Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) Receives Buy Rating from B. Riley

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by stock analysts at B. Riley in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $235.00 price objective on the online travel company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $220.00. B. Riley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 18.38% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on EXPE. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $190.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Expedia Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Melius upgraded shares of Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. HSBC raised Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Expedia Group in a research report on Friday. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Expedia Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $184.86.

Expedia Group Stock Up 15.0 %

Shares of EXPE traded up $25.94 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $198.51. The stock had a trading volume of 5,992,707 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,882,391. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $159.92. The firm has a market cap of $25.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.82. Expedia Group has a twelve month low of $107.25 and a twelve month high of $205.12.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The online travel company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by ($0.22). Expedia Group had a return on equity of 49.25% and a net margin of 7.97%. On average, analysts anticipate that Expedia Group will post 8.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Expedia Group

In other news, CAO Lance A. Soliday sold 7,000 shares of Expedia Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.99, for a total transaction of $1,273,930.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 11,187 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,035,922.13. The trade was a 38.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.15, for a total value of $1,851,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 168,505 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,198,700.75. The trade was a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 28,951 shares of company stock worth $5,174,510. Corporate insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXPE. Greenleaf Trust grew its position in Expedia Group by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,520 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,980 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $441,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,754 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $704,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 489 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venture Visionary Partners LLC lifted its position in Expedia Group by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC now owns 11,367 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $1,683,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.76% of the company’s stock.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group, Inc operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.