This post was originally published on this site
Expedia Group Inc.’s second-quarter gross bookings rose nearly eight-fold year over year and revenue more than tripled as travel rebounded, but its loss was more than expected and the company on Thursday pointed to continued uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic because of the delta variant.
In a statement, Expedia
EXPE,
Chief Executive Peter Kern urged other companies to support global vaccine distribution.
“Unfortunately, the road to full travel recovery remains bumpy until more of the world is vaccinated,” he said. On the earnings call, he said the the delta variant has already started to affect business, with some cancellations in July.
The online-travel company’s shares fell nearly 5% after hours, after rising more than 5.5% in the regular session to close at $161.69.
Expedia reported a second-quarter loss of $301 million, or $2.02 a share, compared with $753 million, or $5.34 a share, in the year-ago period. The adjusted loss was $169 million, or a loss of $1.13 a share. Revenue increased 273% to $2.15 billion from $566 million in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of 60 cents a share on revenue of $1.99 billion.
Expedia said bookings rose 667% to $20.81 billion from $2.71 billion in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts’ average estimate of $19.39 billion.
Expedia stock has gained nearly 22% so far this year, and is up almost 92% in the past 52 weeks. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index
SPX,
has risen almost 18% year to date and has increased 32% in the past year.
