What happened
Shares of Expedia (EXPE 2.61%) have declined today, down by 1% as of 12:20 p.m. EDT, after the online travel booking company reported first-quarter results. The stock was down as much as 6% in morning trading but has since recovered some of those losses.
So what
Revenue in the first quarter came in at $2.21 billion, slightly ahead of the $2.13 billion in sales that analysts were expecting. That translated into an adjusted net loss of $258 million, or $1.83 per share, a substantial miss compared to the $1.37 per share in adjusted net losses that Wall Street was looking for. Gross bookings fell 39% to $17.9 billion due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Image source: Expedia.
"Like all travel companies, Expedia Group suffered a major reduction in business since the onset of COVID-19," CEO Peter Kern said in a statement. "Fortunately, we were ahead of the game having implemented cost savings measures earlier this year, and with the added pressure from COVID-19 we accelerated and expanded our ambition on improving our long-term cost structure."
Now what
Expedia raised nearly $4 billion in capital in April, consisting of $1.2 billion from private equity firms Silver Lake and Apollo Global and another $2.75 billion in unsecured senior notes.
On the conference call with analysts, CFO Eric Hart reassured investors that the company has other ways to exercise cost discipline if the crisis continues. "If COVID were to have a protracted impact, we do have additional cost levers that we can pull, and we will do so at the appropriate time," Hart said. Expedia is not providing guidance for 2020 due to ongoing uncertainty, but did say that revenue in the second quarter is expected to decline and resemble recent booking trends.
