Priceline Still A Buy And Worth $1,360/Share, Cantor Reiterates

In a report published Tuesday, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Naved Khan maintained a Buy rating on

, with a price target of $1,360, after checks indicated positive traffic and pricing trends for 2Q. "Our checks on global Search traffic to Booking.com and other PCLN brands through June-end, coupled with higher European hotel room rates (FX-neutral) and a robust pace of new property additions (on both hotels and vacation rentals) suggest that PCLN's 2Q:15 bookings are tracking at/above the upper end of management's guidance and our expectations," analyst Naved Khan wrote. Checking indicated that Y/Y growth in Search query interest for Booking.com improved 100bps sequentially through June-end. Khan believes that Priceline is tracking at or above the high-end of the guidance for 24 percent Y/Y growth, excluding currency impact, in international bookings, in view of the significance of Search in Priceline's marketing channel mix and the solid secular growth trend in mobile bookings. In the report Cantor Fitzgerald noted, "Search interest in the U.S.-focused "Priceline" brand is up 200bps Q/Q through late June…Asia-focused Agoda.com, which we estimate represents low double-digit percentage total bookings, saw Search interest improve ~500bps (to -17% Y/Y QTD vs. -22%Y/Y in 1Q)." Hotel room rates in Europe indicate that rates rose about 16 percent Y/Y in 2Q, on a euro-denominated basis, as compared to a 7 percent rise in the previous quarter. "That said, we expect the Y/Y decline in the euro vs. the USD to be a headwind for reported results," Khan added. "U.S. hotel occupancy and average daily rate (ADR) continue to edge up, rising ~1.4%/4.8% Y/Y, respectively, in April May vs. 3.1%/4.7% in 1Q (STR)," the report mentioned.