Expedia’s strong profit boosted by sale of stake in eLong

Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE)’s stock has now jumped by more than 38% year-to-date. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Expedia in a report on Thursday. Revenue increased 11 percent to $1.66 billion, beating the $1.65 billion average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Subsequent to quarter end, Expedia’s board of directors approved a 33 percent increase in the cash dividend payable in September, raising the dividend to $0.24 per share of outstanding common stock.

In a research note issued to investors, Youssef Squali at Cantor Fitzgerald Reiterated their Buy rating on Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE).

Shares of Expedia climbed in aftermarket trading after the online travel company reported solid second-quarter results. Barclays upped their price target on Expedia from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Adjusted Ebitda slipped 3% to $252.3 million. Finally, RBC Capital restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price target (up from $130.00) on shares of Expedia in a research report on Monday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The analyst placed a $120.00 price target on the stock which indicates a 13.22% upside to the last closing price. (NASDAQ:EXPE). However, the stock price could fluctuate by $ 15.44 from the estimate as it is suggested by the standard deviation reading. As of December 31, 2011, the Company’s portfolio of travel brands featuring supply portfolio, including over 145,000 hotels in 200 countries, 300 airlines, packages, rental cars, cruises, as well as destination services and activities. Post opening the session at $105.51, the shares hit an intraday low of $104 and an intraday high of $105.7 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day. Additionally, it offers non and traveling -travel advertisers access to a possible source of incremental traffic and transactions. It runs in two segments: Leisure and Egencia.

Expedia Inc. rose as much as 8.9 percent after second-quarter sales and profit topped analysts’ estimates for the travel-services website. (eLong), trivago GmbH (trivago) and Classic Vacations. Its brands include Travelocity, Expedia Affiliate Network, Classic Vacations, Expedia Local Specialist, Expedia CruiseShipCenters and CarRentals.com, among others.