Card Factory's 1.4p Interim Dividend has a Record Date of 6 November 2026 and is payable on 11 December, as the greetings card retailer heads into the Christmas period on which its full-year profit depends. Its most recent filing is a share buyback update on 2 November.

What happened

Card Factory (ticker: CARD) is a constituent of the FTSE All-Share index, in the retail sector. The dividend was declared with half-year results on 29 September, and is 7.7% higher than last year's 1.3p.

Group Revenue for the six months to 31 July rose 5.3% to £260.8m. Most of the growth came from Funky Pigeon, acquired in August 2025 for £27.4m including costs, and from wholesale. Excluding Funky Pigeon, sales were broadly flat.

Stores generated £226.0m, down 0.7%, while digital sales reached £16.0m and wholesale £18.7m. Like-for-like sales at the cardfactory Brand fell 2.2%, with UK stores down 2.3% and the Republic of Ireland up 5.6%.

Adjusted profit before tax slipped 3.8% to £12.7m, while statutory profit rose to £12.3m from £7.5m. Adjusted Earnings Per Share were 2.9p, against 2.8p. Chief executive Darcy Willson-Rymer said: "We are confident of delivering full-year expectations."

Why it matters for investors

The size of the second half is the central point. Consensus adjusted profit before tax for the year ending January 2027 ranged from £54.0m to £59.0m at 28 September, averaging £56.7m. Set against £12.7m earned in the first half, roughly three-quarters of that average still has to come through, by our calculation.

Management said UK store like-for-like sales had improved since the half-year end and returned to positive growth in recent weeks, while cautioning that it was still early in the period. About 40% of planned efficiency savings were delivered in the first half, with the remainder due in the second, against cost Inflation of 3% to 4%.

Balance sheet figures were steady. Net Debt excluding leases was £87.4m, up from £78.9m, with adjusted Leverage of 1.1 times, inside the 1.5 times target. Adjusted free Cash Flow was £0.8m, compared with an outflow of £6.3m a year earlier.

Shareholder returns have been active too. The £15m buyback announced in April was 83% complete at 25 September, and a further £3m purchase into treasury for colleague share schemes was planned afterwards. A "Commencement of share repurchase programme" notice followed on 21 October, though we have read only its headline and cannot confirm which programme it covers.

How the shares have performed

A market data page showed 89.30p at the close on 30 October, down 0.50p or 0.56% on the day, with a Market Value of £291.3m. The 52-week range ran from 58.30p, on 31 March 2026, to 108.40p, on 30 October 2025.

That leaves the shares about 53% above the low but 18% below the high, by our calculation. The page listed a Dividend Yield of 5.59%, based on the 5p declared for FY26, and a Sharesify headline on 29 September described a rally on the return to positive sales growth.

What to watch next

The 6 November record date determines who receives the interim payment. Beyond that, the key indicator is the Golden Quarter, the company's term for the run-up to Christmas, where it says it has plans for new products, value Investment and customer traffic.

Funky Pigeon is a further item to follow. The company expects £5m of synergies from the year ending January 2028, and reports new customers up 11% in the first half after brand Marketing was reinstated.