Evercore ISI upgraded Zillow stock to "outperform"
Zillow Group Inc (NASDAQ:ZG) is trading at $44.24 premarket, adding 4.8% following a bull note from Evercore ISI.
Specifically, the brokerage upgraded ZG to "outperform" from "in line" and raised nearly doubled its target price to $61, saying the shares could add 40% on a "rapid recovery" in the housing market. "We are in significant part making a macro call here -- that the housing market is either already beginning to recover or will very soon do that," Evercore said according to CNBC.
Zillow's upcoming earnings report will certainly shed some light on the situation. The online real estate brokerage is set to report earnings after the close on Wednesday, Feb. 15. The equity tends to dip following trips to the earnings confessional, finishing five of its last eight post-earnings sessions lower. Regardless of direction, Zillow stock swung 10.3% over the last eight quarters; this time around, the options pits are pricing in a slightly larger move of 12.4%.
Analysts are relatively split towards ZG, leaving plenty of room on the bullish bandwagon. Coming into today, 10 of the 18 covering brokerages recommended a "hold" or worse. The 12-month average target price of $42.23, meanwhile, is a razor-thin premium to Friday's close.
On the charts, ZG is poised to open above the $44 level -- an area that it's managed to trade above briefly earlier this month after nearly a year below the level. The equity is also moving above a host of short- and long-term moving averages, and already stands 35% higher in 2023.