Priceline nears $1,000 on S&P
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2013 (4646 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
NEW YORK — Priceline.com came close Friday to becoming the first stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to cross $1,000.
Investors jumped on board after the travel-booking company reported better than expected second-quarter earnings. The stock rose to almost $995 before levelling off. The stock closed at $969.89.
The company’s stock hasn’t been this high since it had an adjusted closing price of $974.27 on April 30, 1999, a month after going public in the heady days of the dot-com boom. The stock dropped below $10 two years later.
Online travel sites such as Priceline, Expedia and Orbitz have their roots in booking airline tickets, but have branched out because of a decline in commissions the airlines pay them. Priceline has been the most aggressive and successful in diversifying through several company-owned sites including Booking.com, Agoda and Rentalcars.com.
Priceline got its start asking travellers to “Name Your Own Price” and bid on flights, hotel rooms and car rentals. Bidders didn’t know in advance what hotel or flight they would be on and the booking was non-refundable, but the savviest could save substantially as travel providers tried to fill unused rooms, cars or seats on planes. The company hired William Shatner as its pitchman, calling him “the negotiator.” Priceline still offers its bidding service but has mostly shifted to more traditional bookings and travel packages.
The key to its success in the last quarter was overseas-hotel markets. Domestic bookings grew at a respectable 12 per cent in the second quarter, but international growth was red-hot, up 44 per cent from last year.
The number of hotels that list their properties on the booking sites is growing. Booking.com now has 330,000 hotel properties, up from 295,000 reported last quarter. The Norwalk, Conn., company is paid a commission for each room sold.
The number of rental-car days booked from rentalcars.com and Priceline.com also grew an impressive 46 per cent.
The company also increased its online budget by 47 per cent.
Profit in the April-to-June quarter rose 24 per cent to $437.3 million, or $8.39 per share, compared with the same quarter a year ago. Excluding one-time items such as acquisition costs and expenses related to paying employees with stock, earnings came to $9.70 per share.
Revenue rose 27 per cent to $1.68 billion from $1.33 billion.
— The Associated Press