Buy buyback king Character

The business, based in New Malden, is awarded licences to develop toy ranges based on children's TV and film characters. The manufacture of the toys is outsourced to a company in China, meaning Character's capital investment costs are kept low and its main competencies are focused on in-house design and development.

Manufacturing in China also means much of the company's purchasing costs are in dollars, which has posed an issue due to the pound's post-referendum slump. While the shares have fallen since the vote for Brexit, management hedges its currency exposure, which should help. Also, the group's success at boosting overseas sales should act as a natural currency hedge - US sales rose to 24 per cent of the total in the first half, up from 17 per cent for the same period in 2015.

Character's reliance on licences means its relationships with intellectual property owners are key. It has a good track record on this front, having had the licence for star character Peppa Pig for 12 years. Other encouraging recent developments include its appointment by DHX as global master toy partner for Teletubbies and appointment by Hasbro for the iconic Stretch Armstrong brand.

Conditions in the international toy market currently look buoyant following 7 per cent growth in 2015. That said, the market is very sensitive to the general state of the economy. This cyclicality, coupled with Character's dependence on licences, rather than company-owned brands, creates inherent uncertainty, which helps explain Character's shares' lowly rating of just nine times forecast earnings.

However, we think that rating looks too low. What's more, so does the company - it has a huge appetite for its own shares. Last financial year alone it spent £6m buying back 11.2 per cent of its shares, and over the past 10 years buybacks have reduced the number of shares in issue by almost three-fifths. The company has also recently announced it has authorisation to spend up to £5m on up to 3.1m shares, or 15 per cent of those in issue, until 20 January next year, which could allow it to take advantage of the post-referendum share-price fall.

Importantly, strong cash conversion means it has been able to substantially reduce the number of shares in issue - thus driving up earnings per share (EPS) - while also pursuing a progressive dividend policy. Indeed, the company reported a £10.3m year-on-year rise in net cash at the half-year stage and hiked the interim dividend by two-fifths. The increased payout was still 4.7 times covered by earnings.