Westhouse Securities tells investors to build stakes in Rightmove

30th Jul 2014 14:11

Shares in property website Rightmove have further to go after strong half-year results, Westhouse Securities said on Wednesday.Westhouse upgraded Rightmove from 'neutral' to 'add', saying the share price could rise as much as 14%, after the company's underlying half-year operating profit rose 22% to £59.6m on a 20% increase in revenue to £80.4m.Rightmove said enquiries made via its site to agents had increased 27% to a record 22.3m and the number of advertisers had increased by 570 or 3% to 18,995 versus last year.Westhouse said the results were strong and showed that Rightmove was "a well-managed, highly cash-generative business with a clear strategy, strong competitive position and attractive growth prospects."The broker trimmed its target price to 2,585p from 2,700p to factor in a more cautious view on medium-term competition and housing market volatility following government and Bank of England moves to stop UK house prices overheating.Shares rose 20p or 0.9% to 2285p by 14:16 in London.PW