REA share price in focus
Founded in 1995, REA Group is a Melbourne-based real estate advertising company that is majority-owned by News Corp. In Australia, it’s best known for its Realestate.com.au platform.
REA Group operates on a global scale and now operates property websites in around 10 countries used by some 20,000 agents. In a typical month, the core Australian website gets over 55 million visits. While the business has diversified globally, Australian operations still account for the lion’s share of revenue. Within Australia, REA makes money by listing properties for sale or rent (i.e. the agent uses REA’s website to show properties, which the property owner is on the hook to pay). It also makes money from financial services (e.g. mortgage broking), but this is a much smaller part of the business.
The competitive advantge that REA has is the same as any other established platform: network effects and economies of scale. In other words, Domain (the #2 player) is meaningfully behind REA in users and views, which means REA can continue to control pricing and market dynamics. REA also benefits from owning assets across all parts of real estate, including listing, advertising, mortgage broking, and house sharing.
CSL shares
CSL is a global biotechnology company that develops and delivers innovative medicines that save lives, protect public health, and help people with life-threatening medical conditions live full lives.
The company is divided into three main business units: CSL Behring, CSL Seqirus and CSL Vifor. Behring, acquired in 2004, manufactures and distributes blood plasma products. Seqirus was formed by a rebranding of BioCSL and the acquired Novartis flu business (bought in 2015), and makes flu-related products and performs pandemic-related services for Governments. Finally, Vifor makes products for iron deficiency and nephrology (renal/kidney care).
CSL has developed a reputation with Australian investors over many decades as being a reliable company and a consistent dividend payer. Many consider an investment in CSL to be an indirect play on the continuing rise in healthcare costs.
REA share price valuation
As a growth company, one way to put a broad projection on the REA share price could be to compare its price-to-sales multiple over time. Currently, Rea Group Ltd shares have a price-sales ratio of 18.09x, compared to its 5-year average of 17.41x, meaning its shares are trading higher than their historical average. This could mean that the share price has increased, or that sales have declined, or both. In the case of REA, revenue has been growing over the last 3 years. Please keep in mind that context is important – and this is just one valuation technique. Investment decisions can’t just be based on one metric.
Since it is a more of a ‘blue chip’ company, we could look at the dividend yield of CSL to determine its value. CSL is offering a trailing dividend yield of around 1.35%, which compares to its 5-year average of 1.50%.The Rask websites offer free online investing courses, created by analysts explaining things like Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Dividend Discount Models (DDM). They even include free valuation spreadsheets. Both of these models would be a better way to value the CSL share price.”)
