“….but I do want to remind everybody that CoStar has shown again and again and again that we are able to reduce costs after an investment initiative. We are very good at that and we need credit for that.” Andy...
READ MORE >“EBITDA isn’t a controlled substance or a law enforcement agency. It’s the standard abbreviation for the financial-analysis term “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and...
READ MORE >The structural flaws with Zillow’s operating model are all hiding in plain sight. It’s May 2016, nearly 5-years after Zillow went public and the company is no closer to achieving its theoretical adjusted EBITDA margin...
READ MORE >Things have been quite different in Internet TAM-land for the past 3-6 months. Seemingly overnight investors have held companies in the space to a higher standard of operating metrics, profitability and cash flow (do not confuse the relative “higher” with the absolute “high”). In a shock...
READ MORE >It’s one of the more laborious, mind-numbing, and tedious exercises we have conducted on any investment idea, but it has proven to be the most revealing. Of course, we’re talking about the task...
READ MORE >Over the past few weeks, we conducted a survey of more than 50 rental property managers across the country. Overall the feedback from our survey suggests that CSGP management's assertions about the company's...
READ MORE >Where were you on that fateful day, July 28, 2014 when Zillow announced its intention to acquire Trulia in a purchase that was valued at $3.5B at that time? It was a brutal time for short sellers as...
READ MORE >It truly is remarkable. Quarter after quarter, CSGP management talks about phenomenal traffic gains for its flagship properties and explosive growth in bookings. Yet, when the rhetoric melts away and questions are asking about organic or “core” revenue growth the answers are considerably...
READ MORE >“By the minute I was getting paid like a hot line, Servin' rollin' fiends was calling, we was dot com, Well connected, well respected and well protected.”- Meek Mill/Wale....
READ MORE >Investors love anecdotes about companies; they represent the “broth” in the mosaic theory “soup” we create on any given investment idea. Industry statistics and company specific filings...
READ MORE >Each year, for the past six we have conducted a survey of real estate agents across the country. We find that the feedback from agents at the local level gives us a much more informed view of the state...
READ MORE >Now that was a press release straight out of the late 1990’s tech company playbook. Even for a management team that’s renown for its constant self-promotion and “smoke and mirrors” games with growth metrics,...
READ MORE >“Beware the the “tions” of 2015, Especially Those Related to Project Upstream….”- PAA Research, 1/29/15“There’s something brewing here that really makes me think that...
READ MORE >Heading into the company’s 1Q15 earnings call we thought we might get the following from Zillow: Messy 1Q15 results - check New metrics that would be impossible to reconcile with historical...
READ MORE >“Yeah. I'm not buying that stock [Apartment finder] at that price [14x EBITDA]. I will buy that stock at half that price.”- Andy Florance, CEO CoStar Group, Inc. 4/30/15Just an...
READ MORE >For the past year, we have been arguing that Zillow has a major advertising inventory problem. The growth of the company’s premier agent featured listing program combined with deals Zillow has...
READ MORE >Well that was interesting. This is not our first rodeo in a heavily shorted battleground stock, but for some reason each experience often reveals something new about potential trading action. Today’s action certainly underscores a...
READ MORE >2015 is shaping up to be an incredibly challenging year for Zillow. The ground is shifting rapidly in the residential real estate space as legacy brokerage firms and media companies (think News...
READ MORE >This morning Trulia filed its 2014 10-K. As you might remember, on the conference call discussing Zillow’s 4Q14 earnings and the closing of the acquisition management was unwilling to provide much detail on Trulia’s 4Q14 financial...
READ MORE >As long time followers of PAA Research know, we have a fair amount of experience dealing with heavily shorted stocks. This is not our first rodeo with a stock that experiences a vicious rally that seems to have been...
READ MORE >We are closing out our TRLA short idea with a (-62.3%) loss following the company's acquisition by Zillow. Many, if not most elements of our short thesis on TRLA did indeed play out: in almost every way the...
READ MORE >“So hold on tight, with all your might… Cause MC's [market caps] crumble when we rumble… Cause in this battle, I’m takin no prisoners, I’m slayin MC's right on the...
READ MORE >Approximately 6-months ago we introduced ZU as a short idea. At that time our thesis was as follows: Zulily’s TAM is HUGELY overstated. Bulls make the case that the markets in which Zulily participates generated...
READ MORE >“I’m wide awake. I’m wide awake. Wide awake. I’m not sleeping. Oh, no, no, no….. If I could, you know I would. If I could, I would. Let it go….” U2, “Bad”, The Unforgettable Fire In this wonderful song...
READ MORE >“We operate a minimal inventory, intermediary model where we typically take customer orders before we purchase inventory from our vendors”- ZU S-1 filing 11/13/13Much like NILE...
READ MORE >“That was a mistake….Look deep, Josh. It’s there. It’s moves away, but it’s there. You’ve got him….. Don’t move until you see it.” Ben Kingsley, Searching for Bobby...
READ MORE >Approximately two months ago we introduced ZU as a short idea. As a reminder here’s the original elements of our short thesis:Cracks have started to emerge recently, but we think revenue, gross margin, and profitability...
READ MORE >“…the long-term opportunity for Rentals, we look at competitors in the rental space kind of pure play what they call ILSs or Internet Listing Sites, Internet Listing Services and we see a couple...
READ MORE >Approximately two months ago we published a report backed by a review of more than 2,000 listings in 50+ markets on Zillow (“Z: Look at the Listings, the Zillow Ecosystem Might Not Be What You...
READ MORE >“We offer consumers a very different way to shop. Its a much better experience than they get in a store environment, I will take you through that today. But, what consumers are getting is a much...
READ MORE >SELL
$50
LONG
$110
SELL/SHORT
$230
SELL/SHORT
$55
LONG
$70
SELL/SHORT
$4
SELL/SHORT
$45
SHORT
$18
SELL/SHORT
$5
SELL/SHORT
$42
LONG
$75
SELL/SHORT
$50
SELL/SHORT
$50
LONG
$5.50
SHORT
$50
SHORT
$28
LONG
$65
LONG
$37
PAIR TRADE
$10
PAIR TRADE
$30
LONG
$35
SHORT
$35
SELL/SHORT
$10
SHORT
$101
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$0
SHORT
$9
SHORT
$0
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
SHORT
$14.00
SHORT
$22
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$20
SHORT
$31
SHORT
$35
SHORT
$30
PAIR - LONG KNL/SHORT MLHR
25%
SHORT
$100
LONG
$8
LONG
$20
SHORT
$22
PAIR - LONG CSGP/SHORT LOOP
40%
LONG
$35
SHORT
$275
SHORT
$0