Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. Takes $230,000 Position in Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE)

Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,237 shares of the online travel company’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in shares of Expedia Group by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 30,744 shares of the online travel company’s stock valued at $5,729,000 after buying an additional 4,656 shares during the last quarter. Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Expedia Group during the 4th quarter valued at $1,791,000. Clare Market Investments LLC acquired a new position in Expedia Group during the 4th quarter worth $319,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Expedia Group by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 60,003 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $11,180,000 after purchasing an additional 9,086 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cigna Investments Inc. New acquired a new stake in shares of Expedia Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $238,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.76% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.15, for a total transaction of $1,851,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 168,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,198,700.75. This represents a 5.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 5,000 shares of Expedia Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.70, for a total value of $1,028,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 74,502 shares in the company, valued at $15,325,061.40. This represents a 6.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,000 shares of company stock worth $4,577,900. 6.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Expedia Group in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Expedia Group in a research report on Friday, February 7th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective (up previously from $220.00) on shares of Expedia Group in a report on Friday, February 7th. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Expedia Group from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Expedia Group from $235.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Expedia Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $193.43.

Expedia Group Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Expedia Group stock opened at $168.10 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.86. Expedia Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $107.25 and a fifty-two week high of $207.73. The firm has a market cap of $21.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The online travel company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by ($0.22). Expedia Group had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 52.41%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Expedia Group, Inc. will post 12.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Expedia Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were given a $0.40 dividend. This is a positive change from Expedia Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. Expedia Group’s payout ratio is 17.68%.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group, Inc operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.