Inman

CoreLogic beats consensus, posts net income of $41M in Q3

CoreLogic HQ credit: Citadel National Construction Group

Corelogic, a publicy-traded California-based financial services and analytics firm that provides a variety of MLS and real estate data products, reported Wednesday it generated $459 million of revenue in the third quarter of 2019, posting a net income of $41 million.

The company also posted an adjusted $0.82 earnings per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 per share, according to Nasdaq.

“CoreLogic delivered a strong third quarter in terms of revenue growth, mix and margins, driven by strength in our platform-related and other high-margin businesses,” Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic said, in a statement “We also benefited from improved origination volumes in the U.S. market.”

“Ongoing productivity gains also helped us to boost our overall adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) which rose by 140 basis points to 30 percent in the quarter,” Martell added. “As we exit the year, we believe that in-flight strategic investments and cost efficiency and productivity programs provide us with solid line of sight to our adjusted EBITDA margin objective of 30 percent in 2020.”

Revenues were up 2 percent from the same period in 2018 and net income was $18 million higher than the same period in 2018.

In May 2019, the Department of Justice sent CoreLogic a civil investigative demand asking the company to turn over a bevy of information, including all documents relating to any members’ ability to search based on compensation offered by listing brokers to buyers’ brokers. It also requested documents related to any policy or language governing the licensing of MLS data, policies relating to data protection and destruction and datasets on the frequency of searches.

CoreLogic told Inman at the time that it was not the focus of the investigation.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice acknowledged for the first time that it sent the civil investigative demand to CoreLogic relating to a probe into unidentified residential real estate brokerages, an indication that the scope of its inquiry is larger than previously known. The filing was included in both class-action lawsuits filed against the National Association of Realtors and a number of top real estate brokerages and holding companies.

In the company’s second-quarter earnings, it confirmed in a vague statement that,”currently, governmental agencies are auditing or investigating certain of our operations.”

The company added that it did not believe the outcome of the audit would have a material adverse effect on its financial condition.

In the third quarter, CoreLogic also acquired National Tax Search, a tax management firm that services both lenders and property management companies.

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