Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE)

Cantor Fitzgerald restated their neutral rating on shares of Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $210.00 price target on the online travel company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $180.00.

EXPE has been the subject of several other research reports. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Expedia Group in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Melius upgraded Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Melius Research upgraded Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Expedia Group from $135.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Expedia Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $187.93.

Expedia Group Trading Up 17.3 %

NASDAQ:EXPE opened at $202.37 on Friday. Expedia Group has a 1 year low of $107.25 and a 1 year high of $205.12. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $182.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $160.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company has a market cap of $25.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.82.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The online travel company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by ($0.22). Expedia Group had a return on equity of 55.42% and a net margin of 9.01%. As a group, analysts expect that Expedia Group will post 10.75 EPS for the current year.

Expedia Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is a boost from Expedia Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. Expedia Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.68%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.15, for a total value of $1,851,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 168,505 shares in the company, valued at $31,198,700.75. The trade was a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lance A. Soliday sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.99, for a total transaction of $1,273,930.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 11,187 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,035,922.13. This represents a 38.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,951 shares of company stock worth $5,174,510. Insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Expedia Group

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Windacre Partnership LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Expedia Group by 49.5% during the third quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 4,323,700 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $639,994,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431,500 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Expedia Group by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,250,710 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $481,170,000 after buying an additional 596,510 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Expedia Group by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,197,927 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $472,212,000 after acquiring an additional 20,005 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Expedia Group by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,689,485 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $250,078,000 after acquiring an additional 144,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 46.3% in the third quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,576,472 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $233,349,000 after acquiring an additional 498,934 shares during the period. 90.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Expedia Group Company Profile

Expedia Group, Inc operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.