CoStar reports higher revenue, defends traffic numbers
CEO Andy Florance touted the growth of Homes.com and said its traffic data source was more reliable, comparing it to “election results” versus “polls.”
CoStar remains bullish on its huge investment in Homes.com and reported growth in traffic, content and agent engagement during the second quarter, as well as a 12% increase in revenue.
The company has continued to trade barbs over traffic numbers with rival Realtor.com and is currently facing a trade secrets lawsuit filed by the competing home search portal — something CEO Andy Florance described as "laughable." But during this past quarter, CoStar reported that Homes.com logged 99 million average monthly unique visitors and the larger Homes.com network — which includes Apartments.com and other listing sites — can claim 148 million average monthly unique visitors.
Those traffic stats were at the heart of another dispute between CoStar and Realtor.com, which resulted in CoStar agreeing to tweak its high-profile advertising campaign for its home search portal.
Additionally, CoStar said Homes.com now has over two million for-sale and rental listings on its site and more than 10,000 agent members.
What CoStar had to say
During the earnings call, Florance defended Homes.com's use of Google Analytics to report its traffic versus third-party data aggregators.
"I believe tools like Google Analytics are like election results whereas a tool like Semrush or Comscore is more like an election poll. If I have the election results, I choose to report those rather than the sample poll result," he said.
The CoStar CEO also touted Homes.com's fast-growing revenue stream and added that the company is quickly staffing up its sales team for Homes.com.
"Homes.com net new bookings through June reached over $55 million, a significant milestone as it took Apartments.com two years to achieve those results," he said in the investor report. "Our unaided brand awareness continues to climb and reached 27% in June 2024 as a result of our aggressive brand marketing campaign."
Key numbers
Revenue: $678 million, up from $656 million in the previous quarter and a 12% increase from the $606 million reported during the same period last year.
Cash and cash equivalents: $4.92 billion, down slightly from $4.95 billion last quarter.
Gross profits: $542 million, up from $493.5 million in the second quarter of last year.
Net income: $19 million, representing more than double the $6.7 million reported last quarter but a significant drop compared to $101 million from Q2 2023.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization): $12 million in Q2, marking an improvement from a loss of $12.7 million in the previous quarter.
Site traffic: 148 million monthly average unique visitors in the second quarter for the Homes.com network — which includes Apartments.com and other residential portals — and 183 million unique visitors for all CoStar sites.
Notable moves
In April, CoStar acquired the digital property mapping company Matterport, and during the earnings call, the company said it has now launched Matterport virtual tours on Homes.com member listings in 100 cities.
CoStar has also seen several executive moves in recent months. David Mele, who led Homes.com as president for nearly a decade, announced in May that he was departing the company. No replacement has been named.
In June, the company appointed a new CFO, Chris Lown, to fill the role vacated by retiring CFO Scott Wheeler, and in July, announced two other executive placements within its finance division.