Countrywide share price drops to historic low after poor first quarter results
The company has blamed continuing weak consumer confidence created by Brexit on its slowly declining revenues.
The Countrywide share price tanked yesterday to an all-time low of 6.48p a share, pushing it into the territory of almost junk status and dashing hopes of a surprise recovery for the beleaguered company.
The sudden drop was spurred on by the PLC’s announcement yesterday morning that its revenues for the first three months of the year were down by nearly 3% compared to the same period last year.
Countrywide’s statement to the City also revealed that its expected reduction in revenues during the first half of this year will be at the upper end of the range at £5 million.
The company has blamed the continuing poor performance on ‘ongoing uncertainties surrounding Brexit’ continuing to ‘weigh heavily on consumer confidence as a whole’.
Countrywide share price
On a more positive note, the company says it has reduced its cost base to cope with the ongoing weak sales and commercial property markets and that “following the investments made in 2018, the Group remains well positioned in its markets to benefit from any upturn in levels of activity”.
Last month it revealed that IT costs were to be slashed by 35%, its contact centre reduced by 20%, which would help reduce costs overall by 10% across the business.
The Countrywide share price has been yo-yoing in recent months starting out at nearly 11p at the end of last year, reaching 12p in early March, after which it has dropped dramatically to yesterday’s all-time low.
The new share price gives the company a market capitalisation of £106.7 million.