4imprint Group (LON: FOUR), the direct marketer of branded promotional products such as apparel, bags and drinkware, saw its shares jump around 10% today after the group raised full-year guidance despite a fall in half-year profit.
The stock traded up 9.93% to 4,826p in early dealing, having closed at 4,390p yesterday. That takes the shares to a fresh 52-week high, with an intraday peak of 4,890p above the previous 52-week high of 4,424.02p.
4imprint published half-year results for the 26 weeks to 27 June before the market opened today. Adjusted pre-tax profit fell 12% to $64.8m, from $74.0m a year earlier, as tariff-related increases in supplier costs squeezed margins. Non-executive chairman Paul Forman said the Board was “encouraged by the Group’s first half performance, in particular the improvement in new customer orders through the period and the effective management of gross profit margin pressure resulting from tariff-related cost increases realised in the period.”
Adjusted operating margin fell to 9.4% from 10.7% a year earlier, as gross margin slipped to 31.5% from 32.8%. New customer orders were down 7% year-on-year, but the decline moderated through the half, from a 9% fall in the first quarter to 5% in the second. Based on the first-half results and anticipated trading in the second half, the Board said it now expects full-year revenue and earnings above the current range of analysts’ forecasts, with revenue slightly ahead of 2025’s $1.35bn and adjusted pre-tax profit of approximately $130m for the full year.
Broker Panmure Liberum said the new guidance was 14% ahead of its own estimate, calling the improving new-customer order trend the “key feature” of the results while flagging the US economic cycle as the “key risk” to the outlook.
Forman said he had been “impressed by the quality of the business and management team” in his first months as chairman, adding that the Board “remains confident in the Group’s strategy, competitive position and long-term growth opportunity.”