Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) Upgraded to “Buy” at Zacks Investment Research

Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday. The brokerage presently has a $174.00 price target on the online travel company’s stock. Zacks Investment Research‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.03% from the stock’s previous close.

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.”

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. increased their price target on Expedia from $150.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $170.00 price target (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Expedia in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Argus assumed coverage on Expedia in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $178.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup Inc. raised Expedia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $147.89 to $130.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Expedia in a research report on Monday, June 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $152.31.

Shares of Expedia (EXPE) opened at 153.94 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $23.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.14 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $149.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $133.22. Expedia has a 52 week low of $105.62 and a 52 week high of $156.39.

Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The online travel company reported ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.14 billion. Expedia had a return on equity of 11.01% and a net margin of 3.36%. Expedia’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.09 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Expedia will post $5.30 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In related news, Director Susan C. Athey sold 670 shares of Expedia stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.59, for a total value of $92,855.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Robert J. Dzielak sold 31,829 shares of Expedia stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total value of $4,456,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 33,606 shares in the company, valued at $4,704,840. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 38,043 shares of company stock worth $5,330,777. Company insiders own 20.95% of the company’s stock.

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Expedia by 3,458.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,832,689 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $988,252,000 after buying an additional 7,612,585 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its stake in Expedia by 1,118.9% in the first quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,805,829 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $227,841,000 after buying an additional 1,657,678 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Expedia by 39.9% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,397,821 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $428,703,000 after buying an additional 968,772 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Expedia by 14.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,000,184 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $757,042,000 after buying an additional 764,343 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Expedia by 30.4% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,312,604 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $291,782,000 after buying an additional 539,205 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.87% of the company’s stock.

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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