If you’re a traveler or restaurant-goer, you might not be familiar with the name of the online travel giant Booking Holdings (BKNG) — even though you might use its websites, explains David Fried, editor of The Buyback Letter.
The company provides online travel and related services in Europe, North and South America, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa. But you’ve no doubt used one or more of the services it operates, which include:
* Booking, which connects travelers with a selection of places to stay, including apartments, vacation homes, family-run B&Bs, 5-star luxury resorts, tree houses, and igloos.
* KAYAK, which searches other sites to show travelers the information they need to find the right flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages.
* Priceline, an online travel deal service which provides travelers ways to save on hotel rooms, airline tickets, rental cars, vacation packages, and cruises.
* Agoda, which provides online accommodation reservation services.
* Rentalcars, which offers online rental car reservation services.
* OpenTable, an online provider of restaurant reservation and information services to consumers and restaurant reservation management.
The company was formerly known as The Priceline Group Inc. and changed its name to Booking Holdings Inc. in 2018. It was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Booking had better-than-expected Q2 earnings — $23.59 a share on revenue of $3.85 billion, up from $3.54 billion a year ago. Analysts expected earnings of $22.69 a share on revenue of $3.75 billion.
Guidance was also on the upswing — for Q3 (the peak travel season), The company expects earnings to range from $43.60-$44.60 a share. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $43.97.
Booking Holdings repurchased shares worth $2.6 billion during the second quarter. The shares outstanding have been reduced by 10.138% in the last 12 months.
