Expedia (EXPE) announced a CEO change late Thursday while beating earnings estimates for the fourth quarter. Expedia stock tanked early Friday after hitting a 52-week high.
Ariane Gorin, the president of Expedia for business, will succeed Peter Kern as chief executive officer starting May 13, the company said in a news release.
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Expedia Earnings Growth Accelerates
Estimates: Analysts projected Expedia earnings of $1.67 per share, a 33% increase year over year. Revenue was expected to climb 9.7% to $2.873 billion, according to FactSet.
During the key holiday quarter, Wall Street predicted bookings grew 7.2% to $21.997 billion.
Results: Earnings of $1.72 a share, up 37% and accelerating from a 33.6% gain the prior quarter.
Revenue rose 10% to $2.887 billion. Gross bookings grew 6% to $21.672 billion.
Expedia Stock Breaks Out After Key Support
Shares of the online travel and booking site sank 15% in premarket. Expedia stock rose 3.3% to 159.47 in Thursday’s stock market trading. The online trave stock cleared a 155.84 buy point on Thursday from a six-week flat base after trying to do so on Wednesday, according to MarketSmith charts.
The breakout came as part of this week’s strong rebound from the 10-week moving average.
But buying right ahead of earnings is highly risky.
The 7%-deep flat base formed after a huge move from early November to late December.
Both Expedia and Booking.com (BKNG) are on the IBD Leaderboard watchlist.
Booking stock gained 3.5% to a record high Thursday. Shares are on track for their sixth straight advance, rebounding from the 10-week line.
Travel Rebounds After Slump
As travel demand rebounds, Expedia had surged 32% in the past year. It plunged for much of 2022 amid travel headwinds, including the omicron coronavirus variant, the war in Ukraine and rising inflation.
Yet the character of Expedia’s stock action appears to have changed bullishly, almost all following its Q3 earnings report on Nov. 2. Since October, EXPE stock counts four weeks of gains in heavy volume and zero down weeks in above-average turnover, according to Leaderboard analysis.
In February so far, Expedia stock was up 7% amid a slew of analyst price-target hikes ahead of its earnings report, FactSet shows.
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