind of an average GW customer.

The firm also has a loyal customer base which puts it in a good position to charge high prices. Our own Paul Scott noted that the ‘slightly odd customers that these shops attract are probably very loyal, as they are locked into that nerdy lifestyle, and probably won’t be getting married anytime soon.’ These customers tend to value “quality above price”. For example, a set of ‘Disruptive Attack Squad’ figurines costs £105 (image below). Most figurines need to be glued together and painted with paintsets that can cost as much as £99. The diehard Warhammer fan will allegedly buy an entire set of new figures if they make just one mistake on one figurine.

Love the classic nerd trope that won’t die, too bad many loyal GW customers probably have a better financial portfolio than any of the jack wagons at a financial site like Stockopedia.

For the full article, which I have to admit does make some good financial sense, follow the link below.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/stockrank-movers-games-workshop-wields-123411209.html

Until next time, when we see if the global economy tanks some more, forcing investors wonder, “Do toy stocks make for a safe haven”?