What happened
Shares of online real estate information and analytics company CoStar Group (CSGP 1.03%) are getting a big lift this morning after the company reported Q2 earnings Tuesday. As of 11:19 a.m. EDT today, the stock was up more than 12%.
Expected to earn $2 a share on sales of $390.2 million for the quarter, CoStar instead reported $2.34 in pro forma profit and sales of $397.2 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Actual GAAP income for the quarter wasn't as good as the pro forma number: just $1.60 per share, and down 7.5% year over year. Still, coronavirus or not, CoStar managed to grow its revenue 16% year over year in Q2, including at least one record sales month in the quarter.
Partly, this was due to the company's acquisition of online real estate marketplace Ten-X and incorporation of its revenue stream. But management also noted that "traffic to our Apartments.com and LoopNet marketplaces are at record levels, exceeding pre-pandemic levels," and unique visitors to the company's websites are up 13% sequentially from Q1, before the coronavirus impact had really begun making itself felt.
Now what
Management did not give GAAP guidance for earnings, saying only that its pro forma profits will range from $2 to $2.10 in Q3, and from $9.22 to $9.42 for the full year.
Revenue-wise, CoStar predicted that Q3 sales growth will be even stronger than in Q2, ranging from $415 million to $420 million, and thus up about 18% from Q3 2019 levels. And when all is said and done, 2020 will see the company's sales up 17% from 2019 levels at perhaps $1.64 billion.
