RBC Downgrades Expedia On Rising Competitive Risk For Online Travel Agency

Proprietary surveys suggest a slow recovery in online travel and share losses for Expedia Group Inc EXPE amid rising competition, according to RBC Capital Markets.

The Expedia Analyst: Mark Mahaney downgraded Expedia from Outperform to Sector Perform with an unchanged $93 price target.

The Expedia Takeaways: RBC’s annual U.S. survey and annual U.K. online travel survey suggest that Expedia’s gross bookings are unlikely to return to 2019 levels before 2022, Mahaney said in a downgrade note.

“Brand Expedia has historically been the #1 most popular destination for planning travel in the U.S., per our survey results dating back to 2015, but this year it dropped to #3 falling behind Airbnb and Google,” the analyst said. 

“Looking at the multi-year trends of our U.S. survey, Expedia has slipped in terms of Best Selection, Ease of Use and Best Prices, while Booking.com reached record-high levels across all three metrics.”

Referring to the competitive landscape for Expedia, Mahaney said that while Booking Holdings Inc BKNG is gaining market share in the U.S., Airbnb has become the “most popular destination for travel planning and booking in the U.S.”

EXPE Price Action: Shares of Expedia were trading 1.25% higher at $94.74 at the time of publication Monday.