Latest news with #BookingHoldings
CNBC
a day ago
- Business
- CNBC
Booking CEO Glenn Fogel: People continue to spend on travel despite economic concerns
Glenn Fogel, Booking Holdings CEO, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk consumer travel trends heading into the holiday weekend.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Are Retail-Wholesale Stocks Lagging Booking Holdings (BKNG) This Year?
The Retail-Wholesale group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Booking Holdings (BKNG) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Retail-Wholesale peers, we might be able to answer that question. Booking Holdings is a member of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group includes 204 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #11. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst. The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Booking Holdings is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BKNG's full-year earnings has moved 2% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving. Based on the latest available data, BKNG has gained about 16.5% so far this year. In comparison, Retail-Wholesale companies have returned an average of 4%. This shows that Booking Holdings is outperforming its peers so far this year. Urban Outfitters (URBN) is another Retail-Wholesale stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 32.2%. The consensus estimate for Urban Outfitters' current year EPS has increased 6.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Looking more specifically, Booking Holdings belongs to the Internet - Commerce industry, which includes 36 individual stocks and currently sits at #64 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 6.6% so far this year, meaning that BKNG is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. On the other hand, Urban Outfitters belongs to the Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry. This 40-stock industry is currently ranked #187. The industry has moved -14.9% year to date. Investors interested in the Retail-Wholesale sector may want to keep a close eye on Booking Holdings and Urban Outfitters as they attempt to continue their solid performance. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
Associated Press
a day ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Booking Holdings to Webcast Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results on July 29
NORWALK, Conn., July 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) announced today that it intends to hold a conference call to discuss its second quarter 2025 financial results on Tuesday, July 29 at 4:30 p.m. ET. The event will be webcast at and the audio will be available for replay on the website for seven days thereafter. Booking Holdings will post a release containing its second quarter 2025 financial results on the company's Investor Relations website, at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 29. Source: Booking Holdings #BKNG_Earnings About Booking Holdings Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is the world's leading provider of online travel and related services, provided to consumers and local partners in more than 220 countries and territories through five primary consumer-facing brands: Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable. The mission of Booking Holdings is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. For more information, visit and follow us on X @BookingHoldings. View original content: SOURCE Booking Holdings
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Is Travel Powerhouse Stock BKNG Running Out of Runway?
Within the online travel agency space, by a significant margin, no one connects as many travelers around the world as Booking Holdings (BKNG) does. Booking's investment thesis is anchored in its unparalleled global reach and its leadership position in the online travel industry. Despite operating in a highly cyclical sector, the company's extensive geographic diversification and its high-margin, asset-light business model give it a degree of defensiveness uncommon in the space—qualities that arguably support its premium valuation. Confident Investing Starts Here: BKNG's stock price has grown 13% year-to-date and almost 200% over the past three years, suggesting an almighty up-trend is here to stay. That said, Booking's stock is expensive, and this remains a key hurdle to a more consistently bullish outlook. Given the company's strong track record and the market's high expectations, the investment case becomes increasingly sensitive to even modest disappointments. Results that fail to meet or exceed the upper end of guidance could undermine confidence in the near term. While I continue to view Booking as a structurally sound, long-term outperformer due to its ability to consistently generate value, the current valuation suggests the stock may be vulnerable to a short- to mid-term pullback. With limited near-term upside, a Hold rating appears appropriate at this time. Booking and Travel Experience Parallel Rebound Taking a step back to a broader view, the travel sector has rallied in line with the overall market. However, some fundamental headwinds are beginning to re-emerge. This is especially true for airlines, particularly in the U.S., where carriers had been actively cutting capacity in anticipation of softer demand. Hotel average daily rates (ADR) have also shown volatility for some industry players, pressured by weaker consumer spending and a more devalued dollar, especially for companies with less international exposure. In contrast, Booking has performed well, mainly because it's significantly less reliant on the U.S. domestic market compared to many of its peers. According to TipRanks market data, the stock has outperformed the S&P 500 (SPX) in the past three months, supported by solid fundamentals that have remained in line with guidance. One of the highlights of the quarter was the company reporting 319 million room nights in Q1, a strong result in a challenging environment, up 7% year-over-year from 300 million, although slightly below the high end of guidance. Gross bookings also grew 7% YoY to $46.7 billion, thanks to Booking's highly diversified global footprint. On the bottom line, adjusted EPS came in at $24.81, reflecting a solid 22% increase year-over-year. Free cash flow followed a similar trajectory, reaching $3.2 billion, up 23% from the prior year. This strong profitability reflects Booking's ability to drive high volumes of transactions at robust operating margins, currently at 22.3%. As an asset-light platform business with strong operational efficiency, Booking consistently converts a large share of its profits into free cash flow, ultimately translating into more long-term value for shareholders. Why BKNG's Capital Efficiency Stands Out When evaluating a company with a high and steadily growing capacity to generate free cash flow, much of that strength can be attributed to Booking's consistently impressive return on invested capital (ROIC). Using the traditional ROIC formula—NOPAT (the net operating profit after tax) divided by invested capital—we get a clear picture. Based on the $7.89 billion in EBIT generated over the last twelve months, and applying a tax rate of 19.4%, Booking's NOPAT comes out to $6.36 billion for the period. Now, considering invested capital, which refers to the total capital committed to the company's core business, even as an asset-light company, Booking operates with a notably negative operating net working capital of approximately $11 billion. This significantly lowers its capital base. Adding back the other long-term operating assets (such as property, plant, and equipment and intangibles), we arrive at an invested capital figure of approximately $11.1 billion. Combining these numbers yields an ROIC of approximately 57%—an exceptionally high return. To put that in perspective, if we assume a weighted average cost of capital (WACC) of around 8%, Booking is generating returns far above its cost of capital. That means the company isn't just covering its cost of capital, but it's creating substantial economic value for shareholders. While this is hardly breaking news to anyone following the stock, it strongly reinforces the bullish, value-oriented case for BKNG. Quality Commands a Premium Valuation Naturally, a business with this level of operational quality comes at the cost of trading at arguably stretched valuation multiples. For example, compared to Expedia (EXPE) —which operates a similar OTA (online travel agency) model but is smaller in scale—Booking trades at a forward P/E of 25x, more than double Expedia's 11x based on Fiscal 2025 estimates. Even relative to its own historical average, Booking is trading about 17% above its five-year average multiple, reflecting, in my view, a premium tied to the perception of lower risk and higher execution consistency. It's a high bar for a high-quality company, and the market seems to be pricing in very few chances of underperformance. Another useful complementary metric in Booking's case—especially given its clean capital structure and net cash position—is earnings yield based on enterprise value. Since the company has little to no net debt, its enterprise value is essentially equal to its market capitalization, which means the operating earnings yield serves as a good proxy for the return on capital from another perspective. For instance, over the last twelve months, Booking's earnings yield stood at 4.5%, based on $7.8 billion in operating profit and an enterprise value of $179.4 billion. That yield is well below the company's estimated WACC, reinforcing the idea that Booking is far from cheap and that near-term upside appears limited. In that sense, there's a low margin of safety in going long at these levels, even though the business remains structurally excellent. What is the Stock Market Prediction for BKNG? The market consensus on BKNG remains mostly bullish, with 18 out of 28 analysts rating the stock a Buy, while the remaining ten maintain a Hold. That said, valuations don't exactly scream 'cheap' at current levels. In fact, the average price target of $5,489.22 implies a modest 2.5% downside from the latest share price. Booking's Pricey Levels Have the Stock on Edge Booking is currently priced for perfection, and that sets a high bar that could limit the upside from here, especially in a sector as cyclical as travel. Even so, Booking remains the most defensive name among its peers, thanks to its global scale, asset-light model, and strong execution. For now, supportive macro rebound trends and the company's highly efficient metrics help sustain the bullish momentum. Still, at current levels, I don't see much of a margin of safety to justify going long with greater confidence.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Booking Holdings Best Positioned in Travel Sector, Says Piper Sandler After Executive Meetings
Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) ranks among the best consumer discretionary stocks to buy now. With a price target of $5,077, Piper Sandler reaffirmed its Neutral rating on Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) on June 18 following recent management meetings with company executives. As a means to explore different facets of the company's operations and strategy, the investment firm's analyst team met with Grace Lee, SVP of Investor Relations and FP&A at Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), and Mike Reilly, Senior Director of IR and FP&A. The expansion of alternative accommodations, the macroeconomic climate, artificial intelligence projects, marketing effectiveness, and the competitive landscape in the internet travel industry were among the main subjects discussed during these talks. Although Piper Sandler remained neutral regarding the larger online travel sector, it did concede that Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) 'remains best positioned given end market exposure and solid execution' in comparison to its competitors. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) offers traditional and online reservations for restaurants and travel, as well as associated services in the US, the Netherlands, and other countries. While we acknowledge the potential of BKNG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. Read More: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
