CBRE Beats Earnings Estimates for Q4 — But ‘AI Scare Trade’ Dings Share Price

A day removed from its stock tumbling as part of an “AI Scare Trade” affecting the wider real estate brokerage industry, CBRE’s shares rose in pre-opening trading after fourth-quarter earnings exceeded expectations. CBRE shares later fell back into negative territory. 

CBRE posted adjusted fourth-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $2.73 to beat analysts’ estimates of $2.68. The company’s stock, which fell 3.36 percent Wednesday, was up 3 percent Thursday in pre-market trading. It was down 10.13 percent shortly after trading commenced at 9:30 a.m., however. 

Shares of CBRE fell 12 percent Wednesday, its biggest drop since 2020 during a market selloff at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Explaining the stock drop, Bloomberg cited investor concerns about the vulnerabilities of real estate advisory firms to disruptions from artificial intelligence. CBRE’s brokerage rivals also took hits Wednesday with shares of Cushman & Wakefield dipping 14 percent and JLL seeing a 12 percent fall. 

Trading of CBRE’s shares were down 15.16 percent as of 10:15 a.m. Thursday. 

Despite potential headwinds of AI taking away sales generation leads critical to brokerage firms, Bob Sulentic, chairman and CEO of CBRE, stressed during Thursday morning’s earnings call that brokers provide a unique value critical in bringing large deals to the finish line. 

“We’re not selling $2 million condos,” Sulentic said. “These are big complex transactions that we’re doing.

“We don’t get our brokerage leads online somewhere,” Sulentic continued. “We get our brokerage leads because of deep knowledge about the occupiers and investors in the marketplace that we serve.”

CBRE achieved quarterly revenue of $11.63 billion, an 11.8 percent increase from the year-ago period and slightly below analysts’ projections of $11.67 billion. 

Global leasing revenue jumped 14 percent in the fourth quarter to reach a new quarterly high of $1.4 billion, driven by strength in European and United Kingdom markets, according to CBRE. U.S. leasing revenue was up 12 percent, aided by increased demand for data centers and growth in the industrial sector, the brokerage outlined in its earnings release.  

The firm’s mortgage origination revenue increased 18 percent year-over-year aided by higher fees from debt funds and commercial mortgage-backed securities lenders. Its annual property sales business jumped 27 percent in the U.S. and 17 percent globally. 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.