What happened
Travel-booking platform Expedia (EXPE 0.58%) gained 32% through the first half of 2017, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The rally sent shares to new all-time highs amid a rebounding global vacation industry.
Data is through the first six months of the year. EXPE data by YCharts.
So what
Investors have bid up the stock in response to steady improvements in Expedia's operating trends. The company announced in early February that gross bookings spiked 19% in 2016. Profitability expanded, meanwhile, as expenses grew at a slower pace than revenue. That allowed adjusted net income to soar 40% higher for the year.
Image source: Getty Images.
Expedia kicked off its 2017 year on a solid note, too, with bookings rising by 14% and adjusted earnings improving 18%. There are many contributing factors to the company's growth pace, including rising lodging and air travel revenue from the core business and spiking advertising sales from the trivago segment. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a conference call with investors in May that this mix of complementary businesses, in addition to smart capital allocation, has yielded "an effective formula for long-term value creation."
Now what
In the same chat, Khosrowshahi and his team cautioned that it was still early in the year and competition remains motivated to steal market share wherever possible. However, executives still see sales rising at a healthy clip in 2017 with adjusted earnings trailing that pace slightly due to heavy spending on cloud services.
Expedia is set to post its second-quarter results on July 27, and consensus estimates are targeting 16% sales growth as earnings jump to $0.93 per share from $0.83 per share a year ago.
