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Expedia (EXPE) Q1 Earnings: Is a Disappointment in Store?

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Expedia, Inc. (EXPE - Free Report) is set to report first-quarter 2017 results on Apr 27 after the bell.

The company has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) and an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Per our proven model, a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) to beat estimates. We don’t recommend Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 or #5) going into the earnings announcement.

Expedia’s surprise history has been decent. Though the company missed estimates in two of the last four quarters, it posted an average surprise of 6.3%. Year to date, the stock has underperformed the Zacks Internet - Commerce industry, gaining 18.5% compared with the industry’s rise of 23.8%.

Fourth Quarter Snapshot

Earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate but were up 73.2% year over year. Revenues surpassed the consensus mark and were up 23.3% year over year. Gross bookings increased 7.7% for the same time frame.

The company has been making a number of acquisitions and integration of these companies into its core platforms is complete. Room nights improved throughout the quarter and management expects it to remain healthy in the first quarter.

Expedia, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

First Quarter Expectations

Revenues and profitability are likely to be negatively impacted by the shift of Easter into the second quarter this year. The company expects pressure on margin early this year due to investments in selling and marketing ahead of the travel season.

Expedia expects technology and content expense to grow slightly faster than revenues. Expedia stated that expenditure on cloud will continue through 2017 as the company keeps on transferring significant portions of products and capabilities to the cloud.  This is likely to reflect in the results of the first quarter.

The company however expects additional spending to be largely offset by lower infrastructure CapEx requirements through 2017. This therefore holds true for the soon-to-be reported quarter as well.

Stocks that Warrant Look

Here are some stocks that you may want to consider as our model shows these have the right combination of elements to post a positive earnings surprise:

Seagate Technology plc (STX - Free Report) , with an Earnings ESP of +3.77%, and a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Fiserv Inc. , with an Earnings ESP of +0.85% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) with an Earnings ESP of +10.68% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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