I hear good things about Telco Recruitment Market

BrainsTrust News: Robert Walters on track to beat market estimates
Thursday 15 December 2005
By: Cliff Feltham

Recruitment firm Robert Walters, a Citywire BrainsTrust stock, hit a high for the year today after announcing that profits for the year would be ‘somewhat ahead of market expectations.’

The shares, trading at 98p in May touched 143p, up 10p on their overnight level, before settling at 140p where the business is valued at £114 million.

Brokers warmed to the statement. Numis upgraded its previous top of the range estimate of £10.5 million to £12 million and raised its target price from 178p to 190p.

For 2006 it is looking for £14 million.

Numis said Robert Walters’ (RWA) overseas operations are fuelling the improvement in trading, particularly Japan while Australia and New Zealand are also making good progress

Altium Securities is also on track for £12 million this year and £14 million in 2006 and has raised its target for the shares from 150p to 165p.

The brokers say other beneficiaries of the recruitment boom are expected to be Michael Page (MPI), and Harvey Nash (HVN), Glotel (GLO) and Imprint (IMP).

At the halfway stage in September, Robert Walters reported profits 63% ahead at £4.9 million.

Walters is eight in the Citywire BrainsTrust Small Cap index, an analysis of the favourite stocks of the UK's top smaller companies managers by how overweight they are compared with the market