Zillow rebounds after NAR ruling rattled investors

Zillow Group Inc. is leading its digital real estate peers in a modest rebound Wednesday after a report that a Missouri jury found the National Association of Realtors liable of colluding to maintain high brokerage commissions sent shares tumbling Tuesday.

“Tuesday’s market response was a bit of an overreaction,” Stephens analyst John Campbell said. “We got the verdict from the jury but there’s still a lot that remains to be seen.”

While the ruling was widely anticipated, many investors weren’t expecting the verdict to come so soon, with the trial previously expected to last three weeks, he said.

Traders sold off shares Tuesday, causing Zillow to post its worst day since June 2022; peers Opendoor Technologies Inc., Compass Inc., Re/Max and Redfin Corp. also tumbled.

“What we saw yesterday was stocks trading as if there was a final nail in the coffin, with the idea that buy-side industry commissions are going to be completely or significantly compressed,” Campbell said.

Once the decision was released, traders thought they could get ahead of it, scrambling to put in short positionings, the analyst noted.

But Wednesday’s rebound shows the selloff may have been overdone.

Now, investor attention shifts to Zillow’s third-quarter results after the closing bell on Wednesday for more color on the implications of the verdict and its potential effects on the industry as a whole.