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Message from Andy Florance

CEO Photo

CoStar Group Update

CoStar continued to deliver outstanding growth throughout 2019 in all aspects of our business, including strong revenues, sales results and profitability. As we progress into 2020, the fundamentals of the commercial real estate industry remain strong and we are moving forward with confidence.

Message from Andrew Florance, Founder & CEO

Why CoStar

  • Leader in transforming the $180 trillion real estate industry from offline to digital
  • Massive, proprietary dataset built over 30 years with more than a billion invested in research and technology
  • Millions of visitors view our online marketplaces for real estate making them key revenue drivers for our clients
  • Our software and technology solutions are mission critical to a large, diverse customer base
  • We have a multi-decade track record of growth – both organic and through acquisitions 
  • Our subscription revenue business model is resilient through economic cycles which in turn often provide attractive opportunities for strategic acquisitions
  • High margin, high cash flow financial model and strong balance sheet

Quarterly Results

Full story

Q4 2020 Highlights

  • Fourth quarter 2020 revenue was $444 million, up 19% vs Q4 2019
  • Fourth quarter 2020 net income was $36 million or $0.91 per diluted share
  • Fourth quarter 2020 adjusted EBITDA was $167 million up 18% vs Q4 2019
  • Full year 2020 revenue was $1.66 billion, up 19% vs FY 2019
  • Full year 2020 net income was $227 million or $5.93 per diluted share
  • Full year 2020 adjusted EBITDA was $553 million, an increase of 9% vs FY 2019
  • Full year 2020 adjusted EBITDA margins were 33%
  • Company-wide net new bookings in the fourth quarter 2020 were $49 million, with H2 2020 bookings rebounding 24% vs H1 2020.
  • In 2020 we closed on three acquisitions, Ten-X, Emporis, and Homesnap, and acquired Houses.com. Our strong balance sheet and acquisition track record position us to pursue growth opportunities through organic investment and M&A.
  • Traffic to CoStar Group’s information and marketplace platforms continue to reach tens of millions of unique monthly visitors.
  • In 2020, we significantly increased our marketing spend for our Apartments.com network vs prior year; up 44% to $221 million. The increased spend resulted in record site traffic of 1 billion network visits, according to Google Analytics. This translated into record net new sales up 35% vs 2019 and record full year revenue of $599 million.
  • CoStar Suite enjoyed a strong finish to the year. From a low base in Q2 2020, net new sales doubled for the second quarter in a row. In addition, we have made significant investment into new product, which is expected to drive future revenue growth. These new launches include our CMBS product in Q1 2021, as well as integrated hospitality data and international version coming later in 2021.
  • Our LoopNet network continued to demonstrate increasing countercyclicality. Site traffic increased dramatically, ending the year up 37% in terms of average monthly unique visitors. In 2021, we plan to increase our marketing spend for LoopNet and Ten-X to drive future revenue growth.