Redfin reported Thursday that its revenue grew 73 percent during the first quarter of 2020, compared to the same period one year earlier, easily beating analyst expectations for the company.
In a statement, the company announced that its revenue between January and the end of March of this year was $191 million. Analysts had only expected the company to report $183.17 million in revenue, which would have represented a 66.3 percent year-over-year increase — far less than what the company actually did.
Redfin also reported a net loss of $60 million — besting the $67 million net loss from a year ago — and a net loss per share of $0.64. Analysts had expected a net loss per share of $0.73, meaning the company beat expectations on that front as well.
The company’s operating expenses were $70 million during the quarter, which is unchanged from a year ago. And Redin now has market share of 0.93 percent of U.S. existing home sales by value, according to the earnings statement.
The results are particularly notable because they include the first period in which the market was suffering through the coronavirus pandemic.
Redfin stock fluctuated slightly in after hours trading following the earnings announcement and an accompanying call with investors. An hour after the call began, the company’s share price was down about $0.20 compared to where it closed during regular trading.
Credit: Google
In a statement, company CEO Glenn Kelman said Thursday that the pandemic has driven the industry to virtualize “itself more in the past two months than it had in the prior 20 years.” And he indicated Redfin had an advantage during that process.
“We were the first major broker to encourage homebuyers to tour homes via video-chat, on March 3; the first to warn the public of a possible housing-market downturn, on March 4; the first to cancel all open houses to protect public health, on March 16; and the first to offer homebuyers self-service access to the listings being sold by our customers, on April 23,” Kelman said. “And there are still so many firsts ahead of us. The reason we’re working so hard is to bring back all the colleagues and friends we lost in our April furlough.”
As Kelman’s comments indicate, despite the positive earnings results Redfin hasn’t been immune from pain during the pandemic; one month ago, the company announced that it was furloughing 41 percent of its agents.
Nevertheless, Thursday’s news comes on the heels of several other positive earnings reports. In February, the company also handily beat analyst expectations when it reported $233 million in revenue.
Redfin also beat expectations when it reported $239 million in revenue in November.
Kelman made a number of noteworthy announcements during his call Thursday with investors to discuss the earnings. Among other things, he revealed that his company was resuming its iBuying program in a handful of markets, and said that 14 percent of the furloughed workers are back on the job.
It was no surprise, given that news, that Kelman was also bullish about the market generally, which appears to be recovering from the low point it reached earlier in the pandemic. Kelman said that demand in particular has remained strong — despite some fears that it would drop off.
“We’ve had enough time to feel somewhat confident that the demand is going to pull through, and even to feel that homebuyers are more serious now,” he said.
With inventory low and demand high, Kelman also does not anticipate significant price drops in the housing market.
Updated: This post was updated after publication with additional information from Redfin’s earnings call.
