Zillow Stock jumps as it sells homes it bought and buys back stock

font size

Zillow

The stock jumped after the real estate technology company briefed investors on closing its home-buying program and authorized share buybacks.

Class C shares of Zillow (trading symbol: Z) are up about 9% in the after-hours trading period.

The company said Thursday that it has sold more than half of the homes it sought to offload during the closure of the Zillow Offers home-buying program. At the end of the third quarter, Zillow had 9,790 homes in its inventory and 8,172 homes under contract.

Zillow’s Board of Directors also authorized share buybacks of up to $750 million of its Class A shares, Class C shares, or a combination of the two.

CEO Rich Barton said the company’s decision in early November to end Zillow offerings, The program through which you buy and sell homes, will make the company’s balance sheet and its business more capital efficient. “However, today we see an opportune time to announce the share repurchase and cash balance reduction program we have established to support Zillow’s offerings,” Barton said.

Zillow also updated its fourth-quarter earnings guidance. The company said fourth-quarter home segment revenue, which includes Zillow’s offerings, is expected to be between $2.3 billion and $2.9 billion, up from the previous guidance of $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion.

The Close the Company’s Zillow Offers Program Shares tumbled after their third-quarter earnings. The home buying business lost $381 million in the third quarter, according to Ebitda’s revised third quarter. As of Thursday’s close, Zillow’s stock is down nearly 60% so far.

Zillow Deals was launched in 2017. The company buys and sells homes seeking profit through home sale, fees, and additional services.

Opendoor Technologies

(open) and

Offerpad Solutions

(OPAD), two more called iBuyers, have indicated that They will continue to buy and sell homes despite Zillow leaving the space.

Write to Shayna Myshkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com