Rightmove Moves Up 6.5% On Excellent First Half

Published in Company Comment on 1 August 2012

Revenue rises 23% at the UK's number one property site.

Rightmove (LSE: RMV), the UK's market-leading home-search website, was up 6.5% at time of writing on the strength of excellent half-year results. Revenue rose 23%, up to £57.9m from 2011's £47m, underlying profits were up 38% at £42.6m, with earnings per share up 30% to 32.2p, helped by a reduced capital base as a result of £30m spent on share buy-backs.

Contributing to the results were an increase in site traffic of over 20% versus the same period in 2011, with a notable increase in mobile access via Rightmove's smartphone apps, and a 20% increase in average revenue per advertiser.

Ed Williams, Rightmove's managing director, commented: "Britain continues to move at Rightmove. Not only is Rightmove where home movers look for their next home, but we are the definitive source of information on what is happening in the UK property market. Our reputation with agents and other property professionals, whether through our data services business or as the source of the best view of the market for landlords and vendors, goes from strength to strength."

Rightmove's results are all the more impressive coming at a time when house prices have fallen for the fourth time in five months (according to the Nationwide building society today) and mortgage approvals are at their lowest since 2010.

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> Jon doesn't own shares in Rightmove.

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Comments

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UncleEbenezer 01 Aug 2012 , 11:09am

1613p share price vs 32.2p EPS?

Estate agents are grumbling about having to subscribe to both Rightmove and Zoopla. And I see a whole lot more Zoopla than Rightmove stickers in agents' windows these days.

I suspect the RMV price may be based on a monopoly that no longer exists, and questionable assumptions about pricing power.

SevenPillars 01 Aug 2012 , 11:42am

People have been wrong about Rightmove for an incredibly long time. Share price in Feb 2009 a touch below 160p today 1600p+.

House prices have fallen, Rightmove keeps going up. One look at the monthly chart tells you why.

As for fundamentals, they are still going in the right direction for what is perceived by the city as a growth company.

mackeson29 02 Aug 2012 , 12:41pm

Where's the moat ?

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