Airbnb rose Wednesday following its fourth-quarter earnings report late Tuesday that beat on the top and bottom lines, as did its first-quarter outlook. Airbnb stock climbed for the third straight day.
The company reported adjusted earnings of 8 cents share on revenue of $1.53 billion. Analysts expected Airbnb to report adjusted earnings of 4 cents on revenue of $1.45 billion, according to FactSet.
Airbnb stock climbed 3.7%, closing at 186.64 on the stock market today.
Revenue climbed 38% from the year-ago period. Airbnb projected first-quarter revenue in the range of $1.41 billion to $1.48 billion. Analysts predicted $1.24 billion.
"Nearly two years into the pandemic, it's now clear that we are undergoing the biggest change to travel since the advent of commercial flying," the company said in a letter to shareholders. As a result of remote work, the company said, people are spreading out to thousands of towns and cities, staying for weeks, months or even entire seasons at a time.
"Nearly half of our nights booked in Q4 were for stays of a week or longer. One in five nights booked were for stays of a month or longer," the company went on to say.
Airbnb Stock: Strong Pent-Up Demand
Travel has been one of the earliest and most harshly affected sectors in the coronavirus pandemic. Staffing shortages at airlines and the extremely high infection rate of omicron discouraged some travel. Yet, overall, quarantine requirements are loosening in many countries.
"Despite the continued near-term uncertainties, we see evidence of strong pent-up demand: as of the end of January 2022, we had over 25% more nights booked for the summer travel season than at this time in 2019," the company said.
Expedia reported fourth-quarter results on Friday that soundly beat Wall Street estimates. Expedia's brands include Hotels.com, Vrbo, Orbitz and Travelocity. Expedia is an IBD Leaderboard stock.
Another online travel company, Booking Holdings, reports fourth-quarter results after the market close on Feb. 23.
Please follow Brian Deagon on Twitter at @IBD_BDeagon for more on tech stocks, analysis and financial markets.
