Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) Earns “Buy” Rating from Benchmark

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by investment analysts at Benchmark in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $200.00 price target on the online travel company’s stock. Benchmark’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 17.83% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on EXPE. Argus boosted their price target on Expedia Group from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Expedia Group from $135.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $172.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Expedia Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Expedia Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $187.00 to $221.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $177.75.

Expedia Group Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ EXPE opened at $169.73 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $182.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $159.76. The company has a market capitalization of $21.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.82. Expedia Group has a 12 month low of $107.25 and a 12 month high of $192.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The online travel company reported $5.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.42 by ($0.24). Expedia Group had a return on equity of 49.25% and a net margin of 7.97%. The firm had revenue of $4.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.85 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Expedia Group will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 1,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total transaction of $351,180.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 85,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,345,000. This trade represents a 2.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lance A. Soliday sold 7,000 shares of Expedia Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.99, for a total transaction of $1,273,930.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 11,187 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,035,922.13. This trade represents a 38.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 28,951 shares of company stock worth $5,174,510. Corporate insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Expedia Group by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 550 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Bailard Inc. boosted its position in Expedia Group by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 40,207 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $7,492,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050 shares during the period. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in Expedia Group in the 4th quarter valued at $541,000. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 4,149 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $773,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its position in Expedia Group by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,257 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $2,657,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the period. 90.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Expedia Group Company Profile

Expedia Group, Inc operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.