As a London focused estate agent, Foxtons (FOXT) has its work cut out as transactional volumes continued to falter, although the lettings side of the business held up reasonably well in 2017. Turnover on the lettings side was down just 3 per cent at £66.3m, accounting for 57 per cent of group turnover. And while demand for private rentals remained brisk, rents themselves came under downward pressure, following a large increase in the number of rental properties as landlords rushed to complete new purchases ahead of the rise in stamp duty.
A 26 per cent drop in sales volume cut turnover by nearly a quarter to £42.6m, although revenue per transaction grew by 4 per cent thanks to a revival in London house prices that pushed the average price of Foxtons property sales up from £568,000 to £580,000. Revenue at the mortgage broking subsidiary Alexander Hall fell by just 1 per cent to £8.7m, although this would have been greater without a higher proportion of remortgage deals. Group costs were trimmed by £5.6m, and cash on the balance sheet doubled to £18.6m.
Analysts at Peel Hunt are forecasting adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December 2018 of £8.4m and EPS of 2.5p.
| FOXTONS (FOXT) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 79.6p | MARKET VALUE: | £219m | |
| TOUCH: | 79.4-79.8 | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 115p | LOW: 63p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.9% | PE RATIO: | 42 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 51p* | NET CASH: | £18.6m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p)** |
| 2013 | 139 | 38.9 | 12.2 | 0.14 |
| 2014 | 144 | 42.1 | 11.9 | 4.9 |
| 2015 | 150 | 41.0 | 12.3 | 5 |
| 2016 | 133 | 18.8 | 5.7 | 2 |
| 2017 | 118 | 6.5 | 1.9 | 0.7 |
| % change | -11 | -65 | -67 | -65 |
| Ex-div: | 26 Apr | |||
| Payment: | 25 May | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £120m, or 44p a share **Excludes special dividends of 3.74p in 2013, 4.76p in 2014 and 5.99p in 2015 | ||||
