Punishing day for Purplebricks shares on stock market

Shares in Purplebricks took a battering yesterday.

Starting the day at 382p, that was as good as it got.

At one stage in the mid afternoon, they went down to just under 354p before recovering somewhat to finish the day at 360.5p – a long way down from their high of 513p in late July, although still a more than handsome return for those early investors who got in at £1 less than two years ago.

Purplebricks has seen its shares go south all week after a 400p price tag on Monday.

It launched in America exactly a week ago and has since hit controversy, with Trustpilot reviews from UK reviewers going to its US site, where they were removed.

There has also been a high-profile contretemps with British review site allAgents, which first removed the Purplebricks account and then yesterday took down its explanation as to why it did so.

Allagents claims it has acted in response to the threat of legal action. Purplebricks has claimed that a large number of reviews on allAgents were fakes.

Countrywide also had another disappointing day on the stock market yesterday, with its share price sinking to just under 123p. During trading, they hit a new low of 121.75p.

Foxtons shares also fell to a new low of 71.75p.

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32 Comments

  1. PeeWee

    And it’s just coming into Duck hunting season in the US.

    Ouch.

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    1. Bless You

      Down another 3% today.   they seem to have a load on in L.A .already though..have they done a deal with a multi lister ???   seems like if the law says they can share property of others, they will have a field day with their propaganda advertising sharks.

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  2. Philosopher2467

    The ‘PB’ mirage is evaporating as anyone who understands the industry expected. People are seeing that the model (estate agency lite) doesn’t do what it would have vendors believe it does. You can only perpetuate a myth for so long. Let’s not confuse a completely unrealistic and unsustainable share price with performance. As for CWD; it’s continuing demise is because of the incompetence of the senior management. Management that remains in place to continue running it into the ground. The management has no credibility (not to mention no ability) with anyone. Foxtons appear to be suffering the effects of the ‘London’ malaise but, as long as they don’t ‘knee jerk’, they will recover more readily than the other two organisations. It remains to be seen however what that recovery will look like in terms of revenue. It will be next April/May before any of the above can hope to see any improvement in their fortunes and this assumes an improvement in market conditions in January 18; in my opinion.

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  3. Curious george

    This is the city beginning to realise that not is all as it seems with Purplebricks and Trustpilot

    Purplebricks big PR stunt on being the most reviewed estate agent in the U.K. backfired big time when their lawyers threatened allAgents.

    ‘David and Goliath’ springs to mind here.

    I heard this story has grown arms and legs with realtors in the USA.

    Purplebricks may have to suspend their expansion until this all blows over .

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    1. Robert May

      The slide has nothing to do with the Allagents kerfuffle, this all began at the start of the school holidays when it wasn’t going to be wise to be holding stock that might bust any minute while you were glugging all inclusive Vodkka and Whiskay in da sun.

      The apps that herd gullible investors into particular stocks held by high profile investors are great while it’s all on the up but  given any sign of a ski slope decent the night sweats creep in, experience top trumps bravery, common sense takes over then there is mad rush for the door as panic sets in.

      According to some keyboard traders it seems I don’t understand this stuff.  They’re right I don’t. What I do know is that a business propped up by share trading  has to be good enough, long enough  to  attract income investors as growth investors are all too easily spooked. Without long term income investors the money dries up all too quickly.

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      1. Bless You

        Yep all the clever  moneyt has shorted their positions…woodford is holding it up with his massive share…so he will stand to lose £ millions when it goes pop….    problem is he has already made loads by having clever adverts…

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        1. dompritch134

          Share price up 10% on the day at 392p, You were saying????????????????

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          1. PeeWee

            Share price up another 1.4%!

            Oh, but its 70 pence down at 322p since your post.

            You were saying?????

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            1. PeeWee

              And down another 20pence today at 302p.

              What you saying now Dom?

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  4. GeoW10

    Purple Bricks are like the “Ryanair” of the property sector, the difference with these cavaliers being the latter has made money.

    So it’s surely not surprising that for different reasons both are coming under more and more scrutiny.

    If P.B. repeat their UK tactics in the USA they will be eaten alive.

    And as for C’Wide, are they heading for life support?

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    1. Bless You

      Um at least ryanair provides an aeroplane…pb is an estate agent with out wings.

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      1. Ostrich17

        But do Ryanair have a Pilot they can Trust;-)

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  5. J1

    Sadly, anyone who thinks this is the beginning of the end for PB is mistaken – I too wish it was

    their cash position is so strong that they have little to worry about

    they trade off the back of a profession which has collapsed into black hole of public opinion – mostly due to a lack of proper regulation and licensing

    The most vulnerable are 20 plus office outfits / all the way up to countrywide

    good luck to those that cannot batten down the hatches – a storm is coming your way

     

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    1. Robert May

      …it is but that isn’t due to passive intermediary listing firms. Larger agencies with larger staff registers will suffer but the disruption model has not been tested in a slow or falling market.

      The model has an Achilles heel that means a slow market is likely to do what  the end of MIRAS did; clean out people and institutions who make the profession an industry.

       

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      1. GeoW10

        Game, set and match Robert !!

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      2. g4lvo17

        And for those of you who think the world didn’t exist before the Interweb, MIRAS stood for Mortgage Interest Relief At Source.

         

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  6. Property Paddy

    Fake News!

    Where’s Donald Trump when we need him.

    Finally the PB balloon has popped and investors will soon see, if it ain’t making money it aini’t worth the time or money to invest.

    Sorry for PB?

    Nope

    Sorry for Countrywide, yep

    Sorry for Foxtons Grudgingly, they may not be the most polite of individuals but they have succeeded where the likes of PB failed.

     

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  7. Hillofwad71

    No great fan of Bricks of course .The Trustpilot  fiasco and the failure of both managements to deal with it quickly as soon as it was revealed at such an important time  speaks volumes,Very poor

     

    I think there is probably  a large disconnect with the quality of  the management and Brick’s cutting edge, disruptive image

     

    The T/P fiasco has revealed  that the paying client  takes control of the rating even the power to remove reviews which they admit to be true to influence It brings the whole intefgity of the rating into question

     

    Moving back to the  motherlode .instructions are up to speed in the UK with  the Hardman report so the market can have  no gripe there Oz fairly  pedestrian so benign Lettings best left unsaid

    California will be  the one to influence setiment and nothing yet has come back about momentum there mainly because of the trustpilot  chaos

     

    If some traction is being made its likely   that the SP will shoot  for the  stars  We shall see!

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  8. Siroje26

    It’s seems you can still fool people for so long but the end of the story never changes ‘the Emperor has no clothes’

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  9. El Burro

    What, no Cyberduck today?

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    1. cyberduck46

      El Burro, the share price is governed by supply & demand. There’s a small float so share price movement is very volatile. A small upturn in demand drives it significantly higher and a small downturn drives it significantly lower.

       

       

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    2. Hillofwad71

      He is alive and well as evidenced on the LSE share  chat  Supportive of Trustpilot  which of course he is entitled to be with a recent response to him !

       

      Lets agree to disagree .Its like a scene from a pantomimeThe world and his wife have seen the whole reviews on the US site as invalid whilst it takes 7-10 days with their sophsticated procedures to find it out Trustpilot shouting “where” with the whole crowd shouting “They are Behind you”

       

       

       

       

       

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    3. Frown Please

      It’s like Beetlejuice, say it 3 times…

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  10. dompritch134

    The real tell on momentum will be the interim results next Friday, if they are inline with expectations there maybe a substantial bounce!

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    1. Property Pundit

      Is that a share tip Dom?

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      1. dompritch134

        Just an perfectly rational observation, take it as you will!

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  11. cyberduck46

    Looking forward to the “news” about PurpleBricks’ share price tomorrow. Just to show impartiality 🙂

     

    Or perhaps it will be a daily item or even better 24 hour coverage (well at least while the market is open).

     

    After all PurpleBricks are the new O J Simpson for the property market.

     

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    1. dompritch134

      Oh yes after a huge recovery today finishing at 394p I look forward to the article!!!!!!!

       

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    2. cyberduck46

      Not tomorrow – Monday.

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      1. dompritch134

        We shall wait but I wouldn’t hold your breath!

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  12. g4lvo17

    Warren Buffett is the most successful investor in the world, his Berkshire Hathaway investment company only invests in shares with proven earnings and a sustainable P/E ratio and as he always says if it doesn’t produce value for shareholders ( which means dividens not share price ) he wont touch it. I don’t see any value at the present time in PB just speculation on the hope of a profit one day in the future…….. I’m out 🙂

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    1. cyberduck46

      g4lvo17,

       

      Warren Buffet on dividends http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-on-dividends-2013-3?IR=T

       

      “A company’s management should first examine reinvestment possibilities offered by its current business – projects to become more efficient, expand territorially, extend and improve product lines or to otherwise widen the economic moat separating the company from its competitors.”

       

      I draw your attention to “expand territorially”

       

       

       

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