CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Scott Wheeler: Yes, I appreciate the question. As we really started to make progress into our investments last year, we gave a much broader range of outcomes when we the year, I think our EBITDA range was $40 million, which when you look back in time, we’ve never really provided that kind of range. It sort of spoke a little bit to the uncertainty that we had coming into last year when we were really initiating some of our uptick in the investments, particularly around content and other parts that we were focused on. So fortunately, we were able to spend less in those areas. And I think what you saw this year is that we’ve tightened up the range that we go out for the beginning of the year, which would let you know that we have a little bit better line of sight the progress we’re making.

We’re a year further into it, we can gauge our investments more. But that being said, the marketplace changes quarter-to-quarter, and we see the opportunities or the challenges and we’ll adjust appropriately, and we’re always looking for where do we minimize investment at the right time so that we are building at pace, but not spending too much, but then when it does come to the point where we launch products and we see ramp-ups in revenue, and it’s time to put in more investments, then we definitely include some of those in our forecasting. So I think — I think we have a better line of sight this year. But as you would expect in the early stages and in an investment cycle, you have to be ready for changes along the way. I hope that provides you a little bit of guidance there.

Ashish Sabadra: That’s very helpful. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question is from the line of Andrew Jeffrey with Truist. Your line is now open.

Unidentified Participant: Hi. Good evening, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Appreciate it. Recognizing, Andy, that the company has a very good track record, as you pointed out, of identifying big opportunities, investing against them and putting up outsized revenue growth and in light of the fact that you’re asking investors to sort of stomach another year of down margins as you do that in residential. Can you maybe give us a little bit of a sneak peak of what you think the business looks like on the other side? Can this be as you start to monetize residential, should we think about this being a mid-teens organic revenue growth business? Are there some trade-offs? I recognize you have these 27 targets out there. Just sort of wondering kind of what a post investment in CoStar growth profile looks like?

Andrew Florance: Well, I think Apartments.com probably gives you a good view of what that would look like. It is — it is something that has, I believe, like post establishing a platform with a unique value proposition and a significant presence I think that you have multiple decades of growth that follows on that and there’s ample precedent for that around the world and also in Apartments.com and CoStar and LoopNet. So it definitely is a multibillion-dollar revenue opportunity. And in my mind, it is a north of $1 billion EBITDA opportunity. And it is obviously a multitrillion dollar sales market, it is a vast opportunity. So it does take investment to build out the platform as it took investment to build out the CoStar platform as it took investment to build out the LoopNet platform as it took investment to build out the apartments platform.

But the other side of it, you get predictable high-margin growth for decades, similar to building a building. So — but not similar to build and building because you never lease up. You can just keep selling more and more of it once you get there. So yes, and I would say that we’re further into the process. Our confidence in the clarity grows a little bit, which leads to some of our positioning today.