Zillow (NASDAQ:Z), the online real estate company, saw shares jump over 6% in pre-market trading after its fourth-quarter earnings beat expectations.
Headwinds facing the real estate industry have been some of the harshest in the last decade, but at Zillow (NASDAQ:Z), strong revenues from areas such as residential and rental helped drive the earnings beat.
Underlying earnings reached US$69 million in the fourth quarter, beating the group’s midpoint guidance by US$19 million.
When excluding a “one-time partial lease termination expense” underlying earnings would have increased to US$83 million, representing a 17% uptick from 2022’s figures.
Revenues during the fourth quarter lifted US$31 million higher than the midpoint of the group’s outlook to reach US$474 million.
However, full-year sales dropped by 1% year-on-year to US$1.9 billion.
Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) co-founder and CEO Rich Barton said: “We reported great revenue numbers across the whole of our increasingly diversified and growing business.
“This is evidence of the progress we're making to transform the way people buy, sell, finance and rent homes by continually adding more functionality, software and services to Zillow's housing super app."
Looking forward into 2024, Barton says he is confident in expanding into more markets as the company continues to “press on the accelerator”.
“We have the leading real estate audience and a brand that is a household name, and we have barely scratched the surface on a real estate market with $2 trillion of total transaction value," he concluded.