Bookings Holdings saw mixed second-quarter results with its earnings coming in at $19.08 per share after a $17.57 estimate. Revenue was a little light at $4.29 billion against the $4.32 estimate. Cheddar’s Michelle Castillo says the travel company might be feeling the same headwinds as Airbnb, “especially with a lot of cancellations due to airline shortages in the latter half of the quarter.” Booking Holdings’ stock was up 4% after hours.


Closing Bell

Breaking Earnings: Bookings Holdings’ Revenue Dips in Q2

All right, well booking holdings earnings in, we've got an alert and cheddar news is Michele Castelli is here to break it down as that stock does pop more than 4% in the after hours Michelle. So it was a pretty big quarter for them. They came in at $19.08 a share for Per share. This tree was only expecting $17.57 revenue did come in a little light. However, at 4.29 billion, the revenue estimate was 4.32 billion. They didn't really say so so far why they missed revenue. According to um the recent letter that they released in their press release earnings. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they felt the same headwinds that Airbnb felt, especially with a lot of cancelations due to um airline shortages and airport shortages in the latter half of the quarter. Remember that july 4th period, the month of july, we've been hearing a lot about how airlines haven't been able to staff, how flights are being canceled. In fact, just yesterday we talked about how british airways isn't even selling tickets Until August 15 for flights between 30 minutes and three hours. And that of course is affecting the entire travel industry, not because of demand and people wanting to spend, but just the logistics of getting people to those places. Some other interesting things that I'm seeing in this report is the fact that they did say that travel services booked by its customers net of cancelations reached 34.5 billion. Now that was an increase of 57% from the quarter, the same quarter of the year before. However, The issue with that is of course 2021 is a little a little bit of an off year considering that we were still recovering from the pandemic and a lot of restrictions were around. So I did pull the 2019 numbers real quickly and they were in about 25 billion at that point. So there's still a really marked increase from 2019 levels I think that do men that they reached another milestone in the company's recovery from the impact of the pandemic with room nights for the second quarter surpassing 2019 levels for the first time. And looking forward, they expect record Q three revenue and are very busy working with their customers and partners to help enable an extremely busy travel season. Again, this is echoing what Airbnb said. They also are expecting record revenues in Q three. So even if inflationary costs are in um in at this time, even though your vacations are costing you a little more and there's a little bit more headaches at the airport, it does seem that consumers are willing to spend on that revenge travel at this time. And it is interesting Michelle because I see Airbnb stock which should end the day down about 1%. So underperforming the market actually rising in the after hours amid this echo that we got from booking holdings specifically about the state of the travel industry and how it does seem to be picking up. I think it is a watershed moment. People are finally able to willing to get back out there. And certainly this third quarter will start to coincide with closer holiday travel as well that we'll see in the fourth quarter in terms of the health of booking holdings. That stock has also held up pretty well throughout the entire pandemic and it was seen as if customers simply are willing to pay higher prices. Is that your takeaway definitely and if you think about it, the dollar is very strong right now. So american travelers definitely are looking at going overseas, especially in Western europe. I know there was a study earlier in alien um done by alliance that found that the number of american travelers compared to last year going to europe was up 600%. And another recent survey showed that about 70% of Europeans were looking at doing travel between May and november towards another country. Um this year. So on both sides of the pond we're seeing travel increase Now there is going to be some foreign exchange headwinds at this time especially because The euro is so weak. So you might see some people pulling back especially in that European market as well as the issues with, again, Kate bringing this up. But the airlines and the staffing issues and airports, but the demand is definitely there and some people are willing to travel no matter what the cost. And I think that's being reflected in a lot of these Q3 projections. Alright, Michele Castelli Leo, I'm Michelle. Thank you so much for breaking down those results. I know we'll catch up again later with more earnings and of course, a revisit of this as well.