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Why Should You Hold on to Zillow Group (ZG) Stock for Now

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Shares of Zillow Group Inc. (ZG - Free Report) have been performing well of late. The company provides real estate and home-related brands on the web and mobile.

If you haven't taken advantage of the share price appreciation yet, its time you hold the stock in your portfolio as it looks promising and is poised to carry the momentum ahead.

Zillow's shares have returned 7.9% in the past three months, substantially outperforming the industry's growth of 5.4%.

What's Going in Zillow's Favor?

The company benefits from increasing traffic at its mobile apps and websites, strong rental demand and expanding Multiple Listing Services (“MLS”) partnerships.

Zillow’s increased advertising effectiveness, continuous product innovation and effective free marketing channels are helping it gain audience. The new auction-based pricing model in the Premier Agent business has gained significant traction within a short span of time. This is expected to boost top-line growth, going forward.

Moreover, the company’s expanding MLS partnerships is aiding it to deliver high-quality listing information to home buyers and sellers. Additionally, Zillow is well poised to gain from rapidly-growing rental traffic.

The company added two new advertising options to its premier agent advertising product line, namely Premier Broker Program and Team Accounts. The new additions are aimed at improving consumer experience related to agent advertising.

Additionally, Premier Agent Direct program that enables agents to advertise on Zillow, Trulia, and Facebook was enhanced with an additional feature. A marketing link can be established with customers via this new feature, which automatically generates printed postcards and mails to customers.

Moreover, management is also optimistic about the feature called “My Agent”. It can detect when a premier agent is actively engaged in discussions with a consumer and replaces the agent list with a contact box featuring only the chosen agent. This feature is expected to be beneficial for agents as well as consumers.

The company’s newly announced application allows agents to create 3-D home tours. It will help buyers narrow down searches before a personal visit and is another positive for the company. This application, which is currently in testing mode in one of the markets, is anticipated to have a nationwide release in 2018.

Zillow is working toward growth of emerging marketplaces. With the combination of machine learning and personalization, the company expects to align consumer interest with the listed properties. The recently launched product called Rental Inforum is focused at making property managers better understand the preferences of consumers.

The company also expanded its relationship with some prominent brokers such as Realogy, City Habitats and Sotheby's. These additions are anticipated to boost the company’s top-line.

The company exhibits a Growth Style Score of A and has a Market Cap of 7.68 billion, making us confident of its innate strength. Notably, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 11.8% in the last quarter.

Risks Persist

However, competitive landscape, increasing mortgage interest rates and advertising spend remain headwinds.

Our Take

We expect the aforementioned factors to help the company sustain strong momentum and stay afloat amid difficult times. Hence, we suggest that investors hold on to the stock at the moment.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Zillowcarries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) , Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) and Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI - Free Report) are some better-ranked stocks in the same sector. All the three companies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

NVIDIA, Intel and Analog Devices have a long-term earnings growth rate of 10.3%, 8.4% and 10.4%, respectively.

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