Spencer Rascoff and team Zillow ringing the opening bell on Nasdaq last July

The naysayers were loud and boisterous last summer when Zillow started trading on Nasdaq under the single-letter ticker symbol “Z,” led by former online travel execs touting an unprofitable business that at the time was largely based on advertising.

But boy were those critics (recall these headlines: Zillow soars, but where does it go from here? and Zillow blazes in market debut, skeptics abound) wrong. The company is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its initial public offering on Friday, and things couldn’t look much sweeter for the fast-growing online real estate company.

Not only has Zillow turned solidly profitable, but it has quickly expanded beyond online advertising with a series of acquisitions that have pushed the company deeper into business services for real estate agents. The 450-person company just announced a major expansion at its downtown Seattle headquarters, and continues to show double digit Web and mobile traffic.

It will be a few more weeks before we can get more insight into Zillow’s second quarter, with the company planning to announce results on August 7th. But it has already posted six straight quarters of more than 100 percent year-over-year revenue growth, and it is one of the top performing tech IPOs in the country.

Zillow’s growth, not to mention performance on Wall Street, is nothing short of impressive. The company, which went public at $20 per share, closed today at $42.08. That gives the company a market value of $1.2 billion — roughly the equivalent of RealNetworks, Blucora (formerly InfoSpace) and Blue Nile.

Combined.

Insiders have been selling off the stock, worrying some that the good times may not last forever. And shares were down a bit today. But they’ve been on a rip-roaring rocket ride in the past month, up 26.6 percent. Here’s a look at Zillow’s stock performance over the past year. (Click on chart for more details)

Here’s the Q&A we did with Zillow’s boss last July: “Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff takes the long view after first-day IPO pop”

UPDATE: Zillow shares on Friday morning were down more than two percent, dropping to $41.01 and giving the company a market value of $1.18 billion.

FOLLOW UPIPO Friday: Kayak and Palo Alto Networks soar in debuts

 

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.