Why Wall Street Heaps Love on Priceline and Disses Expedia
Skift Take
You have to wonder whether Priceline relished breaking the $1,000 per share barrier or eclipsed the mark fearfully. With such records come very great expectations.
Wall Street loves Priceline, which broke through the $1,000 per share barrier last month, and at mid-day yesterday its shares were trading at around $1,049.
Shares of its closest rival, Expedia Inc., meanwhile, were selling for roughly $1,000 less, at $52.
Why is there such a huge gap?
EXPE data by YCharts
Simply put, investors consider Priceline faster-growing, more consistently executing, and more focused than its online travel agency rival, Expedia. Faster Growing By just about any measure, Priceline is the faster growing company of the two. In the second quarter of 2013, for instance, Priceline saw its room nights sold metric increase 38.2%, compared with just 19% growth for Expedia. While Expedia's room nights increased 27% in 2012, compared with the pre