(Bloomberg) -- Zillow Group Inc. shares are approaching record high territory after the company’s sales beat analyst estimates, yet even bullish backers were urging caution amid the stock’s rapid rise.

The home-search firm “needed to come up with something special to finally break out of the recent trading range,” according to one Benchmark analyst, the company “did not disappoint, crushing Homes revenue,” Daniel Kurnos wrote. But even with his bullish buy rating on Zillow, he was cautious that the Street may be getting “well ahead of itself” on sales for the fast-growing unit.

Goldman and Wedbush maintained their neutral ratings while saying the company’s premium valuation already accounted for any improvements in the housing market. Twelve of the 23 analysts tracked by Bloomberg have a hold rating on Zillow while eight have buys and three rate the company a sell.

The stock rose 15%, after earlier reaching as high as $65.30 in pre-market trading, just 12 cents shy of its intraday record set in June 2018, and below the average analyst price target of roughly $62.

Benchmark, Daniel Kurnos

“Zillow appears to have already baked in some 2020 cushion via Flex testing,” the analyst said referring to the company’s strategy to have agents pay when they closed a deal.

He saw signs of an inflection point for the company’s Homes unit earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a key metric for indebted companies, “even if the actual watershed moment is still a ways away.”

“It always seems to be a bumpy ride but we expect Zillow will be able to continue its momentum over the course of the next 12 months.”

Remained a buy, 12-month price target raised to $75 from $59.

Goldman, Heath Terry

“We continue to believe in the long-term opportunity for Zillow to leverage its brand, traffic, data, and resources to create efficiencies in the real estate market,” but progress from the Premier Agent business, waning competition and housing market improvements “are already reflected in the stock.”

Stayed neutral, price target boosted to $57 from $39.

Wedbush, Ygal Arounian

“This was a really good quarter for Zillow, there’s no question about it.”

“But overall the risks and moving pieces are still there, including unit economics on a per home basis in Zillow Offers that continue to worsen, not improve. The opportunity is large, but Zillow is going through a gigantic pivot that we don’t want to underestimate the challenges of, particularly as the race to dominate the end-to-end residential real estate technology stack picks up.”

“We see the upside priced in here at a premium valuation and balancing the large opportunity with what we view as still high execution risk despite improving stability in the core businesses.”

Kept rating neutral, price target raised to $65 from $39.

Guggenheim, Jake Fuller

Zillow’s beat and an ongoing recovery for its Premier Agent business “should be well received, but we may be getting close to the point at which it will have to show a path to profitability in Offers,” the analyst said of the company’s recent foray into home-flipping.

Guggenheim ponders if Zillow “will continue to get a pass on negative unit economics” and losses from the fast-growing home flipping unit.

“Investor preference has tilted away from growth-at-all-cost to profitable-growth strategies, which has led to substantial model recalibrations across a range of so-called disruptors,” he said pointing to ride-hailing services Lyft Inc and Uber Technologies Inc. as well as WeWork.

Maintained at buy, price target remains $54.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cristin Flanagan in New York at cflanagan1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Courtney Dentch

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