Zillow Group, the Seattle-based real media company, posted a 32 percent increase in first-quarter revenue, to $245.8 million, and beat Wall Street’s expectations with earnings of 11 cents a share, 6 cents better than expected.
The company raised its revenue outlook for the full year to a range of $1.050 billion to $1.065 billion, up about 25 percent at the midpoint of that guidance range, reflecting Zillow Group’s optimism about its business fundamentals and the real estate market more broadly. It would be the first time the company topped $1 billion in annual revenue.
In the company’s earnings release, Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff called it a “tremendous start to 2017.” Zillow Group’s shares are up about 2 percent in after-hours trading, to 40.23.
Average monthly unique users topped 166 million, up 7 percent, for Zillow Group’s consumer brands: Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy, HotPads and Naked Apartments.
“The real estate industry overall remains very, very strong,” said Kathleen Philips, Zillow’s chief financial officer, in an interview with GeekWire after the earnings release. “Mortgage rates have gone up a little bit, but not as much as anticipated. We are still expecting to see growth overall in the real estate industry through the year.”
Philips credited factors including strong revenue growth across Zillow’s marketplaces. Premier Agent revenue was up 30 percent to $175.3 million, mortgages revenue rose rose 23 percent to $20.3 million, and other revenue rose 93 percent to $34.8 million — a category that includes Zillow Group Rentals, agent services, dotloop, Naked Apartments, and other consumer properties.
