Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), the online travel bookings group, fell about 2% in after-hours trading today after guiding to far slower fourth-quarter bookings growth. Third-quarter adjusted earnings per share still beat expectations, at $4.66 against a Yahoo Finance consensus of $4.50.
Shares rose 1.3% to $155.67 in today’s regular session before the results arrived after the US close. They sit near the bottom of a 52-week range of $146.28 to $220.81 and are roughly 27% lower this year.
Gross bookings, the total value of travel booked through its platforms, rose 10% to $54.5B, while room nights climbed 7% to 345M. Adjusted revenue of $9.8B, up 9%, topped consensus of $9.54B.
Reported revenue of $8.9B, down 1%, fell short of consensus. The company cut revenue by $900M and accrued a $100M loss over an FTC matter, and excluded both from its adjusted figures. Gross bookings do not reflect the matter.
Adjusted EPS rose 17%, while GAAP EPS, which includes the FTC items, rose 7% to $3.61. The adjusted EBITDA margin, a measure of operating profitability, was 47.0%. Booking repurchased $2.1B of stock in the quarter and has $12.4B of authorisation left. It will pay a dividend of $0.42 per share on December 31 to holders of record on December 11.
For the fourth quarter, it guided to gross bookings growth of 2% to 4% (4% to 6% in constant currency), room nights growth of 1% to 3% and adjusted revenue growth of 0% to 2%, including about 2% of negative currency impact. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be about flat, yet adjusted EPS is guided up low to mid-teens, helped by a lower share count after buybacks.
The company said travel demand moderated toward the end of the third quarter on softer international trends, while domestic travel stayed resilient. In October, disruption to Middle East travel, elevated airfares and localised unrest in some European cities also weighed. Guidance assumes the Middle East effects persist through year end.
Chief executive Glenn Fogel said the company was pleased with its third-quarter operating performance, and addressed the outlook:
While geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty may affect near-term travel trends, we remain focused on making travel easier, helping our partners succeed, and investing in our business for the long term.
Glenn Fogel, chief executive, Booking Holdings