Booking Holdings 1Q Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Fall as Travel Dries Up Amid Pandemic

   By Dave Sebastian 
 

Booking Holdings Inc. said its adjusted earnings and revenue for the first quarter declined as the Covid-19 pandemic has battered travel and companies scaled back on their advertising spending.

The online-travel agency, which operates sites like Booking.com, Kayak and OpenTable, on Thursday posted net loss of $699 million, or $17.01 a share, compared with a profit of $765 million, or $16.85 a share, in the comparable quarter last year. The company said it had an unrealized loss of $307 million for the quarter on marketable equity securities, as well as impairments of $489 million for OpenTable and Kayak goodwill and $100 million for an investment in equities.

Gross travel bookings fell 51% to $12.4 billion, Booking said. Room nights booked declined 43% from a year ago.

Adjusted earnings were $3.77 a share, down 66% from the prior year and missing the $5.61 a share analysts polled by FactSet had expected.

Revenue fell 19% to $2.29 billion from the year-ago period. Analysts were targeting $2.22 billion.

Agency revenue, or that derived from travel-reservation commissions, fell to $1.42 billion from $1.95 billion. Advertising and other revenues fell to $205 million from $285 million. Merchant revenue, or that derived from travel-related transactions whose payments Booking facilitated, rose to $659 million from $603 million.

Write to Dave Sebastian at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2020 16:24 ET (20:24 GMT)

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