Realogy, the nation’s largest real estate holding company, has been the real estate company hit the hardest by the stock market slowdown that’s followed the growing spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The Dow Jones closed Wednesday down 5.87 percent, or 1,467 points. Realogy, meanwhile, was down slightly more than 13 percent, with shares ending the day just under $6. Its market cap — the total value of the company’s shares — closed the day at $685.1 million.
Between February 17th and 25th Realogy’s market cap hovered around $1.5 billion, and its stock was trading at more than $13 per share at points, according to historical data available on Yahoo Finance.
The stock market slow down has cost Realogy more than half of its company value, although those are just paper losses for the company’s shareholders.
Realogy hasn’t been the only company hit hard by the slump. RE/MAX was down 5.7 percent today, with shares trading at $24.92. The international franchisor’s stock had topped $40 just three weeks ago. Zillow’s class A stock declined 9.3 percent today, down to $41.31, after hitting a yearly high of $65 on February 21. Redfin’s stock dropped 8.5 percent to $21.72. It hit a yearly high of $32.43 on February 21.
Still, for Realogy, the loss wiped out the massive gains in value the company had made up. After hitting historic lows of $4.48 per share last summer, Realogy had crawled its way back to being worth more than $13 earlier this year, after multiple earnings releases showing the company was making a profit.
Realogy CEO Ryan Schneider made a big bet in his own company last summer, purchasing 119,300 shares in May at $8.38 per share. On February 27th, Schneider, through an annual equity award, received 309,278 more shares of the company, bringing his total shares up to 655,617.
Realogy declined to comment on its stock price.
