What: Shares of travel commerce company Travelport Worldwide (TVPT) were up 11.7% at 2:50 p.m. EST on Thursday after its quarterly results and outlook impressed Wall Street.
So what: Travelport shares have slumped in recent months on concerns over slowing growth, but today's strong Q4 results -- EPS of $0.22 topped the consensus by $0.04 on revenue growth of 7.9% -- coupled with full-year guidance maintenance, are quickly easing those worries. In fact, revenue at the company's key payments business, eNett, surged 36% over the year-ago period, to $492 million, giving analysts plenty of positive vibes over the company's competitive position going forward.
Now what: Management reaffirmed its full-year 2016 EPS view of $1.12-$1.20 on revenue of $2.35 billion-$2.4 billion, bracketing the consensus of $1.14 and $2.36 billion, respectively. "Our fast-growing payments business, eNett, continues its upward trajectory, and has seen considerable momentum into 2016, with the business achieving a record month of revenue in January," said President and CEO Gordon Wilson. "We are also seeing progress in other parts of our digital asset portfolio that includes MTT, our recently acquired mobile commerce business, as well as Locomote and Hotelzon." Given Travelport's still-hefty debt load and suddenly hot stock price, however, I'd wait for a bit of the excitement to fade before betting on those prospects.
