Zillow Shares Rise As Q3 Results Beat Estimates

(RTTNews) - Shares of Zillow, Inc. (Z) gained more than 5 percent in extended trades Tuesday after the real estate information website's adjusted earnings as well as revenue for the third quarter beat analysts' estimates. However, the company reported a loss for the third quarter on higher advertising expenses.

Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow, said, "The third quarter was another extremely strong one for Zillow, as we exceeded our outlook and delivered record results. We made significant progress toward our priorities to grow audience, grow our Premier Agent business and grow our emerging marketplaces."

Rascoff added that Zillow experienced a significant positive impact during the peak of the home shopping season from its first-ever national brand advertising campaign.

Seattle, Washington-based Zillow reported net loss for the third quarter of $1.19 million or $0.03 per share, compared to net income of $2.33 million or $0.07 per share in the same period last year.

The company noted that the loss for the quarter was mainly due to planned increases in advertising expenses. The latest quarter's results also include a one-time tax benefit of $4.27 million related to the acquisition of New York-based real estate website StreetEasy.

Excluding items, adjusted loss for the quarter was $0.05 per share, compared to adjusted net income of $0.13 per share in the prior-year quarter. On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report loss of $0.08 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter surged 67 percent to $53.31 million from $31.92 million in the year-ago period and beat analysts' consensus estimate of $51.35 million.

Marketplace revenue for the quarter soared 73 percent from the previous-year quarter to $40.9 million and accounted for 66 percent of total revenue for the quarter.

Total costs and expenses almost doubled to $58.84 million from $29.62 million in the same period last year.

Zillow's traffic topped a record 63.7 million monthly unique users on mobile and Web in August 2013, up 75 percent year-over-year. Average monthly unique users during the third quarter were a record 61.1 million, up 69 percent year-over-year.

Premier Agent subscriber count grew 68 percent, adding a record 5,942 quarterly subscribers and totaled 44,749 at the end of the quarter.

Z closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $82.31, up $1.06 or 1.30 percent on a volume of 1.54 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $4.20 or 5.10 percent to $86.51.