With management’s usual flair for the dramatic and acute sense of self-importance, Zillow announced yesterday that it plans to buy and sell homes on the open market through expansion of the...
READ MORE >“Somethin' ain't right. Gonna get myself, I'm gonna get myself Gonna get myself connected I ain't gonna go blind For the light which is reflected I see through...
READ MORE >Even through the prism of what some might argue are “jade colored glasses”, we cannot find enormous fault with Zillow’s 3Q17 earnings results and 4Q17 outlook. The company delivered a modest topline beat largely due to better than...
READ MORE >The attached powerpoint presentation summarizes our findings from our 8th annual survey of real estate agents in the United States.
READ MORE >Redfin is trying to get rid of buyers' agents, and we'll see how that goes. As I said previously though, we are focused on doing something different. We are brokerage-agnostic is the way for...
READ MORE >Approximately two weeks ago, Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow published a post on LinkedIn entitled: “Why Some Investors Care About Culture”. In the post, Mr. Rascoff lauded two (unnamed) investors that are large...
READ MORE >“Mark, on the CFPB, we don't break out the amount of the revenue that comes from co-marketing efforts, but we have said and it continues to be the case that it's a small portion of overall revenue.” Kathleen Phillips, CFO Zillow, 1Q17 Earnings Conf. Call....
READ MORE >“Prior to and during the live conference call, investors may submit questions via Sli.do (www.slido.com). By entering the event code #ZEarnings on the Sli.do homepage, participants will be placed into the queue where they...
READ MORE >Approximately 18-months ago, we published a report entitled: “Is Zillow’s ARPA Growth Miracle Over? The Demise of the “MSA” in the Mortgage Channel Suggests It Could Be, Reducing Estimates”. In...
READ MORE >In many ways the investment case for or against Zillow increasingly can be distilled to one single question: Does the company’s current cost structure reflect investments for growth or simply...
READ MORE >Zillow management did it again. The company guided down for the forward quarter and “talked down” margin expectations for the out year. This has become a tried and true practice for...
READ MORE >Believe it or not, there was a time even after we adopted a bearish stance on Zillow’s stock that we were allowed to ask questions on the company’s earnings conference calls. Unfortunately we asked too many difficult...
READ MORE >Over the past month, we surveyd approximately 470 real estate agents. The vast majority of the agents we surveyed have at least 10-years experience, generate at least 15 transaction sides annually, and work for one of the REAL Trends 500 brokerage firms. Additionally, a significant...
READ MORE >“EBITDA isn’t a controlled substance or a law enforcement agency. It’s the standard abbreviation for the financial-analysis term “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and...
READ MORE >The structural flaws with Zillow’s operating model are all hiding in plain sight. It’s May 2016, nearly 5-years after Zillow went public and the company is no closer to achieving its theoretical adjusted EBITDA margin...
READ MORE >Things have been quite different in Internet TAM-land for the past 3-6 months. Seemingly overnight investors have held companies in the space to a higher standard of operating metrics, profitability and cash flow (do not confuse the relative “higher” with the absolute “high”). In a shock...
READ MORE >It’s one of the more laborious, mind-numbing, and tedious exercises we have conducted on any investment idea, but it has proven to be the most revealing. Of course, we’re talking about the task...
READ MORE >Over the past few weeks, we conducted a survey of more than 50 rental property managers across the country. Overall the feedback from our survey suggests that CSGP management's assertions about the company's...
READ MORE >Where were you on that fateful day, July 28, 2014 when Zillow announced its intention to acquire Trulia in a purchase that was valued at $3.5B at that time? It was a brutal time for short sellers as...
READ MORE >“By the minute I was getting paid like a hot line, Servin' rollin' fiends was calling, we was dot com, Well connected, well respected and well protected.”- Meek Mill/Wale....
READ MORE >Investors love anecdotes about companies; they represent the “broth” in the mosaic theory “soup” we create on any given investment idea. Industry statistics and company specific filings...
READ MORE >From our perspective, within the walls of Zillow Chad Cohen has been the fourth most important person in the company’s empire building efforts over the past decade behind Spencer Rascoff, Greg Schwartz, and Richard Barton. This is why we think...
READ MORE >“Beware the the “tions” of 2015, Especially Those Related to Project Upstream….”- PAA Research, 1/29/15“There’s something brewing here that really makes me think that...
READ MORE >Heading into the company’s 1Q15 earnings call we thought we might get the following from Zillow: Messy 1Q15 results - check New metrics that would be impossible to reconcile with historical...
READ MORE >For the past year, we have been arguing that Zillow has a major advertising inventory problem. The growth of the company’s premier agent featured listing program combined with deals Zillow has...
READ MORE >Well that was interesting. This is not our first rodeo in a heavily shorted battleground stock, but for some reason each experience often reveals something new about potential trading action. Today’s action certainly underscores a...
READ MORE >2015 is shaping up to be an incredibly challenging year for Zillow. The ground is shifting rapidly in the residential real estate space as legacy brokerage firms and media companies (think News...
READ MORE >This morning Trulia filed its 2014 10-K. As you might remember, on the conference call discussing Zillow’s 4Q14 earnings and the closing of the acquisition management was unwilling to provide much detail on Trulia’s 4Q14 financial...
READ MORE >As long time followers of PAA Research know, we have a fair amount of experience dealing with heavily shorted stocks. This is not our first rodeo with a stock that experiences a vicious rally that seems to have been...
READ MORE >We are closing out our TRLA short idea with a (-62.3%) loss following the company's acquisition by Zillow. Many, if not most elements of our short thesis on TRLA did indeed play out: in almost every way the...
READ MORE >SHORT
$98
LONG
$35
SELL/SHORT
$70
SELL/SHORT
$76
SHORT
$101
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$0
SHORT
$9
SHORT
$28
SHORT
$0
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
SHORT
$14.00
SHORT
$22
SHORT
$35
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$20
SHORT
$31
SHORT
$35
SHORT
$30
LONG
$35
PAIR - LONG KNL/SHORT MLHR
25%
LONG
$20
SHORT
$100
LONG
$8
LONG
$20
SHORT
$22
LONG
$12.50
PAIR - LONG CSGP/SHORT LOOP
40%
LONG
$35
SHORT
$275
SHORT
$0