Harry Potter still casting a powerful spell on publisher Bloomsbury

The magic of expectation-beating profits and a rising dividend, but the company isn't a one trick pony

JK Rowling at the Fantastic Beasts premiere in New York (Getty)

If there’s one company that you want to cheer doing well it’s Bloomsbury. The Harry Potter publisher facilitates more people reading, and that has to be a good thing.

It has also retained its independence in an industry dominated by giants, keeping investors sweet by progressively increasing its dividend.

The role that Harry Potter’s magic has played in that cannot be underestimated. The boy wizard cast a powerful go faster spell on the company's growth that has lost none of its sparkle in the series' 20th year. That’s right, its 20th year.

You probably feel old now, if (like me) you were around in the days when Asda opened at midnight for the final book, and there were queues of punters seeking to get their hands on the hardback for the knockdown price of a tenner (at least I think that’s what the price was).

And yet sales of the series grew by a staggering 88 per cent in the year to February 28, contributing to a 15 per cent overall rise in revenues at Bloomsbury. Even if the publisher's profits were down a bit (it's all about digital investment), they were ahead of the market's expectations.

Given the success of the spin off film, Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, and the fact that you can get a boxed set of the complete Harry Potter series for just thirty quid, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the star in Bloomsbury's galaxy is still growing faster than a turbo-charged Nimbus 2000 broomstick.

Chief executive Nigel Newton says books aren't a luxury (and he's right) but those lavish illustrated editions surely are. A must for the coffee tables of any middle-class parent, they've only added to Potter's power and there are another two of them on the way this year. That should keep the cauldron simmering nicely for the company and its leading author, JK Rowling.

The franchise she created is basically immortal, and it's still being added too. I’m betting, too, that future illustrated editions will come in two parts, given the length of the novels in the back-end of the series.

Fortunately Bloomsbury doesn't appear minded to sit on it and isn't a one trick pony.

It has Sarah J Maas, whose sales grew 87 per cent. There’s also Neil Gaiman, who hit number one in the The Sunday Times bestseller list with Norse Mythology.

The company’s adult division was a slower grower, but you’d have to think that its long term future will be ok if the company can keep the kids reading.

And if it keeps investing in new product, and taking risks on new authors, lightening might not strike twice to the extent that it did with the Potter series, but it can still strike again.

Investors will always hail a rising dividend as magical – and Bloomsbury offers a Hogwarts feast-like 4 per cent yield – but its bosses must never forget that investment is what will keep the magic alive.