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Booking Holdings (BKNG) Q3 Earnings Beat, Revenues Rise Y/Y

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Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG - Free Report) reported non-GAAP earnings of $53.03 per share for third-quarter 2022, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 7.3%. Further, the figure increased 41% from the year-ago quarter’s level.

Revenues of $6.05 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.91 billion. The top line improved 29% year over year on a reported basis and 47% on a constant-currency (cc) basis.

Improving travel demand and booking trends from the year-ago quarter were tailwinds.

Booking Holdings witnessed growth of 24.9% in rental car on a year-over-year basis. BKNG also experienced 45.1% year-over-year growth in the airline tickets unit in the reported quarter.

Booked room night number, amounting to 240 million in the third quarter, surged 31.5% from the prior-year quarter’s level.

Booking Holdings witnessed strong growth across its agency, merchant, and advertising and other businesses in the reported quarter.

However, headwinds related to the coronavirus pandemic and macroeconomic uncertainties remain overhangs for BKNG.

The Booking Holdings stock has lost 22.1% compared with the industry’s decline of 42.5%.

Booking Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Booking Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Booking Holdings Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Booking Holdings Inc. Quote

Top Line in Detail

Booking Holdings generates the bulk of revenues from international markets, wherein the agency model is more popular. This is reflected in the merchant/agency split of revenues, which was 43.2/52.9% in the third quarter (the previous quarter’s split was 41/54%)

Agency revenues were $3.2 billion, up 11.7% year over year. Merchant revenues were $2.6 billion, up 61.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Advertising & Other revenues were $235 million (3.9% of total revenues), increasing significantly from $25.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

Bookings

Booking Holdings’ overall gross bookings totaled $32.12 billion, which increased 35.6% on a reported and 52% on a cc basis from the year-ago quarter’s respective readings.

Total gross bookings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $30.14 billion.

Merchant bookings were $14.51 billion, up 64.6% from the prior-year quarter’s level.

Agency bookings were $17.6 billion, rising 18.4% from the prior-year quarter’s level.

Operating Results

Adjusted EBITDA in the reported quarter was $2.7 billion, which improved 25.9% year over year.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was 43.9%, which contracted 120 basis points (bps) from the prior-year quarter’s level.

Per management, operating expenses were $3.5 billion, up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a percentage of revenues, the figure expanded 40 bps from the year-ago quarter’s tally.

Booking Holdings generated an operating margin of 42.7%, which contracted 40 bps year over year.

Balance Sheet

As of Sep 30, 2022, cash and cash equivalents were $9.02 billion, down from $11.8 billion as of Jun 30, 2022. Short-term investments were $116 million at the end of the quarter.

Account receivable amounted to $2.3 billion in the reported quarter compared with $2.2 billion in the previous quarter.

At the end of the third quarter, Booking Holdings had $7.9 billion of long-term debt compared with $8.2 billion at the end of the second quarter.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Booking Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the retail-wholesale sector are DICK’s Sporting Goods (DKS - Free Report) , Home Depot (HD - Free Report) and Ross Stores (ROST - Free Report) , each currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

DICK’s is scheduled to release third-quarter 2022 results on Nov 22. The stock has lost 3.1% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for DKS is currently projected at 5%.

Home Depot is slated to report third-quarter 2022 results on Nov 15. The stock has lost 32.1% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for HD is currently projected at 11.2%.

Ross Stores is slated to report third-quarter 2022 results on Nov 17. The stock has lost 18.4% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for ROST is currently projected at 10.5%.

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