Problems Compound At TripAdvisor; Deutsche Downgrades

Deutsche Bank has downgraded Tripadvisor Inc TRIP to Hold from Buy as "the story migrates from a monetization problem to a monetization and a traffic problem."

Amid a drop in hotel revenues and higher marketing costs, TripAdvisor reported lower-than-expected second-quarter results.

"We see a decline in desktop shoppers and sluggish mobile monetization gains as new risks to an already turbulent IB transition," analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote in a note.

The analyst said these headwinds limit his confidence in a path to greater than 20 percent top-line growth and sees further risk to his top and bottom line estimates.

Related Link: Mobile To Continue To Hurt TripAdvisor, Wells Fargo Says

The analyst would become constructive on the stock when he gets evidence of traffic growth and improving mobile monetization.

On the positive side, Walmsley still sees tremendous asset value in the company long term and its potential to grow unit economics via "A/B testing, increasing hotel supply, and bringing more competition into IB auctions."

"We see some support to shares on strategic asset value but do not view that as enough to recommend the stock at current levels," Walmsley noted.

The analyst trimmed his price target to $63 from $71, while trimming 2016 EPS estimate by 4.9 percent to $1.55 and revenue forecast by 3.5 percent to $1.509 billion.

At time of writing, shares of TripAdvisor fell 3 percent to $61.68.

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