Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) Earns “Buy” Rating from Benchmark

Benchmark restated their buy rating on shares of Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $200.00 price target on the online travel company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on EXPE. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Expedia Group from $172.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Melius upgraded Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Expedia Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Expedia Group from $190.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $177.75.

Expedia Group Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ EXPE opened at $172.57 on Tuesday. Expedia Group has a 12-month low of $107.25 and a 12-month high of $192.34. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $182.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03. The company has a market cap of $22.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.82.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The online travel company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by ($0.22). Expedia Group had a return on equity of 49.25% and a net margin of 7.97%. On average, research analysts expect that Expedia Group will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Expedia Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. This is a positive change from Expedia Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34.

Insider Transactions at Expedia Group

In other Expedia Group news, insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 1,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total transaction of $351,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 85,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,345,000. The trade was a 2.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.79, for a total value of $1,697,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 158,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,912,563.95. The trade was a 5.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,951 shares of company stock worth $5,174,510 in the last three months. Insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Expedia Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EXPE. Windacre Partnership LLC grew its holdings in Expedia Group by 49.5% during the third quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 4,323,700 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $639,994,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431,500 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 22.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,250,710 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $481,170,000 after buying an additional 596,510 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,197,927 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $472,212,000 after acquiring an additional 20,005 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Expedia Group by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,689,485 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $250,078,000 after acquiring an additional 144,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Expedia Group by 46.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,576,472 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $233,349,000 after acquiring an additional 498,934 shares during the period. 90.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group, Inc operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.