Good news for Rightmove - financial analysts at JP Morgan have said that even after the portal's record profit and hit figures released last week, there is scope for more growth.
"We think Rightmove will continue to benefit from high growth due to the 'must-have' nature of its offering for estate agents, the shift of ad spend from print to online and the strong outlook for its end market of UK estate agents" says JPMorgan analyst Mark O'Donnell in a note to investors on companies with significant future growth prospects.
Rightmove's figures show that page impressions rose by 13 per cent to 8.1 billion in the six months to the start of July, with enquiries reaching a record 22.3 million, up 27 per cent. Overall sales rose by a fifth to £80.4 million.
"Results came in ahead of our expectations at every level of the profit and loss account" according to a note to investors from Numis Securities, another consultancy of analysts.
Meanwhile Barclays' wealth advisers say both Rightmove and rival portal Zoopla are set to grow further by the end of 2014, despite the threat of challenger site OnTheMarket.
"We believe that online property classifieds is one of the best digital business models and one of the most attractive opportunities for investors. We think Rightmove has enough pricing power and barriers to entry to maintain EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation] margins at 75 per cent says the Barclays note.
And in further City news, analysts at Jefferies Group for the first time set a buy' rating on shares of Zoopla Property Group over the weekend. Earlier last week, analysts at Credit Suisse also started covering Zoopla shares, predicting an outperform' status for the stock.
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Comments
Have you heard about OnTheMarket. We think it will be great for the market and save the future of agents.
On the Market aren't going to break the duopoly, period. In fact, if they make any more old-fashioned, unhelpful rules I doubt they'll break even.
We use Zoopla and rightmove so would be cancelling Zoopla - as TBH we could survive with just RM but having Zoopla does mean we are on more portals than other local agents which we use to our advantage. Will be nice to have a portal that doesn't support Online Only Estate Agents though
'onthemarket' will only have a decent chance of success if one of the conditions of subscribing will be that the logos (to be supplied) MUST be shown on all of the agents material, adverts, details, windows etc. etc.. This would have to be rigorously monitored. This, IMO, is far more important than restricting the number of portals. Although it was not compulsory, at the beginning - it woz the agents wot done it for RM gov!
I'm a bit dubious about those people who think OnTheMarket will change everything. Are they really going to make that much difference
I have spent a lot of time reading up on the likely success of Agents Mutual. I really would like to invest and get involved, but this silly rule requiring me to delist from Rightmove (I am in London so have no choice but to stay with Primelocation) will stop me getting involved.
Of course if they do drop it, Agents Mutual will be just be another marketing cost for me if it does succeed. I'm happy with two portals thanks.
These silly comments from agents (or maybe Agents Mutual staff) which seem based on emotion rather than clear thought make us all look unprofessional. Its no wonder that the city and every analyst is dismissing the project.
Rightmove is a disgusting company and forecast growth will be at the expenses of squeezing independent estate agents. Constant price increases without any product innovation.
Looking forward tovrhe arrival of OTM!
Have they heard about onthemarket.co.uk I wouldn't be investing in either at the moment with 4000 agents commiting to leave one of the big two in the coming months!