Rightmove full-year profits up as web traffic soars

28th Feb 2014 08:15

Property website firm Rightmove said 2013 full year pre-tax profits were up to 97m pounds from 83.2m boosted by a 17 percent jump in revenues to 139.9 pounds.It said the outlook for 2014 continued to be positive as consumers and customers "become ever more digital" and could be boosted by a recovery in the UK housing market. "Activity on Rightmove has been strong at the start of 2014, with traffic across desktop, and tablet platforms up over 15% in the first month of this year compared to last year and a record four million enquiries generated for our customers," the company said. "After a five-year period where housing transactions have been at unprecedentedly low levels, 2013 saw a 15% improvement in transactions (recorded by the government), potentially marking the first steps on the road to recovery."Basic earnings per share up rose 21% to 74.1p. The company said the number of advertisers increased to 18,425 against 17,680 a year ago. Average revenue per advertiser climbed to £607 a month compared with £529 in 2012.Traffic across the group's website soared 27% to 14.0bn.The dividend for the year is 28p, up from 2012's 23p.Rightmove shares were up 128p, or 4.88%, to 2,753p at 08.40.FP