Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) users are notorious for aiming too low in trying to score great deals on the "name your own price" travel site. I guess analysts are simply following suit.

Shares rose 17% on Thursday, after the company posted blowout quarterly results. Revenue climbed 21% to $406 million and would have been even higher if it wasn't for setbacks in currency exchange rates. Earnings on a pro forma basis increased 34% to $1.29 a share.

Wall Street was expecting a profit of only $1.05 a share, but what else is new? Priceline has now obliterated analyst profit targets in each of the past 11 quarters. It hasn't even been close lately.

 

EPS

Estimated

Difference

Q1 2008

$0.76

$0.60

27%

Q2 2008

$1.55

$1.41

10%

Q3 2008

$2.39

$2.10

14%

Q4 2008

$1.29

$1.05

23%

Source: Earnings.com.

Consistently thumping Mr. Market by a double-digit percentage is puzzling, especially while most of the other travel portals are struggling. Rival Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) coughed up a hairball Thursday, with revenue, earnings, and gross bookings falling during the same three months.

One might assume that Priceline's flagship travel-bidding service is benefiting from a penny-pinching economy, but that isn't enough of an explanation. If success was handcuffed to vacation deals, travel publisher Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) would also be booming. It's not. Travelzoo posted a quarterly loss earlier this month, on a 2% drop in North American revenue.

In short, Priceline is thriving by swiping market share from competing portals like Expedia and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE:OWW). It is even growing faster than more exotic travel plays like Chinese specialists Ctrip.com (NASDAQ:CTRP) and eLong (NASDAQ:LONG).

Priceline's management sees growth decelerating during the current quarter, with pro forma profitability projected at $0.85 a share to $0.95 a share. Don't worry. Low-balling analysts are targeting earnings of only $0.81 a share.

You can already figure out how this will play out. Analysts will scramble to raise their guesstimates, with a good chance that they will aim too low again.

In one of my favorite William "The Negotiator" Shatner ads, he's goading a Priceline customer into not overbidding for a stay.

"Namby-pamby," he says. "Go lower."

So I guess it's time to turn the tables on the analysts, hoping that they'll finally get it right.

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