Zillow Lowers Outlook, Names New CFO

   By Aisha Al-Muslim 
 

Shares of Zillow Group Inc. (ZG) dropped 20% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the online real-estate company missed revenue expectations for its latest quarter and lowered its outlook for the full year.

Zillow on Tuesday reported a net loss for the third quarter of $492,000, or zero cents a share, down from a profit of $9.2 million, or 5 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Refinitiv were looking for a loss of 1 cent a share.

Total revenue for Zillow, which brands including Trulia, StreetEasy and RealEstate.com, rose 22% to $343.1 million, missing the consensus forecast of $344.2 million. The revenue growth was driven primarily by the company's premier agent, rentals and new construction marketplaces.

For 2018, the company guided revenue of $1.277 billion or $1.284 billion, down from its previous estimate of $1.32 billion to $1.35 billion.

For the fourth quarter, the company guided total revenue of $340 million to $357 million, compared with analysts' estimates of $367.8 million.

Separately, Zillow named former Amazon.com Inc. executive Allen Parker as the company's next chief financial officer, Zillow announced Tuesday.

Mr. Parker will begin his role as CFO of Zillow on Nov. 16 and report to Chief Executive Spencer Rascoff. Interim CFO Jennifer Rock will continue on with her position as chief accounting officer, the company said.

Mr. Parker's annual salary will be $540,000, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Mr. Parker will also receive a sign-on bonus of $1.5 million payable in two equal installments. He will also be eligible to receive an equity award with an aggregate value of $2.5 million, according to the filing.

Mr. Parker spent the last 13 years in finance roles at Amazon. Since 2011, Parker served as vice president of finance for Amazon devices, Appstore & Amazon Pay. While at Amazon, Mr. Parker also worked on the acquisitions of Whole Foods Market and Ring, Zillow said.

Before joining Amazon, Mr. Parker was CFO and vice president of strategic planning at Trane Residential Systems. Prior to that, Parker held various leadership roles at General Electric Lighting, including director of global business development and global controller.

Through Tuesday's close, shares of Zillow are down 0.5% in the last 12 months and down 31% in the past three months.

Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 06, 2018 17:21 ET (22:21 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.