Trulia 1Q loss narrows; revenue beats estimates

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Real estate website operator Trulia said its first-quarter net loss shrank as its subscriber base grew, and its revenue is coming in higher than analysts had expected.

The San Francisco-based company posted a loss of $2 million, or 7 cents per share, for the quarter that ended March 31. During the same period last year, it lost $4.2 million, or 61 cents per share.

It said its adjusted loss would have been $600,000, or 2 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting loss of 1 cent per share.

Revenue nearly doubled to $24 million, from $12.2 million a year earlier. And it predicted second-quarter revenue of $27.3 million to $27.7 million. Both were higher than analysts had expected.

The company's shares jumped $2.54, or 8.7 percent, to $31.60 in trading after markets closed. The shares had fallen 40 cents to close at $29.06 during regular trading.

Trulia Inc. operates the website Trulia.com and mobile apps. It allows people to research home listings and neighborhoods, while helping real estate agents market their listings.

It said the number of unique monthly visitors rose 52 percent to 31.4 million from a year ago. Mobile monthly unique visitors more than doubled to 11.4 million. Total subscribers rose 42 percent to 27,920, and it collected $187 on average from each subscriber, up 46 percent from a year earlier.

Earlier on Tuesday, the company had said it would release details of its earnings on Twitter, although the actual release followed a fairly traditional course. Once its news release was sent via the Business Wire press release service, Trulia tweeted a link to it, and then followed up with details from its financial results. Earlier this month, the SEC cleared companies to make financial announcements on Twitter, Facebook and other social-media venues.