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

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by research analysts at Benchmark in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $180.00 price objective on the online travel company’s stock. Benchmark’s price target suggests a potential upside of 55.32% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on EXPE. BMO Capital Markets lowered Expedia Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Expedia Group from $190.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Expedia Group from $159.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Expedia Group from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Wedbush reduced their target price on Expedia Group from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.28.

Expedia Group Price Performance

Expedia Group stock traded down $20.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $115.89. The company had a trading volume of 11,580,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,544,690. The company has a market capitalization of $15.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.88, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.83. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.85. Expedia Group has a 1 year low of $87.94 and a 1 year high of $160.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The online travel company reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.10. Expedia Group had a return on equity of 35.79% and a net margin of 6.21%. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.88 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Expedia Group will post 9.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Expedia Group

In other Expedia Group news, CAO Lance A. Soliday sold 5,119 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.21, for a total transaction of $702,377.99. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 10,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,492,844.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 8.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. acquired a new position in Expedia Group during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. City State Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Expedia Group by 157.3% during the 4th quarter. City State Bank now owns 193 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Expedia Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Expedia Group by 335.6% during the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 318 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of Expedia Group by 173.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 344 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.76% of the company’s stock.

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.