Priceline Group Inc.’s stock (PCLN) tumbled 12% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the online travel services company reported first-quarter results that beat expectations, but provided a second-quarter profit outlook that was well below analyst projections.
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Jeff Boyd, left, during a 2012 food drive in Norwalk, Conn. In April 2016, Boyd was named interim CEO of Norwalk-based Priceline Group following the exit of former CEO Darren Huston after a company investigation into a personal relationship he had with an employee. The consensus of 30 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters modeled $2.12 billion in sales, $9.65 EPS minus items and $620.6 million EBITDA.
Before today’s opening bell, the company reported a profit of $10.54 per share on revenue of $2.15 billion for the three months ended March 31. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.12 billion.
Still, a forecast by Priceline, which operates Booking.com and other sites, that gross profit would grow between 9 percent and 16 percent in the second quarter, concerned investors.
Priceline, however, provided current-quarter guidance that lagged views, and Priceline expects EPS and EBITDA to fall on a year-over-year basis – a first for its EPS. That’s short of the 21 percent rise and $14.90 in earnings per share, respectively, that Cowen and Company analyst Kevin Kopelman said Priceline needed to forecast.
Its shares dropped $146.14, or 10.8 percent, to $1,208.60 on midday trading.
Priceline shares fell 13 percent to $1,180.00 in early trading.
The cautious guidance has led to pre-market selling that has sent the stock lower by 7.7% to levels not seen since late February.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research.
