Zillow Sep 21

Rating Company Date 21 September 2026 Buy Zillow Company Update North America United States Reuters Bloomberg Exchange Ticker Price at 18 Sep 2026 (USD) 29.81 Z.OQ Z US NSM Z Price target 50.00 TMT 52-week range 86.74 - 29.41 Internet

Ruling Modestly Negative, But Preferred Rollout Likely More than Offsets Impact Valuation & Risks

Kunal Madhukar, CFA Zillow lost its request for preliminary injunction in the lawsuit against Midwest Real Research Analyst Estate Data (MRED) and Compass. For context, Zillow filed a lawsuit against MRED and Compass in May 2026 alleging the defendants "erected barriers to information Benjamin Black, CFA that harm or threaten harm to sellers, buyers, and competitors by hiding real estate Research Analyst listings behind a velvet rope in a Private Listing Network (PLN)." As a first step in the process, it had requested the Court to grant a preliminary injunction, which the Court denied, and dissolved the temporary restraining order that allowed Zillow to Benjamin Hui, Esq. Research Associate access MRED's listings. In addition, the Court granted MRED's motion to compel arbitration; pending the outcome, Zillow's claims against MRED are stayed. Moreover, Zillow's claims against Compass are also stayed pending the arbitration Raymond Wong ruling. While the final outcome of the arbitration could take time, we think there are Research Associate long-term implications for Zillow and Compass arising from the ruling that could

also potentially change the way buyers find homes for sale nationwide.

In our view, there are multiple reasons for investors to assume the ruling is negative for Zillow. 1) Compass has already cut off the direct listings from its owned and operated realtors on Zillow nationwide, and it is doubling down on pursuing Private Exclusives within its 3PM (or three-phased marketing) strategy. Compass has significant market share in the larger markets, and particularly among the higher-priced homes. If Compass continues to disallow its owned & operated agents to post directly on Zillow, and MRED continues to cut off Zillow because of its Listings Standards policy, then Zillow may lose access to a substantial number of listings in the larger markets, including in Chicago. 2) As adoption for private listings increases, we think more and more potential home buyers may prefer to visit the websites of Compass and its partners frequently, or exclusively, depending on the market and the price range since Compass -- most likely -- may have more listings than Zillow in select markets and for higher priced properties. 3) Post the ruling, MRED likely will have limited incentive to let Zillow access its listings, unless Zillow conforms to MRED's rules regarding non-exclusion of listings that had been privately, and exclusively, listed on Compass before becoming public. To the extent MRED expands geographically, or other MLSs similarly enforce exclusion-related rules, Zillow could lose its feed in more markets, which could also impact traffic. Zillow announced (link) it remains "committed to fighting for a fair and transparent housing market." At the same time, it is quite possible Zillow may let its Listings Standards Rule lapse, in which case, it will get access to all the listings when they become available publicly in Stage 3 of the 3PM strategy. 4) Some other brokerages, such as Douglas Elliman and Howard Hanna, are also pursuing a

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21 September 2026 Internet Zillow

private exclusives strategy, similar to Compass. If this becomes more widespread -- especially as more States incorporate regulations allowing private exclusives -- Zillow could see even more newer listings within this stage of the process disappear from its roster, which could further impact its traffic.

That said, we…