Earnings report | Expedia Stock Is Downgraded as Earnings Point to ‘Tough Slog’ for Travel

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2. Earnings Report

Expedia Stock Is Downgraded as Earnings Point to ‘Tough Slog’ for Travel

By Callum Keown

Updated May 09, 2025, 10:04 am EDT / Original May 09, 2025, 9:21 am EDT

Expedia -7.73% stock tumbled Friday as the company painted a bleak picture of travel demand within and into the U.S. in its first-quarter earnings.

The online travel agency’s shares plunged 7% to $156.69 in early trading after first-quarter revenue missed expectations in its results, disclosed late Thursday. Bookings and revenue grew 4% and 3% respectively—both results were at the lower end of the ranges it had forecast—as the company said it had faced “weaker-than-expected travel demand in the U.S. and into the U.S.”

Results for the current quarter are turning out to be worse. April was “somewhat softer than March,” CEO Ariane Gorin said on the company’s earnings call. Expedia cut its full-year guidance for bookings and revenue, saying it now expects growth in both metrics of between 2% and 4%, down from a previous range of 4% to 6%.

Piper Sandler analyst Thomas Champion downgraded the stock to Underweight from Neutral in a research note late Thursday. “The commentary around inbound travel and the B2C (business-to-consumer) business was discouraging and suggests a tough slog from here,” he said. “It could also get incrementally worse.”

He lowered his target for the stock price to $135 from $174.

Cruise operators and large U.S. carriers such as Delta Air Lines 

DAL -0.74%  and United Airlines UAL -2.19% 

 have found strength this earnings season, most notably as outbound international and premium travel have remained robust.

But Expedia is heavily exposed to domestic travel, with two-thirds of its business coming from those in the U.S.

“Expedia’s higher exposure to the U.S. is not ideal given the current backdrop,” J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a note Friday. However, he added that the company’s current reduced forecasts for 2025 were better than “recession-driven” cuts to its own calls the bank made last month. Anmuth maintained a Neutral rating on the stock.

Expedia’s international presence did help its business-to-business unit to post 14% bookings growth. That, in turn, helped the number of total booked nights rise 6% in the first quarter, even though nights in the U.S. climbed by a percentage in the low single digits.

Of course, much of the consumer sentiment driving weaker travel demand stems from headlines around tariffs and trade. That has the potential to quickly change.

With that in mind, Wall Street isn’t entirely downbeat on the stock. Gordon Haskett analyst Robert Mollins has a Buy rating on the shares and a $200 price target. He said Expedia’s recent turnaround efforts meant it was well-positioned “to capture an eventual rebound in U.S. travel demand.”

Unless that rebound starts very soon, it’s going to be a tough summer for the industry.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com

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GOOG stock | 8% drop to $152/ share | 4 H chart | Fibonacci retracement

 4H chart | Vol vs 50 avg vol | What to look for 

Notice that long area around 150, the volume around the price on April 22 is very low, but volume around 155 is 50% above 50 day avg vol, so it means that it will continue to go up. 

MarketSurge | Goog stock | vol vs 50 day vol | Actually over 50% more | Institutional buyers are in | Will go up more 

4H chart | Fibonacci retracement 

XYZ stock | Earnings crash 20% | XYZG - 2x long | 16% return in 4 - 5 days | One hour chart

 

1 Hour chart | 2 hour chart | Volume vs 50 day avg vol | $44.4 lowest after earning crash 

Wait 3 days | Analyst update on XYZ

Order Types | Help Protect Your Position Using Stop Orders | Charles schwab

 Order Types

Help Protect Your Position Using Stop Orders

August 7, 2024

Here is the article.

Help protect your position. Stop orders may help you obtain a predetermined entry or exit price, limit a loss, or lock in a profit.

Stop orders are used most often to help protect an unrealized gain or to limit potential losses on an existing position. Here, we'll discuss how to use them in your portfolio to help protect long equity positions.

What are stop orders and how do I use them?

Stop orders come in three main types: standard stop orders, stop-limit orders, and trailing-stop orders. Stop orders and stop-limit orders can be entered into a firm trading platform, or with a trading specialist at the firm. Trailing-stop orders are held on a Schwab server until the conditions you define are met or exceeded, and then routed as market orders for possible execution.

To better understand how stop orders work, it's helpful to think of the stop price as a trigger. For example, once an execution occurs at your designated trigger price, your stop order becomes a market order to buy or sell that stock at the prevailing market price. Stop orders are inactive, and hidden to the other market participants, until the trigger price is reached.

Stop orders

Stop orders (also known as stop-loss orders) and stop-limit orders are very similar, though the primary difference is what happens once the stop price is triggered. A standard sell-stop order is triggered when an execution occurs at or below the stop price. When this occurs, a market order to sell is executed at the next available price and your position will be closed out at the next available price.

Stop order example:

• The current stock price is $90.
• You want to protect against a significant decline. You could enter a sell-stop order at $85.
• If an execution occurs at $85 or lower, your stop order is triggered and a market order is entered to sell at the next available market price.
• Because the stop order is now a market order, all characteristics of market orders apply.

In most cases, your stock will be sold at a price that is close to the market price at the time the stop order is triggered. However, you must remember that a stop order becomes a market order. In cases where the stock is dropping rapidly, or the stock is halted and reopens for trading, or when the stock gaps down in the morning (lower than the prior day's closing price), your execution price could be significantly lower than your stop price.

Stop-limit orders

Stop-limit orders are used most often to sell a security at a specified limit price once the security has traded at or through a specified stop price. Therefore, it has two components: the stop price and the limit price, which may or may not be the same.

Unlike standard stop orders, with a stop-limit order, you must enter both a stop price and a limit price. In most cases, the limit price on a sell stop-limit order will be equal to or below the stop price. As the stock begins to decline in value, if the stock trades at or below the stop price, the order will trigger and become a limit order to sell at the specified limit price.

Because the order is now a limit order, execution cannot occur unless the position can be sold at the limit price specified (or better). After the stop price is reached, if the next available price is below your limit price, your order will not be executed unless the price increases to your limit price. All other characteristics of limit orders apply as well.

To increase your chances of execution on a stop-limit order to sell, consider placing your limit price below your stop price. The farther below the stop price you place your limit price, the better chance you have of executing your order in a rapidly declining market.

With any type of limit order, including stop-limit orders, you aren't guaranteed execution, because the stock may trade below the limit price before the order can be filled. This often occurs when a stock is reopened for trading after being halted due to a significant news announcement or when the stock opens for trading in the morning at a price that is much lower than the previous day's closing price. When this occurs, a stop-limit order may trigger and be entered in the marketplace as a limit order, but the limit price may not be reached.

Stop-limit order example:

• The current stock price is $90.
• You place a stop-limit order to sell 100 shares with a stop price of $87.50, and a limit price of $87.50.
• If an execution occurs at $87.50 or below, your order will be triggered and become a limit order to sell at $87.50 or higher.
• If the market is falling fast, your order may not be filled at all if the next trade occurred at any price below $87.50 and the stock continued to decline.
• However, if you entered your order with a stop price of $87.50, and a limit price of $87, and the next trade after the $87.50 trigger was at any price above $87, your order would typically be executed.

Keep in mind, your order can't be executed at a price that is inferior to the best available price, even if your limit allows for it. Therefore, in a slowly declining market, your order might be filled at $87.50 or better, if market conditions allow for it.

Using stop and stop-limit orders

Learn the difference between a stop order and a stop-limit order and how to decide when to use one over the other.

Trailing-stop order

With a trailing-stop order (to sell), the stop price trails the bid price of the stock as it moves higher. The stop price essentially self-adjusts and remains below the market price by the number of points, or the percentage, that you specify, as long as the stock is moving higher. Once the stock begins to move lower, the stop price freezes at the highest level it reaches.

In other words, the stop price can move higher indefinitely, but it can never move lower. If the stock falls enough to reach the stop price, the order is triggered and sent to the marketplace. The primary benefit of a trailing-stop order, versus a regular stop order, is that it doesn't have to be canceled and re-entered as the price of the stock increases. As mentioned above, this order is held on a Schwab server until the stop price (trigger) is reached.

Trailing-stop order example:

• You placed a 5% trailing-stop order on a recently purchased stock position.
• As the stock increases in price, if—at any point—the bid retraces (falls) by 5%, a market order will automatically be entered for the quantity you specified.
• For example, you entered this order when the stock price was $100 per share.
• If the bid price increases 9% to $109 (assuming it never pulled back 5% on its way up to $109), and then drops 5% to $103.55, a market order will be sent.
• The effective change, from the time the trailing-stop was placed until the order was triggered, would be 3.55% above where you originally placed the order.
• Since a trailing-stop order becomes a market order when triggered, it behaves very similar to a standard stop order. 

Where should you set your stop order?

When you place a stop, stop-limit, or trailing-stop order, you have to decide how many points, or what percentage below the stock price, to place the order.

Many traders have a standard policy that they use, such as 5% or 10% below. For traders who determine the size of each trade based on the dollar amount invested, rather than the share quantity, a point value may be more effective than a percentage.

Some disciplined traders follow a rule that no loss should exceed a certain percentage of their total portfolio value. For example, some traders might set this at 1% to 3% of their portfolio value, or whatever percentage they feel may be appropriate. In addition, if you've had a recent string of losses, you may want to consider keeping your stops a little closer until your success rate picks up.

Regardless of what methodology you use, be careful not to place the stop price too close to the current price, or the order might be triggered by regular daily price fluctuations. Similarly, you don't want to place the stop price too far from the current price, or you may sustain a sizable loss before you exit the position.

One way to reduce the likelihood of either of these things occurring is to pay attention to the stock's volatility. Clearly, if you're trading a highly volatile stock that has a history of fluctuating as much as 5% in price daily, placing a stop order 5% below your entry price is likely to result in an unfavorable outcome. If you're unwilling to assume the risk of daily fluctuations of 5%, then consider not trading that stock. By contrast, a 5% stop order may be appropriate for a stock that has a history of 5% fluctuations in a month.

Using a few days of pricing data, you can calculate the average daily price change for a stock. The table below lists the hypothetical daily closing prices for XYZ stock over six consecutive trading days. As you can see, the average day-to-day closing price change for the week has been only $0.45, or about 0.82%. For the full week, the net change was only $0.28, or about 0.51%. Entering a 5%, or a three-point, stop order on XYZ stock would likely provide adequate protection and reduce the risk of being stopped out too soon.

Daily closing prices for XYZ stock

XYZ Prices

May 8 2025 | Earnings afer market close

 

Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE)

 Investing.com - Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) reported first quarter EPS of $0.40, $0.03 better than the analyst estimate of $0.37. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.99B versus the consensus estimate of $3.02B.

Expedia’s stock price closed at $169.07. It is down -16.46% in the last 3 months and up 50.24% in the last 12 months.

Expedia saw 7 positive EPS revisions and 7 negative EPS revisions in the last 90 days. See Expedia’s stock price’s past reactions to earnings here.

According to InvestingPro, Expedia’s Financial Health score is "great performance".

EPAM stock | Vol 50 comparison | Earnings date: 16%

 

EPAM | Institutional buyers | Less than 3% gain range | Bet big gain next day 

QQQ retracement | Resistance level | Fibonacci retracement

 

FTNT position | Long position | Open

 FTNT | 5 shares 

UPST stock | Long position closed | Closed

 

Goog stock | 30 shares | Long position | 7.8% dip

 

Goog stock | 30 shares | Long position 

My long position

RSAC 2025: Fortinet Deconstructs Cybercrime Mobs, Business Models

RSAC 2025: Fortinet Deconstructs Cybercrime Mobs, Business Models

Attackers behave more like businesses every year, doing market research (reconnaissance), targeting prospects (manufacturing), and adding new products (DDoS-as-a-Service), says Fortinet's Derek Manky.

Terry Sweeney, Contributing Editor

May 7, 2025

RSAC CONFERENCE 2025 — SAN FRANCISCO — Attackers behave more like businesses every year, doing market research (reconnaissance), targeting prospects (manufacturing), and adding new products (DDoS-as-a-Service), according to new research from Fortinet.

And like any business that wants to grow, money is fueling cybercrime's growth and sophistication, said Fortinet's Derek Manky in a conversation with Dark Reading's Terry Sweeney. "This is what's fueling it, what's pushing them to innovate, create new tools, specifically crime services," Manky said. "It's all about monetization for cybercriminals."

And like any business, they have software developers and create tools they can use in an attack. "Once developed, then they simply monetize that," Manky said. "They put it into a SaaS-like model and sell it — we've seen that with ransom-as-a-service, DDoS-as-a-service. In our report, we highlight new ways that they're doing that, specifically with reconnaissance-as-a-service."

In that vein, Fortinet's research showed an 18% increase in reconnaissance activity in 2024 over 2023. Network scans were the most visible tactic, probing to find the weak holes in the armor. And automation helped them to be more relentless about. There were more than 36,000 scans per second on average throughout the entirety of 2024, Manky says. "What that tells us is they're adjusting their tactics and techniques to shift left and really stay on more of that pre-attack phase so that their attacks can be more efficient," he explained. "And of course, they're using AI for that as well."

Derek Manky leads FortiGuard Labs' Global Threat Intelligence Team at Fortinet, bringing over 20 years of cybersecurity experience. He has established frameworks in the security industry including responsible vulnerability disclosure, which has exercised the responsible reporting of over 1,000 zero-day vulnerabilities. Manky has been with the Cyber Threat Alliance since it was founded in May 2014. For more than 15 years, he has been highly engaged with collaborative industry efforts including the CTA, FIRST.org, NATO NICP, MITRE CTID, INTERPOL Expert Group, and the World Economic Forum Partnership Against Cybercrime (PAC). His vision is applied to help shape the future of proactive cybersecurity, with the ultimate goal to make a positive impact on the global war on cybercrime.