There's still at least one great growth stock to be found in real estate, it seems. Commercial real estate online marketplace LoopNet (Nasdaq: LOOP ) posted another strong quarter Wednesday night. Earnings rose 50% to hit $0.13 per share, and revenue increased 46% to $17 million.
The results clocked in slightly ahead of Wall Street's expectations. Then again, LoopNet has beaten analysts' profit projections in each of its first five quarters as a public company.
The commercial real estate market has been mostly immune to the muck clogging up the residential segment. You don't find the same overbuilding mania or subprime fiasco in the steadier corporate realty side.
With 518,000 commercial properties on its site -- up 30% from a year ago -- LoopNet has become a popular online destination for serious dealmakers. The site served up 39 million property page views during the quarter, catering to 950,000 average monthly unique visitors.
Most of LoopNet's 2.2 million registered users hold free accounts. Just 88,451 of them pay an average of about $50 a year for premium memberships. Those paying to list properties are getting plenty of bang for their buck. A recent deal with Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ ) means that LoopNet's listings are broadcast deeper into cyberspace through The Wall Street Journal's real estate website.
This kind of growth may smoke out a suitor. A company like eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY ) , which is struggling with organic marketplace growth, would probably love to snap up LoopNet to make a splash in the bigger-ticket commercial real estate market.
LoopNet's best bet, though, is to remain independent. The company is looking to earn $0.45 to $0.47 a share this year on $67.8 million to $68.5 million in revenue. With a stock price at 51 to 53 times the company's bottom-line guidance for the fiscal year, LoopNet doesn't look cheap. Then again, you won't find too many real estate plays growing as quickly as this one -- if they're growing at all.
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has never dabbled in commercial real estate, unless you include Monopoly. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the
Rule Breakers
newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. eBay is a Stock Advisor selection. The Fool's disclosure policy prefers the little dog or the racecar, but will settle for the top hat.
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