Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP)

[stocktrader001]

Mixed Views On TripAdvisor's Q1 Earnings, Sales

When travel review service TripAdvisor issues its Q1 results Tuesday, investors will be looking to see if the company has been hurt by the slowdown affecting U.S. travel agencies.

The consensus estimate of 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for the provider of travel reviews and related content to post GAAP earnings of 29 cents a share on revenue of $174.4 million. Non-GAAP EPS is pegged at 33 cents.

TripAdvisor (TRIP) was spun off from Web travel company Expedia (EXPE) in an IPO in December.

TripAdvisor may face a slowdown in U.S. revenue growth that's affecting all U.S. online travel agencies, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson said in an April 12 report. He expects the company's domestic revenue growth to slow from 15% year-on-year in Q4 to a 3% gain in Q1.

At the same time, TripAdvisor's U.S. traffic trend is relatively upbeat. Tracker ComScore says that U.S. visitors to TripAdvisor surged a robust 35% in Q1. This was higher than Priceline 's (PCLN) 34%, Expedia's 13% and Orbitz 's (OWW) 13% jumps.

Olson has a neutral rating on TripAdvisor with a target price of 30.

Nomura Equity Research analyst Brian Nowak upped his forward estimates and price target on TripAdvisor from 27.50 to 32 in early April on expectations of higher cost per click or CPC ad revenue in 2012. CPC makes up 73% of TripAdvisor's revenue. CPC is an online ad model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay website owners when an ad is clicked.

Nowak expects the company's CPC advertising to grow a relatively modest 10% in 2012 after surging 30.2% in 2011. He pegs TripAdvisor's overall revenue growth in 2012 at 19%, toward the top-end of TripAdvisor's current guidance.

Nowak has a neutral rating on TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor shares tumbled over 15% in early February after the company reported Q4 results that missed earnings forecasts. It also issued a disappointing revenue outlook for the current year.

http://news.investors.com/article/609642/201204301052/analysts-neutral-on-tripadvisor-q1-report.htm