Top Performer for Monday: Orbitz (OWW)

Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW - Snapshot Report) is a top-performing Zacks #1 Rank company for Monday with shares that have gained more than 8%.

OWW is stuck in a difficult spot these days since the economic malaise has seriously curtailed personal and business travel. However, along with most of its industry, this online travel company has been working to make traveling easier and more affordable. As a result, the company was able to beat first-quarter EPS expectations when it reported in May.

Furthermore, earnings estimates have been moving, rather gingerly, in the right direction for several weeks now.

OWW is part of the Electronic Commerce industry, and is 1 of 3 companies from that space on the Zacks #1 Rank List today, which includes 231 stocks. The 2 other stocks from the industry are Overstock.com, Inc. (OSTK - Snapshot Report) and Petmed Express (PETS - Analyst Report).

Volume today for OWW is approximately 235,000, which is above the daily average of 134,000.

Earnings Estimates Moving Higher

In this difficult environment, analysts currently expect OWW to lose 9 cents per share for this year. However, the loss has narrowed by a penny over the past month, and by a dime over the past 3 months.

Analysts expect the company to profit by 3 cents per share next year, marking a nice turnaround on a year-over-year basis. Two months ago, analysts were anticipating breakeven at best for the year, and saw a loss of 12 cents 3 months ago.

First-Quarter Results

Early May saw the company announce first-quarter net revenue of $188 million, which was down 14% from $219 million a year earlier. Excluding items, OWW lost 5 cents per share, which was narrower than both the consensus and year-ago result.

In the report, OWW outlined some of the actions it has taken to combat the tough business conditions, including the Hotel Price Assurance, which refunds customers when lower hotel rates are booked on Orbitz.com.

Other initiatives included "Fly Fee Free", which removed booking fees on flights booked by May 31 at Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com; "Hotel Fee Cut", which cut booking fees on hotels for rooms booked by Jul 15; and OWW became the first quarter with Total Price hotel search results.

"Going forward, we are planning to introduce a number of new media monetization initiatives on our websites," said CFO Marsha Williams. "We believe the combination of these new initiatives, our cost reduction actions, our improved marketing efficiency, and our significant uptick in air volume since removing fees, should enable us to offset most of the impact of the air and hotel fee reductions through the balance of the year."