By
Rick Aristotle Munarriz
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November 8, 2011
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The world is an exciting place for priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN ) shareholders.
The travel portal continues to check in with impressive growth, fueled largely by its international operations that now account for 79% of the dot-com's gross bookings.
Revenue climbed 45% to $1.5 billion in its latest quarter, and adjusted earnings improved 88% to $9.95 a share. Analysts who have historically underestimated Priceline's potential were only expecting a tweaked profit of $9.30 a share on $1.4 billion in revenue.
Good luck finding growth like that at conventional rivals Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE ) and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW ) . Even overseas specialist Ctrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP ) in China isn't growing at that clip. Travel deals publisher Travelzoo (Nasdaq: TZOO ) -- a speedster relative to traditional portals lately -- only grew its top line by 40% in its latest quarter.
India's MakeMyTrip (Nasdaq: MMYT ) did grow its top line by 54% in its previous quarter, but it's also dealing with a much smaller revenue base.
Worrywarts will point to Priceline's guidance for the current quarter. It's targeting an adjusted profit per share between $4.90 and $5.00 on 27% to 32% in revenue growth. Analysts were forecasting non-GAAP earnings of $5.14 a share on a 36% top-line gain. However, Priceline has proven that it loves to bait Wall Street for sport.
Its third-quarter guidance three months ago called for no more than $9.30 a share in adjusted net income on 37% to 42% in revenue growth. The pros perched themselves at the high end of the Internet giant's outlook, only to be humiliated last night.
Given the way that the global economy teetered toward the end of the quarter, it's not as if we can assume that the quarter's strength surprised Priceline. It knew all along what it was doing -- and it's doing the same thing now.
Well played, Priceline.
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