If you're trying to explain the sudden spike in Games Workshop 's (GAW) share price towards the end of last year, you needn't look past the devaluation of sterling. Almost three-quarters of the company's sales are generated overseas, making it a significant beneficiary of the current weakness in the pound. That's not to do management down: the timing of the currency slump also coincides with a tangible uptick in trading, something chief executive Kevin Rountree said was built on a "considerable team effort across the business".
Digging into the numbers in more detail, it would seem that adjusted pre-tax profits of £13.8m comfortably beat brokerage Peel Hunt's £13m estimate. But, in fact, the company enjoyed a £0.8m boost thanks to an accounting change, which means its expectations were bang on. The change relates to the rate of depreciation on certain development costs - for the full year, this is expected to result in a gain of around £1.4m. And it's worth noting that Peel Hunt upgraded its own forecasts by a whopping 30 per cent following the half-year update in early December.