Britain's leading property portal Rightmove is persuading estate agents to part with an ever greater share of their advertising spend - average revenue per advertiser, Rightmove's key operating metric, increased by 17 per cent to £443 per month. Coupled with a smaller increase in costs, that pushed underlying operating profits up 23 per cent, and the operating margin up to an astonishing 71.5 per cent.
Rightmove's revenues consist of subscription fees from estate agents, and managing director Ed Williams says it increases its flat-rate fees by about 10 per cent a year. Despite the flat housing market, estate agents seem to be happy to pay up - and even purchase extra premium features - because Rightmove.co.uk garners such a high proportion of house-hunters and, consequently, house-sellers. Portal websites seem to evolve naturally into monopolies: Rightmove received 9.3bn page impressions last year, up 22 per cent and 10 times the number of its nearest competitor.
Pending upgrades, broker Peel Hunt expects adjusted pre-tax profits of £72.6m and EPS of 51.1p (from £60.9m and 41.8p in 2011).
RIGHTMOVE (RMV) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 1,361p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.46bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,360-1,363p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,424p | 852p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.3% | PE RATIO: | 31 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 23p | NET CASH: | £21.8m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 56.7 | 27.1 | 15.2 | 8.00 |
| 2008 | 74.0 | 38.2 | 22.5 | 10.00 |
| 2009 | 64.5 | 36.5 | 26.7 | 10.00 |
| 2010 | 81.6 | 52.2 | 35.7 | 14.00 |
| 2011 | 97.0 | 62.7 | 43.9 | 18.00 |
| % change | +19 | +20 | +23 | +29 |
Ex-div: 9 May Payment: 8 Jun | ||||
