Bloomsbury bets on Thompson's tough love

They say never work with animals or children but actress Emma Thompson has broken all the rules with her children's book and film – Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, released last week – which she wrote and stars in.

Bloomsbury, home of J K Rowling's Harry Potter series and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, is publisher of Nanny McPhee, and is hoping for equally good results with its new celebrity author. On Tuesday, the publisher reports full-year results, which are forecast to show an adjusted pre-tax profit of around £9m, up on last year's £8.2m. The publisher, which still has £35m of cash on its books, recently announced it was working with the Qatar Foundation to establish a Doha- based scientific journal publishing house.

Analysts reckon the shares are still a buy at 130p, looking for a 155p target.