Travel arrangements giant Expedia Group trades just below a buy point after a year of strong double-digit sales growth. On Wednesday the Relative Strength (RS) Rating for Expedia stock climbed from 79 to 84, putting it in the top echelon of stocks for price performance.
The upgraded 84 RS Rating means that Expedia stock performed in the top 16% of all stocks this past year for price appreciation. It's a milestone because Market research shows that the market's biggest winners often have an 80 or higher RS Rating in the early stages of their moves.
Expedia Stock Among Best Overall
Among its other key ratings Expedia stock has an 89 Composite Rating, putting it in the top 11% of stocks for a group of the most important fundamental and technical metrics. It's Earnings Per Share Rating is a mediocre 62 after a miss last quarter. Look for that to improve to an 80 or better. A C+ Accumulation/Distribution Rating, on an A+ to E scale, shows that mutual funds, ETFs and other institutional investors are buying slightly more shares than selling.
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Expedia stock has basically moved sideways since mid-2022. It formed a cup-with-handle pattern starting Feb. 2 this year and dropped to a 103.45 intraday low at the end of the handle. It hasn't broken out but it's improved and Wednesday afternoon it traded at 111.54, down about 1% for the day, and 3 points below a buy point. Expedia is trying to complete a cup with handle with a 114.37 entry. See if it can clear the breakout price in heavy trade.
Earnings Improving, Still Need Work
Expedia reported strong earnings growth in mid-2022, up 274% for the June 30, 2022-ended quarter. Then EPS cooled to 15% growth, then 19%. Last quarter it posted a 20 cents per share loss on seasonal weakness, but that was significantly improved from a 47 cent loss a year earlier. Sales last quarter rose 18% to $2.67 billion. That came after sales rose 51%, 22% and then 15%. Look for the next report on or around Aug. 3.
Expedia stock earns the No. 5 rank among its peers in the 19-stock Leisure-Travel Booking industry group. Largest travel booking company by revenue Booking Holdings and China travel arrangement company Trip.com are also among the group's highest-rated stocks.
When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, one factor to watch closely is relative price strength.
IBD's proprietary Relative Strength Rating measures market leadership by showing how a stock's price movement over the last 52 weeks measures up against that of the other stocks in our database.
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