Priceline.com (fka PCLN)

[KING_TRADER$]

Priceline Results Top Views on Hotel, Rental Car Growth
Gross bookings up 11% to $15 billion in the latest quarter

http://www.wsj.com/articles/priceline-results-top-views-on-hotel-rental-car-growth-1438775837

PriceLine's international bookings increased 12% to $13.1 billion, or 30% excluding currency impacts, while domestic bookings edged up slightly to $1.87 billion.

Priceline reported 26% growth in hotel rooms units sold, while rental car days rose 20.1%. Airline tickets sold edged up 0.3%.

Lodging sites such as Booking.com have fueled most of Priceline’s growth over the past decade, though the company is now looking for more ways to market itself. Its $2.6 billion acquisition of OpenTable expanded the online travel giant’s offerings into a new field of restaurant reservations.

In May, the company agreed to buy hotel-data company PriceMatch. Later that month, it increased its stake in China’s Ctrip.com International Ltd., as it seeks to grow its footprint in the world’s largest outbound-travel market.

Overall for the quarter ended June 30, Priceline reported a profit of $517 million, or $9.94 a share, down from $576.5 million, or $10.89 a share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, earnings were $12.45 a share.

Revenue grew 7.4% to $2.28 billion.

The company had forecast adjusted per-share earnings of $10.95 to $11.75 and revenue to be flat to up 7%.

Online advertising costs, the company’s biggest operating expense, jumped 20.5% to $770.8 million in the quarter. Overall, operating expenses grew 23%.

For its current quarter, the company forecast per-share earnings between $22.95 and $24.45 and revenue growth of 1% to 8%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast $23.32 a share in earnings and revenue growth of 9%.