BKNG Q3 2019 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: Booking Holdings Inc. Q3 2019 Earnings Call
• Date: November 7, 2019 at 1:00 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Glenn Fogel (Chief Executive Officer)
  • David Goulden (Chief Financial Officer)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• Booked 223 million room nights in Q3, up 11% year over year and above the high end of guidance.
• Consolidated revenue was $5.0B in Q3, up 4% in U.S. dollars and about 7% on a constant currency basis.
• Adjusted EBITDA was $2.5B in Q3, up 5% reported and about 8% on a constant currency basis, and exceeded the high end of guidance.
• Non-GAAP EPS was $45.36 in Q3, up 20% year over year and up about 24% on a constant currency basis.
• GAAP net income was $1.95B and GAAP EPS was $45.54 in Q3, up 23% versus Q3 2018.
• Operating cash flow was $1.9B in Q3, down 6% year over year, and free cash flow was $1.8B, down 4% year over year.
• Constant currency average daily rates (ADRs) were down about 3% in Q3, which was worse than guidance of down ~2.5%.

Guidance

• Foreign exchange is expected to reduce Q4 year-over-year growth rates for gross bookings, revenue, EBITDA, and non-GAAP EPS by approximately 1.5 percentage points, using a $1.11 dollar-to-euro rate for Q4 guidance.
• Forecast Q4 booked room nights growth of 6% to 8%.
• Forecast Q4 gross bookings growth of 2% to 4% on a constant currency basis and about 150 basis points less in U.S. dollars.
• Company assumes constant currency ADRs will be down about 4% in Q4.
• Forecast Q4 revenue up 1% to 3% on a constant currency basis and about 150 basis points less in U.S. dollars.
• Q4 adjusted EBITDA is expected between $1.21B and $1.235B, approximately flat year-over-year on a constant currency basis.
• Forecast Q4 non-GAAP EPS of approximately $21.50 to $22.00 and normalized for constant currency expects a year-over-year decrease of about 1% to 3%.
• Implied full-year constant currency non-GAAP EPS growth of about 13%, consistent with a low double-digit full-year growth target.