Zillow Falls 6.1% After Stock Sales by Execs

Zillow Inc. (Z), the Seattle-based online provider of home-price data, fell in New York trading following reports of stock sales by executives.

The company fell 6.1 percent to $28.76 at the close, after dropping 6.4 percent yesterday. The stock has declined from a five-month high of $36.60 reached Feb. 16, a day after Zillow said fourth-quarter revenue doubled from a year earlier.

Chairman Richard Barton sold 375,000 shares at $31.25 each, for a total of $11.7 million, on Feb. 21, Washington Service reported yesterday. Lloyd Frink, Zillow’s vice chairman and president, sold 510,400 shares at prices between $31.25 and $34.16 a share, or at least $16 million, from Feb. 16 to Feb. 21, according to Washington Service.

“Investors are seeing the headlines around insider sales and that’s causing some concern,” Chad Bartley, senior research analyst at Pacific Crest Securities Inc. in Portland, Oregon, said in a telephone interview. “The stock is expensive.”

At about $35 a share, Zillow was trading at about 50 times estimated 2013 earnings, the highest multiple after Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) among companies Bartley covers, he said.

Cynthia Nowak, a Zillow spokeswoman, said the stock sales were the executives’ “personal decision.” She declined to comment on the share-price decline.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hui-yong Yu in Seattle at hyu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net

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Zillow Falls 6.1% After Stock Sales by Executives

Scott Eells/Bloomberg

The Zillow Inc. website is displayed on a laptop computer in New York.

The Zillow Inc. website is displayed on a laptop computer in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg