Zillow Q4 Beats Analysts With $34.3M Revenue, Mobile Visits Topped 50% Of Dec. Total

Real estate site Zillow came in ahead of analyst estimates in its just-released fourth quarter earnings report, with $34.3 million in revenue and net income of $0.5 million.

The revenue number is a record for the company, and it’s also up 73 percent year-over-year. Of the total, $26.8 million came from the marketplace and $7.5 million came from display advertising.

Zillow also reported earnings per share of 2 cents. Analysts had predicted revenue of $31.47 million and earnings of 0 cents per share. This continues Zillow’s pattern of coming in a bit ahead of analyst estimates.

The numbers involved here aren’t exactly overwhelming, so the growth in the company’s mobile traffic may be more interesting than the earnings win. In December, more than 50 percent of Zillow visits came from mobile. The company says that on weekends, mobile accounts for 60 percent of traffic. Overall, Zillow averaged 34.5 million unique monthly visitors for the quarter.

“The quarter capped off a pivotal year of tremendous growth and we’re looking forward to 2013 as we focus on three core priorities: attracting more users with great products and services; growing our Premier Agent business with unmatched value and tools; and accelerating our emerging mortgage, rental and home improvement marketplaces,” said CEO Spencer Rascoff in the earnings release.

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In that vein, the release also notes that Zillow recently launched Digs, a Pinterest-style home improvement site, and that in the fourth quarter, it completed the acquisitions of mortgage software maker Mortech, rental site HotPads and collaborative shopping platform Buyfolio.

Total revenue for 2012 was $116.9 million (up 77 percent) and total net income was $5.9 million (compared to $1.1 million in 2011).

Yesterday, newly public competitor Trulia released an earnings report that also beat estimates.

Update: As of 5:46pm Eastern, Zillow is up 7.8 percent in after-hours trading.