Once again, Plus500 (PLUS) - which offers an online contracts-for-difference (CFD) retail trading platform - has busted growth expectations. Its first-quarter update this week revealed that revenue had jumped 207 per cent since 2013's first quarter. That beat broker Liberum's forecast by 61 per cent and helped drive the shares up 10 per cent on the day to 675p.
Other good news included a 63 per cent hike in the number of new customers during that period, a 24 per cent fall in average user acquisition costs and a 108 per cent rise in average revenue per user. Management put such progress down to "growing brand awareness in its core markets coupled with the ongoing delivery of successful online marketing". It was a strong enough performance for Liberum to bolster its estimates - it upped its 2014 EPS forecast, for instance, by 20 per cent to 74¢ (44.5p).
