Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) is scheduled to report its first-quarter financial results before the markets open on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $9.66 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.12 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, it posted EPS of $8.12 and $1.84 billion in revenue.
This internet travel leader was a big 2015 second-half laggard and took a huge leg down earlier this year before rebounding sharply. Priceline operates Booking.com, which provides online accommodation reservation services; Priceline.com, which offers hotel, rental car and airline ticket reservations services; as well as vacation packages and cruises through its Name Your Own Price and Express Deals travel services. It also operates Agoda.com, an online accommodation reservation service for consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, and RentalCars.com, which offers car rental reservation services.
Trading at 19.3 times fiscal year 2016 earnings, the travel giant is seen by many Wall Street analysts as an “open-ended” growth story. Many on Wall Street continue to see comparisons easing for international bookings and margins will improve in 2016. Some on Wall Street feel that expectations for a pickup in European consumer spending remain positive, while the company’s dominant market share has helped it to fend off competitive threats. The weakening dollar will make European travel more expensive, though.
A few analysts weighed in on Priceline ahead of the earnings report:
- Piper Jaffray reiterated a Buy rating.
- RBC reiterated a Buy rating with a $1700 price target.
- Cowen reiterated an Outperform rating with a $1360 price target.
- JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight rating with a $1510 price target.
So far in 2016, Priceline has outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up over 6%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually up over 7%.
Shares of Priceline were trading down 1% at $1,343.35 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $1,475.04 and a 52-week trading range of $954.02 to $1,476.52.
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