BKNG Booking Holdings Inc

   By Dave Sebastian 
 

Booking Holdings Inc. said its adjusted earnings and revenue for the first quarter declined as the Covid-19 pandemic has battered travel and companies scaled back on their advertising spending.

The online-travel agency, which operates sites like Booking.com, Kayak and OpenTable, on Thursday posted net loss of $699 million, or $17.01 a share, compared with a profit of $765 million, or $16.85 a share, in the comparable quarter last year. The company said it had an unrealized loss of $307 million for the quarter on marketable equity securities, as well as impairments of $489 million for OpenTable and Kayak goodwill and $100 million for an investment in equities.

Gross travel bookings fell 51% to $12.4 billion, Booking said. Room nights booked declined 43% from a year ago.

Adjusted earnings were $3.77 a share, down 66% from the prior year and missing the $5.61 a share analysts polled by FactSet had expected.

Revenue fell 19% to $2.29 billion from the year-ago period. Analysts were targeting $2.22 billion.

Agency revenue, or that derived from travel-reservation commissions, fell to $1.42 billion from $1.95 billion. Advertising and other revenues fell to $205 million from $285 million. Merchant revenue, or that derived from travel-related transactions whose payments Booking facilitated, rose to $659 million from $603 million.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2020 16:24 ET (20:24 GMT)

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