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Priceline (PCLN) Posts Q3 Earnings Beat, Stock Tanks On Weak Guidance

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The Priceline Group just released its third-quarter financial results, posting earnings of $35.22 per share and revenues of $4.43 billion.

Currently, PCLN is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and is down 6.03% to $1,788.23 per share in after-hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.

Priceline:

Beat earnings estimates. The company posted non-GAAP earnings of $35.22 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $34.31.

Beat revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures of $4.43 billion, beating our consensus estimate $4.34 billion.

Q3 gross travel bookings across all of the company’s platforms were up 18% to $21.8 billion. GAAP net income was $34.43 per diluted share, a 240% increase compared to the prior year. The aforementioned non-GAAP earnings results represent a year-over-year climb of 18%. Total revenues were up about 20%.

“The Priceline Group delivered solid growth and operating results during our seasonally busy third quarter,” said CEO Glenn Fogel. “Globally, our accommodation business booked 178 million room nights in the third quarter, up 19% over the same period last year. Booking.com showed continued momentum with approximately 1.5 million properties on its platform, up 41% over last year.”

Priceline also provided guidance for the fourth quarter. The company expects non-GAAP earnings in the range of $13.40 to $14.00 per share, which is well below our current consensus estimate of $15.62 per share. Last year, the company reported non-GAAP earnings of $14.21 per share in Q4.

Here’s a graph that looks at PCLN’s recent earnings surprise history:

The Priceline Group Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

The Priceline Group Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | The Priceline Group Inc. Quote

The Priceline Group owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines, including Priceline.com, Booking.com, Agoda.com, Kayak.com, Rentalcars.com, Cheapflights, Momondo, and OpenTable. Priceline has pioneered a unique e-commerce pricing system known as a demand collection system that enables consumers to use the Internet to save money on a wide range of products and services while enabling sellers to generate incremental revenue.

Check back later for our full analysis on Priceline’s latest earnings report!

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