Heiton shares have had a good year or two not surprisingly given the group's exposure to the booming Irish construction industry. So it came as a bit of a surprise when one big investor offloaded a bunch of shares at 195p a couple of weeks ago.

That seller must have been really stuck for money, as 195p represents a multiple of just 13 times the expected April 1998 earnings. Not surprisingly, domestic institutions (the seller is thought to have been from overseas) snapped up the Heiton stock on offer at 195p. The shares have since returned to a more sensible level around 235p.

This week's final results from Heiton showed how mistimed that share sale was with earnings per share up almost 30 per cent to over 16p. That means that Heiton is currently trading on a historic price/ earnings ratio of 14.5 times, an undemanding rating given the growth prospects for the building industry.

Heiton's all-time high of 265p earlier this year should be a near-term target and even at that level the shares would not be overpriced, given the ratings of similar companies.