News about BKNG

Booking's top Genius members (Levels 2 and 3) made up more than 30% of active customers and a high 50% share of room nights in the June quarter, both up from a year earlier. Direct room nights kept growing, with the direct share of consumer room nights in the mid-60% range, though pressure on unpaid search traffic continued and large language model traffic stayed well below 1% of room nights. Booking plans a $100 million investment in Vayo, a new company offering a personal travel agent, announced October 14, 2026. The stock (BKNG) fell 29.0% in the year to October 28, 2026, while the S&P 500 returned 14.0%. For the September quarter, management guided room nights up 3% to 5% and gross bookings and revenue up 4% to 6%, versus June-quarter gains of 9% and 8%.

Wall Street expects Booking Holdings (BKNG) to report higher year-over-year earnings on higher revenue for the quarter ended September 2026, with consensus EPS of $4.48 (up 12.6%) and revenue of $9.56 billion (up 6.2%). The report is expected on November 3, and the consensus EPS estimate has risen 0.05% over the last 30 days. The Earnings ESP is +1.22%, but the stock carries a Zacks Rank of #4, which the article says makes it difficult to conclusively predict a beat. Last quarter, Booking posted EPS of $2.54 versus an expected $2.45, a surprise of +3.67%, and it has beaten consensus EPS four times over the last four quarters. The article notes that the stock's reaction will also depend on management commentary and other factors beyond the earnings surprise.

The article compares Booking Holdings (BKNG) and Home Depot (HD), two companies representing travel and home improvement spending that compete for the same consumer budget. In FY 2025, Booking reported revenue of about $26.9 billion (up roughly 13.4%) and net income of about $5.4 billion, with net margin falling to 20.1% from 24.8%; its planned expansion into ETraveli was blocked by European regulators on antitrust grounds. Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer with 2,359 stores across North America, posted revenue of about $164.7 billion (up roughly 3%) and net income of about $14.2 billion, with net margin around 8.6%. Booking faces competition from technology platforms such as Airbnb and scrutiny under the EU Digital Markets Act, while Home Depot's results are tied to the housing market and interest rates and it faces a class action over AI-powered license plate readers in store parking lots.