Expedia (EXPE) PT Raised to $153 at Barclays

Barclays analyst Ross Sandler raised the price target on Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) to $153.00 (from $134.00) while maintaining a Equalweight rating.

The analyst comments "The Key Takeaway: EXPE's 3Q bookings and EBITDA were ~3% and ~2% ahead, respectively, but revenue was a tad light and at the low end of guide on FX, pricing actions earlier in the year, and softer Vrbo bookings back in 1H; ex-FX, revs would have been up 5%, at the high end of guide. 4Q was guided ahead and the full year guide was raised for GBs (+1pt) and modest margin improvement (flat prev.). Overall, we're encouraged by improving top-line trends, particularly at Vrbo, combined with improving cost discipline, particularly as weather impacted both September and October in the Southeast (seemingly a greater impact on EXPE than peers). That said, we're still hoping to hear more on bigger-picture strategy on how Vrbo might win share from much larger peers, how/when hotels.com will return to sustainable growth, and approach to win share outside the US as a challenger to incumbents. We suspect we'll have to wait at least a few more quarters for those answers amid a slew of leadership changes (CFO stepping down, recent new appointments of CTO, general managers of Vrbo and Hotels.com, etc.). At just over 10x FY26E cons. GAAP EPS pre-print, valuation is fair. PT to $153 (vs. $134) as we roll forward our valuation framework to FY26."

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