Rightmove investors found their happy on Friday when its share price rose to a record high, touching just over £50 at 5,010p.
While they closed slightly down, at 4,967p, the price was still a record, with the company’s market capitalisation at over £4.4bn – an astonishing 27 times forward earnings forecast.
Rightmove launched on the stock market in March 2006 at 335p – at the very top of expectations – and soared 20% on debut day.
Shares were said to have been around 35 times over-subscribed, with investors hoping to take advantage of Home Information Packs.
HIPs were set to be launched the following year, with Rightmove due to be a major player.
It expected to invest £22m on its HIPs solution, but just four months after launching on the stock market, Rightmove announced its withdrawal from HIPs following the Government’s bombshell decision to make the main element, Home Condition Reports, voluntary.
As a result, its shares plummeted by over a fifth in one day.
The recession also knocked the share price – in December 2008, Connells sold its 18% shareholding in Rightmove for just 155p per share, raising around £32.55m.
But now Rightmove shares have been rising steadily over the last two months, up 19% since early March when they were £41.8p, boosted by positive analyst ratings and by ZPG’s likely sale to a US equity firm.
Those investors who stuck with Rightmove from the very beginning will have done astonishingly well: someone buying a very modest 100 shares at the very start would have paid £355. On Friday, they’d have been worth £5,010.
It’s a staggering 1,300% increase – although of course the really canny investor would have bought at 155p per share.
Connells must still rue the day.
Comments (2)
Quote from Paul Scott of Stockopedia. ‘I certainly wouldn’t want to own Rightmove – given that its outrageously high profit margins look likely to attract some serious competition, sooner or later. Although clearly shareholders in RMV have done very well out of the company to date’.
One day the story of the Rightmove rise – and inevitable fall – will be taught in business school under the headline ‘The importance of looking after your customers’.