Booking Holdings stock gained early Friday after releasing stronger-than-expected fourth quarter results. The company also touted its efforts to use AI to help with travel planning and booking.
The online travel agency said in a news release that it earned $41.55 per share on an adjusted basis, up 30% year over year. Analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted earnings of $36.08 per share. Booking's sales, meanwhile, grew 14% to $5.5 billion. Analysts were previously forecasting sales of $5.2 billion, according to FactSet.
Total bookings across Booking Holdings' platforms — which include the websites Priceline, Agoda and Kayak — grew 17% to $37.2 billion. Analysts were looking for total bookings of $34.6 billion.
Booking stock was up more than 3% at 5,218 in morning trading on the stock market today.
Analyst: Booking 'Beat Across The Board'
Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney said in a client note late Thursday that Booking's results "beat Q4 expectations across the board." Mahaney rates Booking stock as outperform.
Booking Holdings Chief Executive Glenn Fogel said in a news release that the company is "highly focused on appropriately investing in our business for the long term, including by leveraging and deploying generative AI technology to drive further value to our travelers and partners."
Booking's guidance for current quarter revenue growth of 2% to 4% was slightly below Wall Street consensus, but the company said that reflected foreign exchange headwinds and the Easter holiday shifting back to April.
Mizuho analyst James Lee reiterated an outperform call for Booking stock following the results.
"Travel demand was much stronger than anticipated in (Q4) with room nights and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) coming in above the Street," Lee wrote. "At the same time, U.S. room night growth outperformed the market while Europe remained solid at low-double-digit growth."
How Will AI Change Travel Booking?
Fogel touted Booking's effort to use generative AI to offer easier vacation planning and booking. That includes an AI Trip Planner on Booking.com and an AI-powered travel assistant called Penny available through Priceline.
Competition for AI-powered trip planning is growing, with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini offering their own solutions.
"Investors continue to debate whether it's more opportunity or threat to the OTAs (online travel agencies), but (Fogel) made his bull case on Booking's ability to leverage AI (– and pointed to BKNG's early adoption of previous emerging/disruptive technologies," DA Davidson analyst Tom White wrote Friday. "Fogel called out Gen/agentic AI's potential to accelerate Booking's Connected Trip ambitions by providing more seamless/personalized experiences for travelers, as well as operational efficiencies in areas like customer service, partner service, and developer productivity."
White rates Booking stock a buy.
Booking Stock: Technical Ratings
Booking stock gained earlier this month after Airbnb and Expedia each posted strong quarterly results.
But shares were trading roughly flat year-to-date coming into Booking Holdings' earnings report, while up 36% over the past 12 months.
Coming into the report, Booking stock had an IBD Composite Rating of 96 out of a best-possible 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup. The score combines five separate proprietary ratings into one rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Further, Booking's IBD Relative Strength Rating is 86 out of 99.
