Top Performer for Thurs: Ctrip.com (CTRP)

Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (CTRP - Snapshot Report), the Chinese travel service provider, has watched its shares advance approximately 6.55% Thursday after beating expectations in the third quarter.

The gain is enough to put Ctrip.com on the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers List today. Volume has more than doubled to approximately 2.6 million shares, compared to the daily average of a little over 1 million.

On Wednesday evening, the company announced earnings per share that surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate and the year-ago result. It also reported revenues that expanding year over year.

Ctrip.com is a leading travel service provider of hotel accommodations, airline tickets and packaged-tours in China. It aggregates information on hotels and flights and enables customers to make informed and cost-effective hotel and flight bookings.

Competitors of CTRP on today's Zacks #1 Rank List include Expedia, Inc. (EXPE - Analyst Report) and Priceline.com, Inc. (PCLN - Analyst Report). (There are 225 names on the list in total today.)

Third-Quarter Report

Ctrip.com reported third-quarter earnings per share of 39 cents yesterday, which bettered the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fourth straight quarter. The result was also an improvement over the year-ago performance of 22 cents.

Total revenues advanced 47% from last year to US$85 million. Looking a little further into the numbers, hotel reservation revenues advanced 41% year over year, while air bookings revenues improved 45% and packaged-tour revenues jumped 93%.

As for the fourth quarter, Ctrip.com expects a net revenue growth rate between 25% and 30% above the previous year.

"In order to extend our leadership in the future, we will continuously focus on strengthening our core competitiveness in customer service, technology innovation, and sales and marketing," said CEO Min Fan. "We believe we are well prepared for the new era to come."

Earnings Estimates

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this year is at $1.22 per share on Ctrip.com. That guidance has moved higher by only a penny in the past month, but remains above levels from 3-months ago by 4.3%. There are currently 8 covering analysts for this year that could send this expectation higher in the near future.

AS for next year, the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.63 per share, or more than 33% atop this year's outlook. The guidance has improved by 7.9% in 3 months and 3.8% in 2 months.

Read the full analyst report on CTRP

Read the full analyst report on PCLN

Read the full analyst report on EXPE