Analysts Target Expedia Stock After Earnings

The shares of Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) are falling ahead of the open, down 9.9% to trade at $157.42, despite the travel company's first-quarter losses of 47 cents and revenue of $2.25 billion beating Wall Street's expectations. Expedia's upbeat financial results were boosted by strong travel demand, even as Covid-19 cases and the war in Ukraine raised concerns.

In response, no fewer than eight analysts cut their price targets, while four raised their price objective on EXPE. Concerning a few of the bigger moves, Benchmark moved up to $275 from $265, while RBC Capital lowered its price target to $185 from $200, noting that Expedia's margin is already baked into its shares. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus target price of $214.46 is a 22.7% premium to last night's close.

Short interest has been on the rise, up 27.9% in the last two reporting periods, and represents 5.6% of the stock's available float. In other words, it would take nearly three days to buy back these bearish bets, at EXPE's average pace of trading. 

Meanwhile, EXPE's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) stands higher than 81% of readings from the past year. This suggests short-term options traders have rarely been more put-biased.

Expedia stock is set to close back below the 320-day moving average for the first time since early March. The stock is now down 11.8% in 2022, and has shed 9.4% in the last 12-months.