Investing.com -- Shares in Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) surged more than 12% in after-hours trading after the multinational online travel company unexpectedly reported a slight profit during its previous quarter.
For Expedia's first quarter of Fiscal Year 2016, the Bellevue, Washington-based company saw its sales soar by more than 38% to $1.90 billion, amid a strong performance from its Hotels.com division and unexpected gains from its recent acquisition of home rental company HomeAway, Inc.
Over the quarter, room night stays among Expedia's customer base increased by 37% on an annual basis, while domestic and international room nights rose by 32 and 44% respectively. It led to a 41% spike in overseas earnings, bolstering company revenues overall, as the dollar fell by more than 4% against its main rivals in the final month of the quarter.
As a result, Expedia topped analysts' net profit forecasts with earnings per share of 0.09, considerably above expectations for losses of 0.05. Expedia also eclipsed analysts' revenue expectations of $1.84 billion for the quarter.
In February, HomeAway completed its U.S. launch of its traveler service fee, along with its Book with Confidence program, just two months after finalizing its merger with Expedia. Overall, HomeAway finished with revenue of $142 million for the three-month period, comprising approximately 7% of the company's total sales. In addition, the consolidation of Orbitz Worldwide and HomeAway helped increase Expedia's adjusted EBITDA by approximately 35% on the quarter, the company said in a statement.
Also on Thursday, Expedia announced that it has repurchased 2.9 million shares of its common stock year-to-date, accounting for approximately $312 million.
Shares in Expedia in after-hours rose 13.25 or 12.37% to 120.23.