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Japanese media conglomerate publishing books/magazines and producing anime, games and films.
Japanese media conglomerate publishing books/magazines and producing anime, games and films.
Gets revenue from publishing, anime production and licensing, and from video games through its FromSoftware studio, maker of Elden Ring, so a hit can lift several units at once as a story is adapted across formats. Sony Group is a major shareholder.
In one line: A Japanese mashup of HarperCollins and a mid-size game/anime studio.
Moat: narrow (brand, IP / patents). Owns a large library of publishing and anime IP that can be licensed and adapted across media.
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan · Founded: 1945 · Employees: 7,332
Size Kadokawa (9468.T) is a Japan Communication Services company (Publishing: Books/Magazines) with a market value of $3.02B, the 367th largest of 1,379 Japan companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at ¥3,490 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 1.9%, against +4.1% for the median peer and +1.8% for the Japan market (cap-weighted) — 7th lowest of 19 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.4% over the last twelve months (peer median -2.6%); the operating margin is 2.5% (peer median 9.7%).
Valuation It trades at 101.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 14.0× (most expensive of 18).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 25% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +19 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 2.6 points below its cost of capital (5.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 12 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥286B | ¥283B | ¥278B | ¥258B | ¥255B |
| Revenue growth | — | +2% | +8% | +1% | — |
| Gross profit | ¥95.9B | ¥96.8B | ¥99.1B | ¥86.6B | ¥90.9B |
| EBITDA | ¥19.4B | ¥17.6B | ¥24.9B | ¥25.4B | ¥32.1B |
| Net income | -¥6.12B | ¥1.28B | ¥7.39B | ¥11.4B | ¥12.7B |
| Free cash flow | ¥257M | ¥689M | ¥7.20B | ¥5.17B | ¥14.7B |
| Capital expenditure | ¥10.1B | ¥9.51B | ¥14.1B | ¥8.95B | ¥7.07B |
| Total debt | ¥1.05B | ¥12.0B | ¥27.3B | ¥25.8B | ¥65.9B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kadokawa 9468.T | $3.02B | -2% | +3% | 2% | 101.9× | 25.1% |
| Toei Animation 4816.T | $4.17B | +23% | -2% | 31% | 27.9× | 0.5% |
| Bandai Namco 7832.T | $26.1B | +76% | +9% | 15% | 25.5× | -0.4% |
| Toho 9602.T | $9.44B | +22% | +4% | 16% | 28.4× | 7.9% |
| Square Enix 9684.T | $7.02B | +25% | +1% | 20% | 26.9× | -5.4% |
| Sony 6758.T | $156B | +33% | +1% | 13% | 18.7× | 3.4% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | 9468.T | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -4.9% | +9.6% | 2nd lowest of 19 |
| 6-month return | -1.9% | +4.1% | 7th lowest of 19 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -12.0% | -11.5% | 10th highest of 19 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.4% | -2.6% | 3rd highest of 19 |
| Operating margin | 2.5% | 9.7% | 4th lowest of 19 |
| Forward P/E | 101.9× | 14.0× | most expensive of 18 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 25.1% | -6.5% | 4th most demanding of 18 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.1% | +1.0% | 2nd highest of 18 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +19.0 pp | -8.4 pp | 4th most demanding of 18 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -2.6 pp | +4.1 pp | 4th lowest of 19 |
| EV / EBITDA | 21.2× | 8.5× | most expensive of 5 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -4.8× | 1.3× | 3rd least indebted of 6 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kadokawa 9468.T | Japan | $3.02B | -2% | +3% | 2% | 101.9× | 25.1% | +6.1% |
| China South Publishing & Media 601098.SS | China | $3.11B | +2% | -1% | 11% | 13.6× | -20.2% | +3.8% |
| Central China Land Media 000719.SZ | China | $2.91B | +5% | -10% | 13% | 10.5× | -8.9% | -0.5% |
| China Literature 0772.HK | Hong Kong | $3.18B | -9% | +12% | 2% | 34.3× | 40.8% | -3.6% |
| Zhejiang Publishing & Media 601921.SS | China | $2.71B | +7% | -7% | 10% | 14.0× | -12.6% | +1.5% |
| John Wiley & Sons WLY | United States | $2.55B | +21% | 0% | 18% | 10.5× | 0.3% | -2.9% |
| Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media 601928.SS | China | $3.60B | 0% | -13% | 7% | 15.4× | -7.9% | +0.5% |
| Shandong Publishing & Media 601019.SS | China | $2.41B | +3% | -8% | 8% | 12.2× | -14.1% | +2.9% |
| China Science Publishing & Media 601858.SS | China | $2.31B | -23% | 0% | 10% | 31.4× | 25.2% | +3.6% |
| Southern Publishing & Media 601900.SS | China | $2.09B | +27% | -3% | 16% | 11.6× | -10.2% | +4.7% |
| Springer Nature AG & Co. KGaA SPG.DE | Germany | $4.80B | +10% | +3% | 22% | 13.0× | -6.5% | +3.4% |
| Changjiang Publishing & Media 600757.SS | China | $1.67B | +6% | -3% | 11% | 9.9× | -9.5% | +1.2% |
| China Publishing & Media 601949.SS | China | $1.64B | -2% | -10% | 3% | 15.9× | 6.3% | -2.1% |
| Chinese Universe Publishing & Media 600373.SS | China | $1.57B | -6% | -5% | -4% | 26.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Heilongjiang Publishing & Media 605577.SS | China | $1.03B | +37% | +2% | 7% | n/a | 3.2% | -0.5% |
| Storytel STORY-B.ST | Sweden | $1.01B | +37% | +9% | 12% | 20.2× | 12.0% | +12.5% |
| Citic Press 300788.SZ | China | $958M | -6% | -2% | 1% | 42.0× | 26.8% | -2.1% |
| Pearson PSON.L | United Kingdom | $10.4B | +18% | +3% | 15% | 18.4× | 0.9% | +1.0% |
| Time Publishing & Media 600551.SS | China | $761M | -5% | -25% | 4% | 11.7× | -21.0% | +0.7% |