Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Tuesday.
According to Zacks, “Expedia Inc., is one of the leading online travel companies in the world. The company's first-quarter 2017 loss was narrower-than-expected and revenues beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Year-to-date, the stock has underperformed the Zacks characterized Electronic Commerce industry. The company's agency business looks good, which is no doubt benefiting from the ETP initiative. However, we think that the increased investments in the business, increasing competition across geographies, discounts offered by larger chain hotels and lack of ADR growth in emerging markets can make margin expansion difficult.”
Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Credit Suisse Group set a $151.00 price objective on shares of Expedia and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Sunday, April 30th. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. lifted their price objective on shares of Expedia from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial, Inc. reiterated a market perform rating and set a $139.00 price objective on shares of Expedia in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating on shares of Expedia in a research report on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Argus began coverage on shares of Expedia in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. They set a buy rating and a $178.00 price objective on the stock. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $151.17.
Shares of Expedia (NASDAQ EXPE) traded up 1.27% during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $155.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 555,399 shares. Expedia has a 12 month low of $105.62 and a 12 month high of $156.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.47 billion, a PE ratio of 78.94 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $148.72 and its 200 day moving average is $132.89.
Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The online travel company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by $0.15. Expedia had a net margin of 3.36% and a return on equity of 11.01%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.09 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Expedia will post $5.30 EPS for the current fiscal year.
In other Expedia news, EVP Robert J. Dzielak sold 31,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $4,456,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 33,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,704,840. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lance A. Soliday sold 2,544 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.30, for a total transaction of $362,011.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $685,174.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 38,043 shares of company stock valued at $5,330,777. Company insiders own 20.88% of the company’s stock.
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXPE. TNB Financial purchased a new position in Expedia during the first quarter worth $4,178,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in Expedia by 122.9% in the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 198,215 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $25,010,000 after buying an additional 109,282 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its position in Expedia by 4.5% in the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 112,070 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $14,509,000 after buying an additional 4,825 shares in the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd raised its position in Expedia by 1.1% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 37,164 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $4,688,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its position in Expedia by 19.1% in the first quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,412 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $1,314,000 after buying an additional 1,667 shares in the last quarter. 80.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Expedia Company Profile
Expedia, Inc is an online travel company. The Company operates through four segments: Core Online Travel Agencies (Core OTA), trivago, Egencia and HomeAway. The Company’s Core OTA segment provides a range of travel and advertising services to its customers across the world, through a range of brands, including Expedia.com and Hotels.com in the United States, and localized Expedia and Hotels.com Websites throughout the world, Orbitz.com, Expedia Affiliate Network, Hotwire.com, Travelocity, Wotif Group, CarRentals.com and Classic Vacations.
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