Investor website The Motley Fool has suggested that it could be time to call the top on Purplebricks shares.
On August 8 the shares reached their highest price of 525p. Since then, they have fallen by almost 20%.
The Motley Fool says the most likely catalyst was the BBC Watchdog programme which criticised Purplebricks for repeating a savings claim which had been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. The BBC radio programme You and Yours said customers had complained because they did not know that if they were deferring payment, they were entering into a credit agreement with merchant bank Close Brothers.
The Motley Fool also says that another reason for the decline was recent share sales made by senior management and the company’s founders.
It says: “Although there is no suggestion of insider trading, the timing of the trades seems noteworthy in light of growing concerns about the slowing property market.”
It continues: “What’s more, much of the upside potential also appears to be baked into the stock’s valuations. With the company making only £46.7m in revenue in the last financial year, its market capitalisation of almost £1.2bn means it is valued at a whopping price-to-sales ratio of 25. And despite this, the business has yet to turn a profit.”
The Motley Fool said that Rightmove could be a better pick for investors, saying: “Following last year’s impressive 18% uptick in its bottom line, City analysts expect underlying profits to rise by another 10% this year, with a further increase of 11% in 2018.”
It says the company is generating “serious cash flow”, used to buy back shares and increase dividends.
“Valuations are more attractive too, with shares in Rightmove trading at a substantially lower price-to-sales ratio of 17. And given that the company has an operating profit margin of over 75%, shares trade at a more reasonable price-to-earnings ratio of 28.8.”
On Friday, Purplebricks shares finished the day slightly down at 435p, according to the London Stock Exchange.
Rightmove share prices were also down, to £40.49.
The Motley Fool article – which is the opinion of the contributor Jack Tang – is here: http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2017/08/18/is-it-time-to-call-the-top-on-purplebricks-group-plc/
Comments (4)
I stopped paying attention to Motley Fool a long time ago; their position on a particular stock changes daily depending on the article writer.
They wrote an article back in March when the share price was 353p entitled “After 3-bagging in 3 months, is Purplebricks plc set to crash?”
4th May “Your last chance to buy Purplebricks Group plc under £4?”
29th June “The Purplebricks Group plc growth surge looks unstoppable”
13th July “Why I’d buy and hold long-term growth stock Purplebricks Group plc”
tbf i think that was before the PB marketing team said they were off to america as the ponzi scheme was already falltering in UK. PB have played the markets better then they have played the public….
They announced expansion into U.S. on 22nd February. The share price at the time was about 225p.
In March some Directors sold some of their shares to Institutions @ 300p which put a bit of a damper on the share price and it languished around 300p until just before a very positive trading update in May followed by very good results in June.
There is a small float and shares are tightly held so the share price is very volatile and moves on small volumes of share trades. Rising on good news and falling on bad news.