Posts for Ticker ‘EXPE’

Major Stocks That Have Doubled And Their Future Prospects (F)(AMZN)(AAPL)(WFMI)(MOT)

appleBy Douglas A. McIntyre

The S&P 500 index is so far having a fine year, up a bit more than 20%. But several big-company stocks in the index have doubled, or better, over that time. Among the best-performers are some of America’s most well-known companies.

Here’s a look at 10 of those and their prospects of advancing further — or sliding back into the large pack of equities that have had only modest advances during the current bull market (all prices are as of the close on Nov. 9).

Ford (NYSE:F) was left for dead when it traded at $1 last November. The market thought it would share the sorry fate of its rivals General Motors and Chrysler, and that common shareholders would get nothing.

Read more…

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 5:37 pm in Editor's Picks, , , , , , ,

Expedia Expands in China After Earnings (EXPE)

Expedia LogoExpedia Inc. (NYSE: EXPE) is looking solid on all fronts. Online travel is winning despite tight purses on direct travel as buyers look for better deals.  Last night the online travel company beat earnings as its profits rose by 23%.  Earnings were $117 million or $0.40 EPS net, but non-GAAP earnings were $0.48 EPS.  Also noted was a 2% rise in revenue to $852.4 million.  Thomson Reuters had estimates pegged at $0.43 EPS and $828.9 million in revenues.  Then this morning came an acquisition in China.
Read More »

Posted on: October 30, 2009 – 8:21 am in China, Entertainment, Internet, Mergers and Buy Outs,

Today’s Unusual Options Activity (ABX, CAT, EXPE, JAVA, CS)

These are today’s unusual options trading patterns seen late in the afternoon.  We have provided links over to VSInvestor.com for more details on each situation:

  • There have been two large options transactions in Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX).
  • Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is seeing some longer-term bullish recovery bets that may have been profit taking on a prior trade.
  • Someone is making a big pre-earnings options trade in Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).
  • Traders are placing bets both for and against a Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) buyout by Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) now that there are 3,000 more layoffs after the company keeps losing more and more money while the kids running the European Commission figure out that a money-losing company should not require a deep review of this sort for anti-competition.
  • OptionsHawk.com notified us of nine-times options volume in Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS).

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 21, 2009

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 3:06 pm in Options, Trading Alert, , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (BBBB, CTXS, EXPE, IP, NTAP, NOK, PKG, PETS, TNK, USB)

These are this Tuesday morning’s top ten analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen in early trading from Wall Street firms:

Blackboard (BBBB) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
Expedia (EXPE) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
International Paper (IP) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
NetApp (NTAP) Raised to Accumulate at ThinkEquity.
Nokia (NOK) Cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Packaging Corp (PKG) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
PetMed Express (PETS) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Teekay Tankers (TNK) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
US Bancorp (USB) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

JON C. OGG
JULY 21, 2009

Posted on: July 21, 2009 – 7:08 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/17/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters: The US faces a long period of economic stagnation.

Reuters:   Obama will release plans for a financial market overhaul.

Reuters:   The White House will not help California fix its deficit.

Reuters:   Large US company bankruptcies are accelerating.

Retuers:   News Corp’s (NWS) MySpace fired 30% of its staff. Read More »

Posted on: June 17, 2009 – 3:08 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (CSIQ, EXPE, FCX, JNPR, K, LNC, OWW, TLEO, THS)

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls which we have seen from Wall Street early this Thursday morning:

Canadian Solar (CSIQ) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Expedia (EXPE) Started as Buy at Soleil.
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Juniper Networks (JNPR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Kellogg (K) Started as Outperform at RBC.
Lincoln National (LNC) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) Started as Buy at Soleil.
Taleo (TLEO) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Treehouse Foods (THS) Started as Outperform at William Blair.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: May 21, 2009 – 6:42 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (EXPE, F, JNJ, CTXS, DSX, EGLE, GM, JCI, HOT, URBN)

These are the top upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street analysts this Friday morning:

Expedia (EXPE) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Ford (F) Started as Buy at UBS.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
Diana Shipping (DSX) Cut To Market Perform at Wachovia.
Eagle Bulk Shipping (EGLE) Cut To Market Perform at Wachovia.
General Motors (GM) Started as Sell at UBS.
Johnson Controls (JCI) Started as Buy at UBS.
Starwood Hotels (HOT) Cut to Underperform at FBR.
Urban Outfitters (URBN) Cut to Neutral at Cowen & Co.

JON C. OGG

March 20, 2009

Posted on: March 20, 2009 – 6:50 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (ARMH, CHU, ERIC, EXPE, GGG, MTB, SNE, TEX)

burning-money-pic26These are the top downgrades and negative research calls we have seen so far from Wall Street analysts this Thursday morning:

Arm Holdings (ARMH) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
China Unicom Hong Kong (CHU) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Ericsson (ERIC) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Expedia (EXPE) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Graco Inc. (GGG) Cut to Underperform at Baird.
M&T Bank (MTB) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Sanofi-Aventis (SNE) Reiterated as Underperform at Jefferies.
Terex (TEX) Cut to Masrket Perform at Wachovia.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: March 19, 2009 – 6:30 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,

Priceline Soars, Expedia Lands In Hudson River (PCLN, EXPE, OWW)

money-stack-pic5burning-money-pic15It seems that the insatiable growth in online travel bookings might have reached the point that the crumbling economy has caught up to it.  It seems that the name your own or bid your own prices at Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) is still a winner as times get tougher and travel sources might be more likely to give tickets and bookings away for cheaper discounts.  But shares of Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) are taking a pounding this morning after the online travel service reported earnings with a writedown that is nothing short of staggering.
Read More »

Posted on: February 19, 2009 – 9:31 am in Airlines, Earnings, Entertainment, Internet, Luxury, Trading Alert, , ,

The 52-Week Low Club (HIG)(CI)(AVP)(GLBL)(SYMC)(EXPE)

Sad_clownHartford Financial (HIG) Big analyst downgrade. Plunges to $8.23 from 52-week high of $98.70.

CIGNA (CI) Profit drops 53%. Stock off to $15.08 from 52-week high of $56.98.

Avon (AVP) Weak guidance. Falls to $19.85 from 52-week high of $45.34.

Global Industries (GLB) Bad earnings. Analyst downgrade. Daily double. Off to $2.27 from 52-week high of $27.06.

Symantec (SYMC) Misses on earnings and give poor outlook. Moves down to $11.85 from 52-week high of $22.80.

Expedia (EXPE) Big drop-off in its core market–travel.. Sells down to $9.66 from 52-week high of $34.66.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 30, 2008 – 2:59 pm in HI/LOW, , , , , ,

52-Week Low Club (WTR, BMY, CELL, DDS, EK, EXPE, GCI, GE, HST, NOK, PFE, Q, VLO, WY, WGO)

If you thought this was a bad day for the market with the DJIA trading well under that 12,000 psychological level, there were some 400 stocks that hit 52-week lows today when you include the closed end funds, preferred stocks, and ETF’s.  Today was ugly enough that we won’t even add our little personal prodding on these.  Here is just a partial list of fifteen active stocks on this list today that aren’t airlines, autos, or financials:

  • AQUA AMERICA INC (NYSE: WTR)
  • BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB (NYSE: BMY)
  • BRIGHTPOINT INC (NASDAQ: CELL)
  • DILLARD’S INC (NYSE: DDS)
  • EASTMAN KODAK CO (NYSE: EK)
  • EXPEDIA INC. (NASDAQ: EXPE)
  • GANNETT CO INC (NYSE: GCI)
  • GENERAL ELECTRIC CO (NYSE: GE)
  • HOST HOTELS & RESORT (NYSE: HST)
  • NOKIA (NYSE: NOK)
  • PFIZER INC. (NYSE: PFE)
  • QWEST COMMUNICATIONS (NYSE: Q)
  • VALERO ENERGY (NYSE: VLO)
  • WEYERHAEUSER CO (NYSE: WY)
  • WINNEBAGO IND INC (NYSE: WGO)

Jon C. Ogg
June 21, 2008

Posted on: June 20, 2008 – 2:21 pm in HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (CLX, EL, LAMR, RF, TMA, AMT, CCI, EXPE, OWW, PCLN, F, GM)

Here are some of the top individual analyst calls in pre-market trading:

  • Clorox (NYSE: CLX) downgraded to Underweight at Lehman.
  • Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL) raised to Equal-weight at Lehman.
  • Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR) started as Buy at Jefferies.
  • Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.
  • Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

Below are some sector calls:

  • COMM. TOWERS: American Tower (NYSE: AMT) & Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  • ONLINE TRAVEL DOWNGRADES: Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) downgraded to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.  Priceline.com (NASDA: PCLN) and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) downgraded to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.  There was an upgrade though, as Credit Suisse raised its Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) raised to Outperform from Neutral.
  • US AUTO’s: Ford (NYSE: F) downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns. General Motors (NYSE: GM) downgraded to Underperform at Bear Stearns.

Jon C. Ogg
February 6, 2008

Posted on: February 6, 2008 – 7:35 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Calls (AVTI, GME, THQI, BRCM, CLWR, EK, EXPE, HPQ, PWR, TGT, WFMI)

These are not the only analyst calls moving stocks today, but these are the top calls that 24/7 Wall St. is focusing on:

  • Activision (ATVI), GameStop (GME) and THQ Inc. (THQI) all cut to Market Perform from outperform at Piper Jaffray.
  • Broadcom (BRCM) raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
  • Clearwire (CLWR) cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Wachovia.
  • Eastman Kodak (EK) started as Underweight at J.P.Morgan.
  • Expedia (EXPE) raised to Buy at Citigroup.
  • Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  • Quanta Services (PWR) cut to Neutral at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey.
  • Target (TGT) cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  • Whole Foods (WFMI) cautious notes by Goldman Sachs ahead of next week earnings.

Jon C. Ogg
November 16, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: November 16, 2007 – 8:04 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , , ,

Online Retailers Hit 52-Week Highs As Same-Store Sales Collapse

Online retailer Amazon (AMZN) hit a 52-week high last week. So did Priceline (PCLN), Expedia (EXPE), and eBay (EBAY). Even Overstock (OSTK) made the list.

On the 52-week low side of the ledger, Wall St. found Sear Holdings (SHLD), Circuit City (CC), Staples (SPLS), and Borders (BGP). Same store sales for last month were disappointing for most retailers.

The rotation toward buying online seems to have come to pass. And, if bricks-and-mortar retailers want to know where their business went, they can blame it on a slow economy and high gas prices. Or, they can admit that a huge amount of their business is going online.

Part of the trend is driven by convenience, but another important aspect is that shoppers can get reviews and ratings of products online before they buy. According to a recent study by iCrossing, "About 49 percent of those surveyed said they look for customer product reviews and evaluations, up from 40 percent two years ago." It’s much harder to get a review in a store.

Forrester Research expects US online sales to hit $157 billion this year. The figures should rise to $272 billion by 2001, which would make it a little under 10% of total retail sales.

Although a number of large retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT) have large and well-trafficked sites, the movement online is going to continue to do significant damage to store traffic.

That means the companies like Home Depot (HD), Best Buy (BBY), and CostCo (COST) better start pushing the opportunity to buy at their websites harder and start looking at closing under-performing stores. And, that is likely the path which the most intelligent retailers will take over the next two or three years. Measuring store sales and attrition by location may well allow some of these companies to prune their number of locations. But, they have to get those customers to stay with them online.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: September 30, 2007 – 12:27 pm in Retail, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

An Unusual Screen: Expedia, On 52-Week Highs….Help on the Way for IAC/Interactive? (EXPE, IACI, OWW, PCLN)

After running a screen of new highs and lows this morning, a surprise came up on the list: Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) was on today’s list of 52-week highs.  This was a head scratcher when you consider they just blew-up a major share buyback last month and it became one of the first ‘financing’ casualties as the funny-money going around Wall Street was coming to a drastic halt.   In July it said that borrowing costs and lack of attractive financing was making it trim a more than 100 million share buyback announced in June down to 25 million shares.  The company was originally going to eliminate close to half of its outstanding shares, but recent performance is showing that Main Street wants to own this stock rather than having the stock go into the treasury. 

This made me wonder if Wall Street would turn attention to IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ:IACI), the ex-parent of Expedia, whose shares have been battered and tattered  this year.  IAC’s shares are under $28.00 and down from $40.00+ just in February, and this is the ‘other Barry Diller company.’  These businesses are quite different and have entirely different metrics that run the companies.  The companies are under different management teams, but Diller is the Chairman of both.

Perhaps the short interest has some cause and effect here.  There appears to be a large short squeeze that has helped Expedia of late.  Expedia’s short interest grew by 68% from July to August with the shorts having more than 22.7 million shares carried in the short interest there.  As Expedia hist 52-week highs on thin volume, you know that rise is causing some pain to short sellers.  IAC’s short interest is down less than 1% from July to August to 13.45+ million shares.

Orbitz (NYSE:OWW) has been a dismal post-IPO stock, although it is up off of recent lows.  Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) is also doing quite well for shareholders as its shares are over $80.00 even after a 0.7% drop today, and its 52-week trading range is $30.26 to $82.15.  Maybe investors looking for a repeat will turn attention to IAC/Interactive since it is the other Diller company.  Stranger things have happened before.

Jon C. Ogg
August 27, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: August 27, 2007 – 11:46 am in HI/LOW, Internet, , , , ,

Nasdaq Short Interest August 2007

Below is the short interest for major company stocks traded on the Nasdaq. The figures are from August 15 and compare to numbers from July 13, 2007.

Investors were not willing to bet on a consolidation among discount brokers with the short interest in Schwab and E*Trade rising. It appears they did believe that Whole Foods would complete its merger with Wild Oats, lowering short interest in WFMI.

Short interest in cable companies, especially Comcast and Charter fell, perhaps indicating a bottom for those stocks.

And, shorts moved out of Yahoo! indicating that many investors do not see its shares falling further.

Largest Short Positions

Level 3 (LVLT)                                    129.3 million shares short

Comcast (CMCSA)                             113.2 million shares

Microsoft (MSFT)                                 97.2 million shares

Charter (CHTR)                                    94.5 million shares

Sirius (SIRI)                                         91.0 million shares

Intel (INTC)                                          84.0 million shares

Yahoo! (YHOO)                                   62.3 million shares

Cisco (CSCO)                                     57.5 million shares

Applied Materials (AMAT)                    50.3 million shares

Oracle (ORCL)                                    46.3 million shares

Conexant (CNXT)                                 45.5 million shares

Symantec (SYMC)                              42.9 million shares

Sun Microsystems (SUNW)                 41.0 million shares

Largest Increase In Short Position

Expedia (EXPE)                                  9.2 million share increase

E*Trade (ETFC)                                  7.7 million share increase

ON Semi (ONNN)                              6.8 million share increase

Ebay (EBAY)                                     5.5 million share increase

NetFlix (NFLX)                                   4.9 million share increase

Oracle (ORCL)                                   4.7 million share incrase

Schwab (SCHW)                                3.4 million share increase

Tivo (TIVO)                                         3.1 million share increase

Largest Decreases In Short Interest

Whole Foods Market (WFMI)               9.3 million shares decrease

Charter                                              9.2 million share decrease

Opsware (OPSW)                               8.9 million share decrease

Yahoo!                                               8.5 million share decrease

Dell (DELL)                                        8.4 million share decrease

Applied Materials                                8.2 million share decrease

Crocs (CROX)                                     8.0 million share decrease

Comcast                                            6.6 million share decrease

Data from NASD and WSJ

Douglas A. McIntyre

    

Posted on: August 26, 2007 – 1:38 pm in HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 7/24/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, Dow Jones (DJ) controlling Bancroft family met to discuss Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the company and should vote later this week.

Reuters writes that revenue and income fell at Texas Instruments (TXN).

Reuters reports that subscribers fell at NetFlix (NFLX) in the most recent quarter and the company moved guidance down.

Reuters also reports that quarterly earnings rose at American Express (AXP).

Reuters also writes that Nissan’s earnings fell on a weaker product mix. The company kept its forecast for the year.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Wall St. firms postponed at $3.1 billion offering for an LBO of GM’s (GM) Allison unit.

The Wall Street Journal writes that BP (BP) posted a slight rise in quarterly profits.

The New York Times writes that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has agreed to buy software company Opsware.

FT writes that Expedia (EXPE) had to cut its share buy-back due to poor conditions for raising debt for the offer.

Barron’s writes that Atheros (ATHR) shares fell after that company’s earnings announcement.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: July 24, 2007 – 3:12 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Credit Market Woes Killing Expedia’s Buyback Ambitions (EXPE, OWW, TZOO, PCLN)

Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) is showing that credit market woes (and probably online travel stock weakness) aren’t limited to its competitors.  The company came clean this morning by saying it is decreasing its number of shares sought in a tender offer.  The reason couldn’t be worse: due to the lack of available financing at satisfactory terms as a result of current conditions in the credit markets.  This could all be part of the tie-in and part of the reason that no one wanted Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE:OWW) shares last week, and you know the Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) weakness in its outlook probably didn’t help matters here.

Expedia’s amended "Dutch tender" offering is to purchase up to 25,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price per share not less than $27.50 and not greater than $30.00.  This now represents approximately 9% of the number of shares of common stock currently outstanding and approximately 8% fully diluted. The tender offer is set to expire on August 8, 2007. This is a huge disappointment.

Shares rocketed much more than 10% back in June after the company said it was buying back up to $3.5 Billion in stock.  This was to represent 116.7 million shares at the time of the announcement, so 25 million now is going to be deemed paltry in comparison.  This even has Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) shares indicated down almost 1% on thin volume in early indications.  Shares of Expedia are down 6% at $27.50 in pre-market indications. 

Jon C. Ogg
July 23, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: July 23, 2007 – 7:58 am in Internet, Shareholder Issues, Stock Buybacks, , , ,

Countries Vie For Biggest Buy-Out Title

Over the last two days, BCE (BCE) the largest phone company in Canada, was purchased by the investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and several private equity firms. The price was over $32 billion making it the largest buy-out in Canada’s history.

A day later, Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers offered $19 billion for the country’s second largest retailer, Coles. It would be the largest buy-out in Australia’s history.

So, over $50 billion went for buyouts in a little over 24 hours. And, that was over a weekend.

Shares in private buy-out firms Blackstone (BX) have been falling since its IPO. But, the sell-off might be premature.

There have been recent rumors of a sale of Freeport-McMoran (FCX). The company has a market cap of over $31 billion. In the car industry, Delphi is likely to be taken private as it comes out of Chapter 11. Ford (F) has Jaguar and Land Rover on the block.

Macy’s (M) may be in play. The company has a market cap near $20 billion. Expedia (EXPE) is rumored to be a target. The price tag there would be about $10 billion.

Credit may be tightening, but the appetite for big risk does not seem to be.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: July 2, 2007 – 4:26 am in Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/20/2007 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Barron’s

According to Reuters, Microsoft (MSFT) will alter its Vista operating system so that it works better with Google (GOOG) and other companies that have search functions for the desktop.

Reuters writes that Home Depot (HD) has sold its supply unit for $10 billion and will buy-back $22.5 billion shares.

Reuters reports the Nintendo’s market value is getting close to passing Sony’s (SNE) as its Wii and DS games continue to sell extremely well.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Kerkorian’s plan to buy assets from MGM Grand (MGM) may be withdrawn shortly.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Toyota (TM) is cutting back building new plants in the US because the growth of manufacturing is hurting efficiency.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Yahoo! (YHOO) will improve its search software for US mobile phones and announce several alliances in Asia.

The New York Times writes that a court upheld Bristol-Myers (BMY) patent for Plavix, and the company’s stock rose sharply.

FT reports that Expedia (EXPE) has started a $3.5 billion buy-back which will bring in 42% of its shares.

Barron’s reports that investment bank Cowen has cut back its Q2 earnings forecasts for Motorola (MOT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: June 20, 2007 – 3:20 am in Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,