Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) shares closed more than 3% higher on Thursday following the company’s reported Q1 results, with record gross travel bookings of $27.3 billion, up 129% year-over-year. Quarterly EPS was $3.90, significantly better than the consensus estimate of $0.90. Revenue came in at $2.7 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 billion.
Alongside strong bookings, revenue and EPS beat, the quarterly results and April performance indicate likely share gains globally as well as in the U.S.
Analysts at RBC Capital estimate the company grew bookings 700-800 bps faster than Expedia Group’s lodging bookings while thinking the gap expanded more meaningfully in April when the company grew bookings by over 30% compared to Expedia.
According to the analyst, Europe cross-border has clearly been coming back, however, Asia remains down high-teens in April suggesting there’s more cross-border strength yet to be unlocked in the event that COVID complies.
The analysts increased their price target on the company’s shares to $2,800 from $2,700, while reiterating their outperform rating.
