Insider Selling: Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) Insider Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.70, for a total transaction of $1,028,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 74,502 shares in the company, valued at $15,325,061.40. This trade represents a 6.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Expedia Group Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Expedia Group stock traded up $2.31 on Wednesday, hitting $206.52. The stock had a trading volume of 1,930,762 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,065,095. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $184.39 and a 200 day moving average of $164.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. Expedia Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $107.25 and a twelve month high of $207.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.82, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.82.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The online travel company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.06 by ($0.22). Expedia Group had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 52.41%. Sell-side analysts expect that Expedia Group, Inc. will post 12.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Expedia Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This is an increase from Expedia Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EXPE. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 1,353.9% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,105 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 13,163 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $1,948,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Expedia Group by 296.3% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 860 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Expedia Group by 54.6% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 97,953 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $14,499,000 after purchasing an additional 34,581 shares in the last quarter. 90.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Expedia Group from $210.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective (up from $220.00) on shares of Expedia Group in a report on Friday, February 7th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Expedia Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $187.00 to $221.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.64.

Expedia Group Company Profile

Expedia Group, Inc operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.