Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: Thanks for all your great advice over the years. What do you think of Expedia Group as a stock to buy?

Article Excerpt

A: Expedia Group Inc., $106.90, symbol EXPE on Nasdaq, (Shares outstanding: 142.6 million; Market cap: $15.8 billion; Consumer sector; TSINetwork Rating: Average; http://www.expediagroup.com) operates the world’s largest travel booking platform. Its brands include Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Vrbo and Hotels.com. In 2000, Expedia made two significant acquisitions that let it offer a wider range of accommodations. It paid $82 million for VacationSpot.com of Seattle, a reservation network for vacation homes, condo rentals, and bed-and-breakfast inns. The company also acquired Travelscape.com, a Las Vegas-based company that specialized in discounted hotel rooms, for $95 million. The acquisition of these two online lodging leaders gave Expedia listings for 65,000 properties worldwide, and some two million room nights per year. Expedia made a few acquisitions in subsequent years—mostly of software and app-development firms. Then, in 2013, it made a big purchase when it acquired 61.6% of Germany’s Trivago. It paid $628 million for Trivago, which let it expand its presence in Europe. In 2015, Expedia bought online travel…