Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) shares plummeted more than 8% on Friday after reporting its Q4 earnings results, with EPS coming in at $1.26, missing the Street estimate of $1.69. Revenue was $2.62 billion, coming in worse than the Street estimate of $2.69 billion.
Analysts at Deutsche believe that Hurricane Ian in October and a rash of weather-related cancellations late in December served as the primary factors behind the miss.
More importantly, 2023 is off to an extremely strong start, with January lodging gross bookings up 20% relative to 2019 levels versus up mid-single-digits in Q4. This strength reflects the robust demand environment in the leisure travel market as well as Expedia driving a return on longer-dated investments in loyalty, product experience, direct traffic, app engagement, etc.