Investors like what they see in Zillow, and they keep sending the shares higher.
The Seattle online real estate company — founded by former Expedia execs Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink nearly 10 years ago — surpassed $5 billion in market value this week.
That’s a whopping valuation, more than triple the value of rival Trulia and nearly in tune with Realogy’s $5.19 billion valuation. Realogy is a parent company of real estate brokerages Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s and others. It posted revenue of $1 billion during the first quarter.
It topped $1 billion in value in April 2012.
Zillow certainly is far smaller when it comes to its own revenues, with just $66.2 million during the first quarter. But its audience is growing fast, attracting 79 million users during the month of April.
Zillow’s stock was off slightly in trading today, but the value still stood at $5.11 billion. The company went public at $20 per share in July 2011. Financial analysts say Zillow still has a lot of headroom in front of it, with Canaccord yesterday noting that only 53,000 of the 675,000 real estate agents on Zillow have advertised to date.
Zillow recently launched a new “coming soon” feature, allowing its subscribing agents to generate buzz for listings before they go on the market. It also today unveiled Zillow Rent Connect, a new tool that allows property managers to better market properties.
