What Analysts Like About Priceline After Earnings

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 12:56PM EST · Published Feb 21, 10:35AM EST

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What Analysts Like About Priceline After Earnings — © Thinkstock

Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) reported its fourth-quarter financial results in the middle of the week and practically received a standing ovation from investors. Over the course of this past week alone, this stock has skyrocketed roughly 20%. At this point analysts had no choice but to raise their price targets to account for these awesome earnings.

The company had $12.63 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.00 billion in revenue, which compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $11.80 in EPS on revenue of $1.96 billion. In the same period of the previous year, it posted EPS of $10.85 and $1.84 billion in revenue.

Fourth-quarter gross travel bookings totaled $12.0 billion, an increase of 13% over a year ago, and an increase of roughly 24% on a constant currency basis.

In terms of guidance for the first quarter, Priceline expects to see EPS in the range of $9.00 to $9.60 and an increase in revenue of roughly 9% to 16% year over year. The consensus estimates call for $9.61 in EPS on $2.07 billion in revenue (the same period from last year had $1.84 billion in revenue).
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Merrill Lynch said in its report that Priceline had a solid fourth quarter, highlighted by revenue and EPS upside despite the negative Paris impact. The company had an industry leading 27% organic room night growth. It raised2017 EPS by roughly 10%, increasing the price objective to $1,470, based on an unchanged 18-times multiple from 2017 EPS. Macro concerns have created opportunity to own stock at mid-teens forward EPS multiples versus over 20% gross profit growth. The brokerage firm has a Buy rating for Priceline.

Other analysts had this to say after earnings:

Cowen has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $1,360 from $1,290.
Barclays has an Equal Weight rating and raised its price target to $1,340 from $1,300.
Deutsche Bank has a Hold rating and raised its price target to $1,350 from $1,333.
JMP Securities has an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $1,500 from $1,475.
Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $1,460 from $1,300.
UBS has a Buy rating and raised the price target to $1,525 from $1,490.

Shares of Priceline ended last week at $1283.74, with a consensus analyst price target of $1450.83 and a 52-week trading range of $954.02 to $1476.52.

About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.