Westhouse recommends investors to take profits at Rightmove

22nd Aug 2014 11:22

Take profits at Rightmove, Westhouse Securities recommended investors on Friday after the recent rally in the stock.The company, which runs an online real estate portal, has seen its share price appreciate 11% since Westhouse upgraded the stock to 'add' following its interim results on 30 July, outperforming the market by 14%.This run has now gone far enough, the broker said, as it downgraded its rating back to 'neutral'.While analyst Roddy Davidson was "encouraged" by recent positive trading momentum and Rightmove's confident outlook, he said: "We remain cautious on the sustainability of recent housing market strength and believe competition within the online property market will intensify over the medium-term, capping valuation upside."He continued: "Against this backdrop, and given that recent strength has taken the group's current valuation to within 3% of our target level [2,585p], we have decided to moderate our recommendation from 'add' to 'neutral' and see an opportunity for investors to take profits."Davidson pointed out that the stock is trading at 27.6 times estimated earnings for 2014 with a dividend yield of 1.3%.The shares were down 0.4% at 2,495p by 10:59.BC