B. Riley Reaffirms Buy Rating for Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE)

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

A number of other research firms have also commented on EXPE. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $153.00 to $166.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BTIG Research lifted their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on Expedia Group from $190.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Expedia Group from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, 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. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $184.86.

Expedia Group Stock Performance

Shares of EXPE stock traded up $25.94 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $198.51. The stock had a trading volume of 5,992,707 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,882,391. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $159.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.48 billion, a PE ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Expedia Group has a twelve month low of $107.25 and a twelve month high of $205.12.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.79, for a total value of $1,697,900.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 158,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,912,563.95. This trade represents a 5.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 1,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total transaction of $351,180.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 85,250 shares in the company, valued at $15,345,000. This represents a 2.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,951 shares of company stock worth $5,174,510 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Expedia Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EXPE. Windacre Partnership LLC lifted its stake in Expedia Group by 49.5% during the third quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 4,323,700 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $639,994,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431,500 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Expedia Group by 22.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,250,710 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $481,170,000 after buying an additional 596,510 shares during the last quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 46.3% during the third quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,576,472 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $233,349,000 after purchasing an additional 498,934 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 326.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 293,482 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $54,685,000 after purchasing an additional 224,732 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 9.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,689,485 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $250,078,000 after purchasing an additional 144,579 shares during the last quarter. 90.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Expedia Group Company Profile

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.