Key Takeaways
- Booking Holdings Inc. warned that the impact of fighting in the Middle East and currency issues will hurt its current-quarter and yearly results.
- The online travel site said room night growth and gross bookings would be affected.
- Booking Holdings also announced its first quarterly dividend, at $8.75 a share.
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) warned that the war in the Middle East and currency fluctuations would negatively affect reservations and gross bookings, and its shares slumped about 10% Friday afternoon.
In prepared remarks after the closing bell Thursday, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Goulden told investors that the online travel site expects current-quarter room night growth to be in a range of 4% to 6%, and that “the ongoing war in the Middle East to have a negative 1% impact” on it.
He added that full-year gross bookings are anticipated to be up “slightly faster than 7%,” while analysts had been anticipating a gain of 9.9%. Goulden pointed to the effects of the war and unfavorable currency rates for the miss.
In the fourth quarter, Booking Holdings reported earnings per share (EPS) of $6.28, with revenue rising 18% to $4.78 billion. Both were above forecasts.
Room nights booked advanced 9% year-over-year, and gross travel bookings gained 16% to $31.7 billion. Goulden noted that the company’s cancellation rate for the latest quarter was “slightly higher” than in 2022, “impacted by the war in the Middle East.”
The company also announced that it was initiating an $8.75-per-share quarterly dividend beginning March 28 to stockholders of record on March 8.
Shares of Booking Holdings hit an all-time high before earnings Thursday, and even with Friday’s declines they are still up about 44% year-over-year.
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