Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) Increases Dividend to $0.40 Per Share

Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the online travel company on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th. This is a positive change from Expedia Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34.

Expedia Group has a payout ratio of 9.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Expedia Group to earn $14.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.8%.

Expedia Group Trading Down 2.3 %

NASDAQ EXPE opened at $193.50 on Tuesday. Expedia Group has a 1-year low of $107.25 and a 1-year high of $207.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $187.24 and a 200-day moving average of $169.45. The firm has a market cap of $24.93 billion, a PE ratio of 21.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.82.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The online travel company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by ($0.22). Expedia Group had a return on equity of 52.41% and a net margin of 9.01%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Expedia Group will post 12.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Expedia Group

In related news, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.15, for a total value of $1,851,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 168,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,198,700.75. The trade was a 5.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.70, for a total transaction of $1,028,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 74,502 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,325,061.40. This trade represents a 6.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $4,577,900 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EXPE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Baird R W upgraded Expedia Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Expedia Group from $165.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America raised Expedia Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $187.00 to $221.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $215.00 price objective (up previously from $180.00) on shares of Expedia Group in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Expedia Group in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Expedia Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $192.64.

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.