Why HomeAway Shares Popped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of online vacation rental marketplace HomeAway (UNKNOWN:AWAY.DL) climbed 14% today after its quarterly results and guidance impressed   Wall Street.

So what: The stock has slumped over the past couple of years on signs of slowing growth, but today's fourth-quarter results -- EPS of $0.05 on a revenue spike of 22.4% -- coupled with upbeat full-year guidance suggests that management's strategic initiatives are finally gaining traction. Specifically, improvements in the company's tiered-pricing platform and geographic bundles are driving higher average revenue per listing, giving investors plenty of optimism over its monetization prospects going forward.

Now what: Management now sees full-year revenue of $339 million-$343 million, nicely ahead of Wall Street's view of $337.4 million. "Of primary focus in 2013 is the continued rollout of our e-commerce capabilities and in particular, the introduction of our pay-per-booking pricing model and continued distribution of value-added services," said CEO Brian Sharples. "[W]e have a very focused product development road map, which we feel confident our team will continue to deliver against." Of course, with the stock hitting a new 52-week high today and sporting a forward P/E of 35, Fools might want to wait for the excitement to die down before buying into that bull talk.

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