Priceline revenue jumps amid a spike in bookings

Scott Eelis | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Name-your-own-price site Priceline on Thursday reported a sharp jump in revenue as travel bookings spiked 38 percent.

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"We are particularly pleased by the group's steady hotel-room night growth and improving rental-car unit growth, and with the growing momentum at the U.S. business of priceline.com," Priceline Group's CEO Jeffery H. Boyd said in a statement.

Net income rose 24 percent to $437.3 million, or $8.39 a share, from $352.3 million, or $6.88 a share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding items, earnings shot up to $9.70 per share from $7.85 a share a year ago.

Revenue increased 26 percent to $1.68 billion from $1.33 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected Priceline to report earnings of $9.36 per share on $1.66 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Gross travel bookings, which includes all services purchased by the customers, grew 38 percent to $10.1 billion in the quarter.

For the third quarter, Priceline said it expects gross travel bookings to increase 27 to 34 percent. It expects international bookings to jump 32 to 39 percent and for domestic bookings to increase a more modest 5 to 10 percent.

The company expects third-quarter earnings ex-items to be between $15.30 and $16.30 a share vs. analysts' expectations of $15.86 a share. The company expects revenue to increase 23 to 30 percent; analysts currently expect $2.22 billion.