Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday, July 21st. The brokerage presently has a $174.00 target price on the online travel company’s stock. Zacks Investment Research‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 17.65% from the stock’s current price.
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 research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Credit Suisse Group set a $151.00 target price on Expedia and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, April 30th. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. lifted their target price on Expedia from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report 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 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 report on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Argus assumed coverage on Expedia in a research note on Wednesday, July 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $178.00 price objective on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $159.73.
Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) opened at 147.90 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $151.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.99. The firm has a market cap of $22.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.60 and a beta of 0.92. Expedia has a 1-year low of $105.62 and a 1-year high of $161.00.
Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The online travel company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.05. Expedia had a net margin of 3.49% and a return on equity of 10.98%. The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.83 EPS. Expedia’s revenue was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Expedia will post $5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
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In other news, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sold 86,228 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.12, for a total transaction of $13,289,459.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 518,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $79,922,933.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Lance A. Soliday sold 2,544 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.30, for a total value of $362,011.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $685,174.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 136,870 shares of company stock valued at $20,840,896 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 20.88% of the company’s stock.
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EXPE. Edge Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Expedia during the first quarter worth about $126,000. Fiduciary Trust Co. acquired a new position in shares of Expedia during the second quarter worth about $127,000. Dupont Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Expedia during the second quarter worth about $143,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new position in shares of Expedia during the first quarter worth about $146,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Expedia by 16.6% in the second quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,039 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $155,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. 80.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
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.
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