Research Now Share Discussion Threads

[nurdin] 29/5/2007 08:10

Excellent start.Much cheaper than then Brainjuice...tipped in the Mail...and trading on a PE of 65.Looks like we could scale the previous highs

[darcon] 05/5/2007 08:50

The tragic incident involved the murder of one of RNOW's female employees.

Below is a link to the news story:



As the murder happened in their office its no wonder that they moved out. It's all very tragic.

[sirhokko] 04/5/2007 11:33

Fully agree mbadfvn05. Great statement, very confident about growth and expansion so it's looking extremely good for the full year. I too read it as excluding the openvenue acquisition, so the total should be quite a bit higher.

[mbadfvn05] 04/5/2007 11:10

Good results for H1 - Turnover up 130% over same period last year.

I make that up 33% on H2 06 and H1 07 only includes about two month's of the Canadian acquisition so H2 07 should continue the strong growth.

It may include none of the Canadian results because it talks of "organic" sales growth, in which case H2 07 results may be another stonker.

Its a pity the NR is so cryptic about progress - amazing that companies operating in the media sector don't know how to inform their shareholders properly.

BTW, does anybody know anything about this "tragic incident" which caused the Met Police to requisition their office and cause RNOW to move out?

Pity about the £0.5 million cost - but I guess that's genuinely what you call an unexpected one off expense which does not affect the great growth prospects of this company.

[nurdin] 04/5/2007 10:56

Got a few here....not expensive for that kind of growth..:o)

[wjccghcc] 02/4/2007 08:58

Good results from TOL this morning. They say European online market research is only 13% of the total and its growth is still accelerating.

[wjccghcc] 01/4/2007 18:28

My understanding was that the operating costs were determined primarily by the number of staff and that is up to RNOW - if they decided to invest heavily in increasing the headcount, then the OP would be suppressed as there would be a lag between the new staff and sales increases. I do agree that OP would be more usual.

Take your point on the online companies though they're all in different sectors from market research. IPH though has been weak for about six months so not a surprise there. THN was basically bad disclosure of how much revenue they were earning from one-off projects rather than the repeated subscription revenue and that surprised the market. Never looked at BRST.

I think YOU, TOL and RNOW are taking advantage of a structural shift to online market research with all the associated cost and time benefits and that shift still has some way to run IMHO.

I've held these since 180p and they do tend to drift between results so perhaps you can make some good money on your short.

[markie7] 31/3/2007 19:56

surely if it is operationally geared then the vendors would be pushing for an operating profit earn out? (10% increase in GP leads to >10% increase in OP)

the vast majority of earn outs are on some form of operating profit measure. I reckon the vendors realised they need to invest significantly going forward to grow, so negotiated a gross profit deal. VERY few earn outs in marketing services have been succesful on anything other than a operating profit measure.

Look at all the profit warnings in small online stocks recently - IPH, BRST, Thomson Intermedia - for example. They are all the same, good idea, good business, good basics - its just that the market gets totally carried away - and then all of a sudden - WHAM. you miss an inflated earnings figure, and there is a 20-50% correction in the price.

Maybe I'm wrong - we'll see soon enough. I've got a stop loss on it obviously - there is always the chance of a high multiple take over in all these stocks, so you need to be careful

[wjccghcc] 31/3/2007 13:06

Canadian deal is linked to gross profit but the nature of business is a fixed cost base (staff) which is where the operational gearing comes from so gross margin is a better indicator for growth in the business.

Director selling was only one non-exec selling his entire stake. Clearly he had another investment to deploy his cash for. None of the execs have sold.

Yes, RNOW's customer base is more the market research companies but 20% and growing is now outside the sector. It's not surprising that market research co's are the first to accept online research. Also they're the only pan-European online research co at the moment and it will take a lot of time and investment for a competitor to match that - it would be cheaper to buy RNOW (although I doubt management would sell).

Remember last year's results came from only operating in 5 countries and were held back by a lot of investment. They're now in 20 countries and can leverage that research into the US. They will start paying tax which means that PBT growth of 50% won't translate into much EPS growth this year but apart from that, I don't see much on the negative front.

I guess the interims in a couple of months will show us what "the year has started very strongly" means. Good luck with your short.

[markie7] 30/3/2007 17:23

canadian deal is linked to gross profit performance - not the same as real profit - means they will chase unprofitable business to grow top line - scary stuff.

Also - director selling recently

Also - RNOW - in my view, operate in a very different place to yougov - they sell to the market research industry which is growing, but increasingly competitive. yougov sell direct to end clients - very different business and different margins.

anyway - as you say, each to their own

[wjccghcc] 30/3/2007 15:09

Brave I think but each to their own.

The operational gearing is huge here and with sales doubling between H1 and H2 and strong growth continuing into this year the PE will come down fast. In fact for 07/08 it's now 20 which is (a) likely to get beaten and (b) 33% below their peer group.

I think you'll find the selling will peter out after the end of the tax year. Of course, they could screw up the canadian acquisition but much of the consideration is linked to performance and their background is from the US so they're familiar with the market. I'd be surprised if this carried on dipping after next week.

[ok,yah] 30/3/2007 14:52

yes plenty of downside yet - have been short since 5.05p

[markie7] 30/3/2007 14:41

just gone short here - looks daftly overvalued to me.

[dosullivan] 30/3/2007 14:29

Is it undervalued now? 435p

[wjccghcc] 12/3/2007 22:19

Fair enough but it's the cheapest in the sector vs TOL or YOU. Their major assets are their research panels and those aren't on the balance sheet.

[ok,yah] 12/3/2007 15:37

doensn't look undervalued to me - not many assets and the recent acquisition will increase debt - valuation means that risk reward ratio look poor for buyers at these levels.

[dosullivan] 18/2/2007 13:24

The Sunday Telegraph



Online market research firm Research Now gathers data from consumers in 20 countries and its clients include many of the UK's top 10 market research companies. Its acquisition of Canadian company Samplenet also adds £6.7m in sales. Research Now's shares have risen to 517.5p but the company still looks undervalued against peers like YouGov and ToLuna. Investors should buy

[markie7] 18/2/2007 10:49

directors selling,
gross margin earn outs,
commoditised product.

3 reasons

[jakleeds] 17/2/2007 22:58

In your dreams markie. Not a chance.

[markie7] 17/2/2007 20:31

oooh, about 80% I should think.

[dosullivan] 17/2/2007 01:24

what is the downside with this share?

[dosullivan] 17/2/2007 01:22

From : UK-Analyst
Sent : 12 February 2007 07:48:42
To : [e-mail]
Subject : Monday's star tip on UK-AnaIyst.com comes from Small Cap Shares which will publish 3 new red hot t1ps this Wednesday

| | | Inbox




Buy Research Now at 520p

A tip from Rebecca Turner, editor of
Small Cap Shares Newsletter
New tips out on Wednesday!!!!

Research Now was tipped last month in the Small Cap Shares newsletter at 477.5p and is already up by 9% at 520p. The company runs a rapidly expanding online market research business. Sales last year trebled on the back of strong demand and organic growth on an international level. With the sector set to expand by 25% per annum and some bold advantages over the competition, the group is set to deliver solid growth which is not yet in the price. BUY.

Research Now owns one of the largest proprietary, research-only online access panels in Europe . It currently has over a million active panel members across Europe and Australia . It also provides online fieldwork including data collection and processing to research agencies and direct to corporate clients.

It is different to other online fieldwork companies in three ways: it has considerable geographic coverage in Europe , strong relationships with its clients, and a heavy focus on quality and execution. This puts it at the forefront of the growing market research sector as it shifts online.

Since going public on AIM in August 2005, the group has delivered on its promises. It has expanded its panel and increased its profits organically. Revenues have grown at a compound annual rate of 140% and we expect this to settle at around 20% for the next three years in keeping with the growth of the online market research industry.

The online market research sector has some fundamental attractions. The sector is forecast to grow at a rate of 20-25% per annum in the near term. This will be driven by the migration of traditional data collection methods to the internet; greater media fragmentation; globalisation; and increased outsourcing of market research. What is more, new research is much cheaper and faster to produce, as well as being more accurate, which will increase take-up

[dosullivan] 03/2/2007 01:12

Sounds like a share to buy. Mine was the 3.32pm buy. Hope i havent missed the boat.

[dosullivan] 02/2/2007 20:09

Research Now buys OpenVenue to expand in North America
By Kewill Ludens.

Online panel provider, Research Now, is on fire. The shares, in which I have a holding, have rocketed from my November recommendation price of 337.5p to 525p helped by November's news that last year's earnings had at least tripled.

A further boost has been given by last Wednesday's announcement that the company was to buy OpenVenue, a Canadian equivalent of Research Now, based in Toronto and making one third of its sales into the US, OpenVenue is Canada's largest specialist online fieldwork company.

The initial consideration is £9.7m split equally between cash and shares with additional payments up to £10.8m subject to the achievement of performance targets. In the 12 months to 30 June 2006 OpenVenue's turnover was C$15.3m (£6.6m) with earnings before interest, tax and non-recurring items of C$2.8m (£1.2m).

Find out more about Research Now here

Expanding into the global marketplace
The acquisition will extend Research Now's market leading position in Europe to the Canadian market and fits with its strategy to be a leading player in the global market place. It also strengthens the group's hand in addressing the US market where it already has sales and client service offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco providing European opinion into the US market.

It entered the US market last year and had already achieved more than £1m of profitable sales from a standing start by the end of October 2006. It is easy to see huge demand for the group's panels from multinational companies eager to sample opinion on their products and plans.

On this basis a company capitalised at around £68m (pre completion of the OpenVenue deal) looks tiny in relation to where it could be going. I am also impressed that they have settled half the consideration in cash despite their rocketing share price. I can see these shares hitting £10 in no time.

[nessie] 02/2/2007 16:30

Nice moves in the right direction...