By Sam Boughedda
Online travel company Booking Holdings (NASDAQ:BKNG) published its third-quarter earnings after the close on Wednesday, beating analyst expectations.
The company reported earnings of $53.03 per share, $3.48 better than the analyst estimate of $49.55, with revenue for the quarter coming in at $6.1 billion versus the consensus estimate of $5.93 billion.
Booking's revenue grew 29% year-over-year, while Q3 gross travel bookings increased 36% year-over-year to $32.1 billion.
"I am encouraged by the strong results we are reporting today, including the highest amount of quarterly revenue and Adjusted EBITDA ever for our company. We saw an improvement in room night trends as we moved through the quarter and accommodation ADR growth continued to be strong," said Glenn Fogel, Chief Executive Officer of Booking Holdings.
At the time of writing, Booking shares are up over 4%.
Investors reacted positively to comments on the company's business and the travel sector moving forward.
Fogel stated that despite increasing concerns around the macroeconomic environment, they are "encouraged" by the slight improvement in room night growth they have seen in October and by the level of bookings for travel in early 2023.
Following its earnings release, BofA analysts reiterated a Buy rating on Booking and stated that the October acceleration "adds a little confidence in 2023."
"3Q Gross bookings of $32.1bn beat Street est. of $30.6bn, as monthly bookings growth accelerated following a soft July," wrote BofA.
Elsewhere, Morgan Stanley analysts said, "BKNG is seeing continued strong macro travel demand (even accelerating demand into October). As of now, BKNG is not seeing any signs of consumer trade down (in Europe or globally) and even saw the European business (meaning European travelers traveling) accelerate into October."