Zillow Group's Premier Agent Program Shows Signs of Recovery, But Analysts Need More Evidence

Stephens & Co analyst John Campbell reiterates Zillow Group Inc ZG with an Overweight and maintains a $57 price target.

The analyst got much of what he sought as ZG meaningfully outperformed its first quarter. Notably, he issued above-Street Premier Agent guidance for the first time in several quarters, supporting his call that PA has primarily bottomed out. 

RBC Capital analyst Brad Erickson reiterates Zillow with an Outperform and maintains a $50 price target.

ZG outperformed expectations and the market. Positively, the legacy touring mix shift seems to be a market share tailwind. At the same time, critical initiatives like real-time tours, financing & the enhanced partner network all show solid indicators of future accretion and portending acceleration. 

The analyst sought evidence of key initiatives showing more precise indicators of an inflection.

Nicholas Jones from JMP Securities maintained a Hold rating on Zillow.

Zillow Group reported strong 1Q23 results, beating on both the top and bottom lines.

The Premier Agents increasingly showing Zillow Home Loans to more customers and strong user engagement with real-time touring in ZG's enhanced markets encouraged the analyst. However, he sought a broader rollout of ZG's new solutions and more evidence that its innovations drive share gains and increased monetization to become more positive on the stock.

KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson reiterated a Sector Weight on Zillow.

Zillow continues to execute well in a challenging market, as evidenced by share gains and 1Q EBITDA outperformance highlighting Zillow's potential for significant margin expansion as market conditions improve. 

However, market visibility remains limited, and he believes Zillow's product investments will need to start bearing fruit to drive further improvement in the second half and into 2024E.

Price Action: ZG shares traded higher by 9.14% at $45.20 on the last check Thursday.