Expedia Takes A Hit On Revenues And Net Income, Shares Soar

Online travel services group Expedia has reported its results for Q2 2009, and the financials aren’t looking spectacular, but they are not as bad as expected.

Although the number of booking transactions handled by the company actually saw a small uptick, gross bookings decreased 5%. As a result, revenues went down 3% (from $795 million in 2008 to $770 million) and operating income decreased a staggering 33%.

On the upside, Expedia’s flight and hotel bookings rose 10% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter following some expense-cutting measures and airline fare cuts. The company’s second-quarter profit was $41 million, or 14 cents per share.

And while earnings fell 57%, Expedia’s results beat Wall Street expectations, sending shares up 13% at $20.73 in recent trading on Nasdaq. The stock has more than doubled this year, up about 37% in the past month.

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Expedia, next to online travel agency Expedia.com, owns a number of properties in the field, including Hotels.com, TripAdvisor and Hotwire.