Revenue at eXp World Holdings, parent company of virtual brokerage eXp Realty, rose to 212 percent year-over-year during the final months of 2018, helping lift the company’s total take for the year to a record $500.1 million.
In an earnings report released Monday, eXp World Holdings announced that it brought in $150.4 million in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2018, significantly besting results from one year prior when revenue hit $48.2 million. Gross profit at the company also grew during the final three months of 2018, hitting $10.3 million for a 96 percent increase year-over-year.
However, eXp nevertheless saw a net loss of $5.2 million, 0r $0.09 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to the earnings report. Still, that beat the expectations of analysts, who had predicted losses of $0.11 per share.
EXp also described the $500.1 million in total revenue it saw in 2018 as a “record.” It represents a 220 percent increase over revenues in 2017. Gross profit in 2018 grew 145 percent to $40.4 million.
The company ultimately saw a net loss in 2018 of $22.4 million, up slightly from $22.1 million in 2017.
In its earnings report, the company described its “record results” as a reflection of its “long-term appeal for agents and brokers who joined the company during the last 12 months as well as its ability to attract top teams.”
eXp CEO Glenn Sanford. Credit | eXp World Holdings
“In the past year, eXp has grown in extraordinary ways in both financials and size,” eXp CEO and founder Glenn Sanford said Monday in a statement. “EXp Realty became the first and only real estate brokerage to operate as one brokerage in all 50 U.S. states, more than tripled revenue and grew agent count by 139 percent.”
The company’s stock price had fluctuated prior to Monday’s earnings, but had ultimately finished last week slightly up. EXp stock was also up year-over-year at the close of the market on Friday, though it has spent the last six months falling from a high of more than $19 per share to just under $10 last week.
EXp World Holdings’ stock price over the course of last week | Credit: Google
EXp is probably best known as the brokerage that has its agents create virtual avatars that they use to communicate internally. The avatars exist within a virtual environment that is often compared to what gamers encounter in The Sims or Second Life.
In October 2018, eXp acquired VirBELA, the company behind that virtual environment. In Monday’s earnings report, Sanford cited that acquisition as one of the company’s “major moves” in 2018 that will allow eXp to “scale in unforeseen ways.”
Building an eXp agent avatar | Credit: Screenshot/eXp
Last year was an important period for eXp in other ways as well. The earnings report states that in 2018 the number of agents and brokers at the company rose to 15,570, up from 6,511 at the end of 2017.
EXp also closed 74,678 residential transactions in 2018, up 195 percent year-over-year, and did $19.8 billion in volume, an increase of 226 percent compared to 2017.
In addition, the company began trading on Nasdaq in May and quickly crossed $1 billion market cap.
In a statement Monday, eXp World Holdings CFO Jeff Whiteside indicated the company expects to see continued growth in 2019 as well.
“In 2019,” Whiteside said, “the company is focused on continuing to scale eXp Realty, international growth and expanding VirBELA to others who could benefit from an always-available environment for collaboration.”
