- Piper's Michael Olson reports checks for online travel trends through May point to a strong Q2 for the industry.
- Priceline (PCLN +2.8%), Expedia (EXPE +2%), Travelzoo (TZOO +3%), HomeAway (AWAY +1.6%), and TripAdvisor (TRIP +0.9%) are outperforming to varying degrees amid a 0.5% gain for the Nasdaq. Aside from Expedia, the group has been pressured by a mixture of forex and company-specific concerns. Piper has a neutral rating on Expedia due to valuation concerns, and Overweight ratings on Priceline, TripAdvisor, and HomeAway.
- Separately, Expedia has named worldwide engineering SVP Aman Bhutani the president of the Brand Expedia Group, which covers Expedia.com, Travelocity, Wotif, and Expedia's JV with AirAsia - CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been handling the job for over 3 years. GeekWire notes Bhutani has a strong reputation within the company for making data-driven tech decisions and experimenting with product changes.
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Previously: Deutsche downgrades Priceline, cites Airbnb
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Previously: Macquarie: HomeAway is cheap if Airbnb is worth $24B