Handelsbanken Takes Stake in US Giant Zillow

Swedish institutional investor Handelsbanken Fonder AB has taken a stake worth approximately $323,000 in portal giant Zillow.

Handelsbanken, which operates as a bank, purchased 7,400 shares in Zillow in Q1 2023 according to the company's most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The investment came alongside several existing investors increasing their respective stakes in Zillow in Q1, including Ellevest Inc (606 shares), PNC Financial Services Group (441 shares), and Advisors Asset Management Inc. (1,883 shares).

According to Yahoo Finance, Zillow's share prices have risen from $33.5 to $53.5 in the twelve months to July 2023, despite the portal recording lower revenues in each quarter since Q2 2022:

The wider context is that Zillow is outperforming a struggling US market (down 27% during the first three months of 2023 compared to 2022) partly thanks to its dominant market position.

As always, Zillow is in the news for a myriad of reasons:

On the more controversial side, the portal recently cut 80 jobs with the shuttering of its Closing Services Division in June—a move that Zillow said was unavoidable due to the product not being technologically viable.

Meanwhile, Zillow-owned StreetEasy set up an advisory board as a bride-building exercise with the agent community in New York.

And Zillow will also shell out $1.9M to VHT for thousands of image infringements dating back to 2015.

On the flip side, Zillow continues to innovate and expand its reach across the US—which may explain why investors are injecting their funds into the portal.

Zillow extended its Opendoor partnership to 11 new markets in June and also released a new software package for agents using its ShowingTime app—for just $15 a month—as well as introducing a new AI-powered experience, also on ShowingTime.