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Investing & Markets Dec 11, 2025 9 min read

Games Workshop Group plc (GAW): Warhammer Maker on the London Market

Games Workshop Group plc, maker of Warhammer, is a vertically integrated miniatures and games company listed in London under the ticker GAW. This article explains who they are, how they make money, the latest share-price snapshot, and what recent data hints about their long-term story.

Games Workshop Group plc (GAW): Warhammer Maker on the London Market

Games Workshop Group plc is best known for Warhammer – a hobby that mixes collecting, building, painting and playing with fantasy and sci-fi miniatures on tabletop battlefields.

Behind that brand is a sizeable listed company:

  • it designs, manufactures and sells its own fantasy miniatures and games
  • it runs hundreds of branded stores around the world
  • it earns extra income from licensing its intellectual property to video games, films and TV

This article looks at who Games Workshop is, how the business works, where the shares trade, and what recent data quietly suggests about its position today.

1. Who Games Workshop is and what it does

According to its own annual reports and investor material, Games Workshop is a vertically integrated business: it designs, manufactures, distributes and sells fantasy miniatures and related products based on its own universes such as Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

Key points from its latest reports:

  • All core product design happens at its Warhammer Studio in Nottingham, employing around 300+ specialist staff who create miniatures, artwork, rules, stories and publications.
  • The group operates two main plastic miniatures factories, a dedicated paint factory, and two warehouse facilities, all in or near Nottingham.
  • It sells through more than 560 Warhammer-branded stores globally plus thousands of independent retailers and its online store, Warhammer.com.
  • Around three-quarters of sales come from outside its home market, making it a truly international hobby brand.

Sources (company and investor reports):
https://investor.games-workshop.com/our-history
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/GAMES-WORKSHOP-GROUP-PLC-4001963/news/Games-Workshop-Annual-Report-44408338/
https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/games-workshop-group--gaw/annual-report/8337097

In addition to selling miniatures and rulebooks, Games Workshop earns royalty and licensing income from:

  • video games such as Space Marine 2
  • media projects including a film and TV development deal with Amazon for Warhammer 40,000 featuring Henry Cavill

Media and licensing have become a meaningful part of the story, adding high-margin revenue on top of the core physical products.

2. Listing details, ticker and basic stats

Games Workshop is listed on the London Stock Exchange with:

  • Ticker: GAW
  • ISIN: GB0003718474
  • Share type: Ordinary shares of 5 pence each

You can see these details on data providers such as ADVFN, Yahoo Finance and Fidelity:

Games Workshop is also a member of the main blue-chip index in London (commonly called the FTSE 100), which it joined after several years of strong share-price and earnings growth.
Background coverage:
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/warhammers-games-workshop-debuts-on-u-k-s-bluechip-index-b1fa6094

3. Current share-price snapshot (as of December 2025)

Prices are delayed on public sites, but recent data around 10–11 December 2025 shows:

From ADVFN and MarketScreener:

  • Last close: about 19,650p per share (that is £196.50)
  • Recent live quote range: roughly 19,520p–19,670p during trading
  • 52-week range: 12,260p to 19,950p
  • Market capitalisation: around £6.5 billion
  • Trailing P/E ratio: about 33
  • Dividend yield: reported around 4.6% on a trailing basis

Sources:
https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/london/games-workshop-GAW/share-price
https://au.advfn.com/stock-market/london/GAW/stock-price
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/GAW.L/key-statistics/
https://nl.marketscreener.com/koers/aandeel/GAMES-WORKSHOP-GROUP-PLC-4001963/koersen/

Simply Wall St summarises the price performance as:

  • current price around £196.50
  • 1-year change: roughly +41%
  • 3-year change: around +161%
  • 5-year change: about +96%

Source:
https://simplywall.st/stocks/gb/consumer-durables/lse-gaw/games-workshop-group-shares

What the numbers quietly say:

  • The shares are trading very close to their 12-month high.
  • The valuation multiple (P/E ~33) is significantly above the broader market, reflecting expectations of strong, durable growth rather than near-term income.

4. Recent results and profitability

Recent coverage of the business highlights strong earnings momentum:

  • Half-year operating profit up about 33–34% to roughly £126 million, with sales around £299–300 million for the six months to early December 2024.
  • Revenue up around 20–21%, driven by continued demand for Warhammer miniatures and higher licensing income from video games and media deals.

Examples:

Yahoo Finance’s statistics page for GAW shows, on a trailing twelve-month basis:

  • Revenue: about £617.5 million
  • Net profit: around £196.1 million
  • Profit margin: roughly 32%
  • Operating margin: around 43%
  • Return on equity: close to 74%

Source:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/GAW.L/key-statistics/

Those are unusually high margins and returns for a manufacturing and retail business, reflecting:

  • control over intellectual property
  • direct-to-consumer channels through Warhammer stores and online
  • high-margin royalties from licensing deals

5. Dividends and cash distribution policy

Games Workshop has a clear, relatively simple policy: it pays out “truly surplus cash” as dividends when it believes money is not needed for the business.

Recent official dividend announcements on the company’s investor site show how this works in practice:

For the 2024/25 financial year, a series of dividends were declared:

For the 2025/26 financial year, the company has continued distributing cash:

The same announcement format can also be seen on regulatory news sites such as Investegate:
https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/games-workshop-group--gaw/dividend/9245606

Hidden conclusion in the dividend data:

  • Even after funding factory expansions and higher investment in design and tooling, the business is still generating enough cash to materially increase per-share dividends year on year.
  • Total dividends per share in 2025/26 already exceed the full-year figure of the previous financial year, well before the current year is finished.

6. Growth projects and today’s strategic themes

Multiple news sources highlight several themes that matter right now:

6.1 Expanding production capacity

A report early in 2025 noted that Games Workshop plans to build a fourth factory in Nottingham and has secured land for additional sites, largely to support the production of miniatures and paints:

  • Strong demand for Warhammer products has led to capacity expansion.
  • Sales for the half-year period referenced in that article grew more than 20%, with profits up by about a third.

Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/14/warhammer-games-workshop-uk-factory-amazon-tv-nottingham

6.2 Media and licensing as a growth driver

The company’s intellectual property has been moving further into:

  • video games, such as Space Marine 2 and other titles
  • streaming and film projects, including the Amazon partnership for Warhammer 40,000 with Henry Cavill

Articles from Reuters, The Times and the Wall Street Journal all point out that:

  • licensing revenue has risen sharply in recent years (for example, from around £12 million to over £30 million in one reported period),
  • there is investor excitement around potential future media projects, and
  • management is careful to say that media activity should not undermine the core miniatures business.

Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/uks-games-workshops-hy-profit-leaps-with-warhammer-popularity-2025-01-14/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/games-workshop-profits-up-by-a-third-but-us-tariffs-spoil-the-party-mmqzt7t9r
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/warhammers-games-workshop-debuts-on-u-k-s-bluechip-index-b1fa6094

6.3 Analyst targets and sentiment

Share-price data and commentary on sites like London Stock Exchange and Simply Wall St indicate:

  • a one-year price gain of more than 40%,
  • analyst price targets being revised upwards (for example, Jefferies raising its target to 18,300p in a November 2025 note), and
  • ongoing debate about whether the high P/E multiple is justified by long-term growth potential.

Example article:
https://www.lse.co.uk/news/GAW/jefferies-hikes-games-workshop-price-target-shares-jump-49rrby14epks4i2.html

Hidden conclusion in today’s positioning:

  • The business is no longer just a niche hobby manufacturer; data on margins, returns and dividends suggests a cash-rich, IP-driven group with global reach.
  • A significant part of the long-term story is now tied to licensing and media, which are high margin but potentially lumpy and harder to forecast than core miniature sales.
  • The current valuation implies the market believes that the combination of core hobby growth plus licensing can keep compounding earnings for years, despite potential risks such as tariffs or changing consumer spending.

7. Summary

Putting the data together, Games Workshop today looks like:

  • a vertically integrated fantasy miniatures business with global reach,
  • a brand – Warhammer – that has grown from tabletop hobby to broader entertainment franchise,
  • a highly profitable model with strong margins and very high returns on equity,
  • a generous but variable dividend pattern based on surplus cash, and
  • a share price that reflects strong expectations, trading close to all-time highs.

Whether someone finds the shares attractive is a separate, personal question. What the numbers clearly show is that Games Workshop has transformed itself from a niche hobby supplier into one of the more unusual and profitable listed consumer-entertainment businesses in London.

Sources (all accessed December 2025)

Company and investor information:

Share-price and key statistics:

Dividends:

News and analysis:

Disclaimer:
This article is for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, tax or legal advice, and it does not take into account your personal circumstances. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security.

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