Morgan Stanley Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Expedia, Inc. (EXPE)

Morgan Stanley reissued their equal weight rating on shares of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) in a research note released on Tuesday morning. The brokerage currently has a $170.00 target price on the online travel company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $135.00.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on EXPE. Credit Suisse Group set a $151.00 target price on shares of Expedia and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Sunday, April 30th. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. boosted their target price on shares of Expedia from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, May 1st. Raymond James Financial, Inc. reiterated a market perform rating and issued a $139.00 target price on shares of Expedia in a research note 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 note on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Argus started coverage on shares of Expedia in a research note on Wednesday, July 5th. They issued a buy rating and a $178.00 target price on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Expedia has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $151.42.

Expedia (EXPE) traded down 0.63% on Tuesday, reaching $153.66. 543,578 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Expedia has a 52-week low of $105.62 and a 52-week high of $156.39. The stock has a market cap of $23.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.00 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50 day moving average is $149.35 and its 200-day moving average is $133.22.

Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business 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 earned $0.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Expedia will post $5.30 EPS for the current year.

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In other Expedia news, insider Lance A. Soliday sold 2,544 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.30, for a total transaction of $362,011.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,815 shares in the company, valued at approximately $685,174.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Robert J. Dzielak sold 31,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 33,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,704,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 38,043 shares of company stock valued at $5,330,777. 20.95% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Edge Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Expedia during the first quarter worth $126,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its stake in shares of Expedia by 18.7% in the second quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,059 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $158,000 after buying an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new stake in shares of Expedia during the first quarter worth approximately $146,000. Point72 Asia Hong Kong Ltd raised its stake in shares of Expedia by 6,905.6% in the first quarter. Point72 Asia Hong Kong Ltd now owns 1,261 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $159,000 after buying an additional 1,243 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Expedia by 3.0% in the first quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 1,430 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $180,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.87% of the company’s stock.

About Expedia

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.