Expedia surges to new highs on strong bookings, guidance reiteration
- Expedia (EXPE +7.8%) has rallied above $100 after beating Q1 revenue estimates (while missing on EPS) on the back of a 19% Y/Y increase in gross bookings to $14.3B (+25% if not for forex). RBC has upgraded to Outperform.
- Also: Though a strong dollar is now expected to have a 200 bps larger impact on 2015 adjusted EBITDA growth than previously forecast (it hurt Q1 EPS), Expedia used its CC (transcript) to reiterate guidance for 10%-15% full-year adjusted EBITDA growth excluding its struggling Chinese eLong (LONG -1.6%) unit.
- Q1 adjusted EBITDA was up 25% Y/Y excluding eLong, and down 5% otherwise. eLong had a $33M Q1 adjusted EBITDA loss; its revenue fell 14% Y/Y to $34.2M thanks to a 7% drop in hotel reservation revenue (to RMB190.3M) and a 37% drop in air ticketing revenue (to RMB25.1M). Expedia notes EPS would've been $0.08 higher (nearly matching consensus) if it used a tax rate that assumed eLong's losses remain at Q1 levels or higher for the rest of the year.
- Expedia's core online travel revenue rose 17% Y/Y to $1.17B, and its trivago hotel metasearch unit's revenue rose 43% to $119M. The Egencia business travel unit saw revenue drop 2% to $98M. U.S. revenue (boosted by Travelocity) rose 20% to $768M, and international revenue (hurt by forex) 8% to $605M.
- Hotel revenue rose 14%, with a 32% increase in room nights partly offset by a 14% drop in revenue/night. Air ticket revenue rose 9%; tickets sold rose 18%, and revenue/ticket fell 7%.
- Q1 results, PR (.pdf)
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