So, Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) had a quarter. The iBuying company, which basically tries to make buying and selling a house feel more like an Amazon transaction, reported its fourth-quarter results after the bell on Thursday. And the market liked what it saw—the stock was up big in after-hours trading.

Let's talk numbers. The headline is that Opendoor beat expectations. It reported revenue of $736 million for the quarter. That's a lot of houses. More importantly, it's a lot more than the $594.02 million that analysts were expecting, according to market data. On the bottom line, the company lost seven cents per share. That's still a loss, but it's better than the ten-cent loss per share that was forecasted. So, a beat on both the top and bottom lines.

Digging into the operations, the company said it purchased 1,706 homes in the quarter. That's up 46% from the third quarter. It also sold 1,978 homes. Perhaps more telling is a metric about stale inventory: the percentage of homes sitting on the market for over 120 days dropped from 51% to 33% sequentially. That suggests they're moving product faster, which is crucial in a business where holding costs can eat you alive.

"These results reflect structural improvements in how we operate with more accurate pricing, faster inventory turns, and disciplined selection," said Kaz Nejatian, CEO of Opendoor. In other words, they think they're getting better at the core game of guessing what a house is worth and flipping it quickly.

Now, for the tricky part: the future. The company's guidance for the current quarter, Q1 2026, is a bit of a mixed bag. They expect revenue to decrease by approximately 10% year-over-year. They also anticipate an adjusted EBITDA loss in the "low to mid $30 millions." That's not a profit, but they framed it with a note of optimism about their underlying margins.

"Our contribution margin bottomed out in September and has been improving every month since," the company said. "We expect to exit Q1 2026 with the highest contribution margin we've posted since Q2 2024." So, while the top-line revenue might dip, they're signaling that the profitability on each transaction is getting better. For a company that has burned a lot of cash, that's the kind of trend investors want to see.

The market's initial reaction was strongly positive. Opendoor shares were up 13.76% in after-hours trading Thursday, changing hands at $5.35 at the time of publication, according to market data. The management team was scheduled to discuss all of this in more detail on an earnings call later that evening.