Yahoo Finance Booking Holdings (BKNG) Q1 Earnings Beat, Revenues Rise Y/Y
Booking Holdings Inc. BKNG reported non-GAAP earnings of $11.60 per share for first-quarter 2023, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10.7%. The figure significantly jumped from earnings of $3.90 per share reported in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues of $3.8 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.74 billion. The top line improved 40% year over year on a reported basis and 47% on a constant-currency (cc) basis.
Improving travel demand and booking trends from the year-ago quarter were tailwinds.
Booking Holdings witnessed growth of 22.7% in rental cars on a year-over-year basis and 73.3% year-over-year growth in the airline tickets unit in the reported quarter.
Booked room night numbers, amounting to 274 million in the fourth quarter, surged 38.3% from the prior-year quarter’s level.
The company witnessed strong growth across its agency, merchant and advertising and other businesses in the reported quarter.
Coming to price performance, BKNG has gained 29.2% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the industry’s growth of 11.5%.
Booking Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Booking Holdings Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Booking Holdings Inc. Quote
The Top Line in Detail
Agency revenues were $1.78 billion (47.2% of total revenues), up 22.9% year over year.
Merchant revenues were $1.75 billion (46.4% of total revenues), up 66.9% on a year-over-year basis.
Advertising & Other revenues were $244 million (6.4% of total revenues), which increased by 25.1% from the year-ago quarter.
Bookings
Booking Holdings’ overall gross bookings totaled $39.43 billion, which increased by 44.5% on a reported basis and 52% on a cc basis from the year-ago quarter’s respective readings.
Total gross bookings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $35.25 billion.
Merchant bookings were $19.9 billion, up 81% from the prior-year quarter’s level.
Agency bookings were $19.5 billion, rising 19.7% from the prior-year quarter’s level.
Operating Results
Adjusted EBITDA in the reported quarter was $586 million, which improved 89% year over year.
Adjusted EBITDA margin was 15.5%, which expanded 400 basis points (bps) from the prior-year quarter’s level.
Per management, operating expenses were $3.3 billion, up 32% on a year-over-year basis. As a percentage of revenues, the figure contracted 540 bps from the year-ago quarter’s figure.
Booking Holdings generated an operating margin of 33.2%, which expanded 540 bps year over year.
Balance Sheet
As of Mar 31, 2023, cash and cash equivalents were $14.1 billion, up from $12.2 billion as of Dec 31, 2022. Short-term investments were $359 million, up from $175 million at the end of the previous quarter.
Account receivables amounted to $2.05 billion in the reported quarter compared with $2.23 billion in the prior quarter.
At the end of the first quarter, Booking Holdings had $11.3 billion of long-term debt, up from $11.9 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.
The company generated $2.9 billion of cash from operations and $2.8 billion of free cash flow during the reported quarter.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Booking Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Some other top-ranked stocks in the retail-wholesale sector are The Kroger Co. KR, Ulta Beauty ULTA and Rush Enterprises RUSHA. All three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Kroger has gained 9.9% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for KR is currently projected at 5.99%.
Ulta Beauty has gained 10.4% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for ULTA is currently projected at 12.26%.
Rush Enterprises has lost 2.9% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for RUSHA is currently projected at 15%.
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