S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:PCLN) reported net income above Wall Street’s expectations for the second quarter. Priceline.com, Inc. is an online travel company that offers travel services, including hotel rooms, airline tickets, vacation packages, car rentals, cruises and destination services.

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priceline.com Incorporated Earnings Cheat Sheet for the Second Quarter

Results: Net income for priceline.com Incorporated rose to $256.4 million ($5.02 per share) vs. $115 million ($2.26 per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. This is a more than twofold rise from the year earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 43.7% to $1.1 billion from the year earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: PCLN reported adjusted net income of $5.49 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of $4.58 per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $1.07 billion.

Quoting Management: “The Group benefitted from strong two nd quarter performances by our global hotel and rental car businesses,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Priceline Group. “Global hotel room nights increased 56% compared to last year, while global rental car days were up 55% for the two nd quarter. In general, our hotel booking business is benefitting from improving ADRs, continuing strength in our core markets, and high rates of growth in new markets, particularly Asia-Pacific, where both Booking.com and Agoda are performing well.”

Key Stats:

The company has enjoyed double-digit year-over-year percentage revenue growth for the past five quarters. Over that span, the company has averaged growth of 36.3%, with the biggest boost coming in the most recent quarter when revenue rose 43.7% from the year earlier quarter.

The company has now seen net income rise in three straight quarters. In the first quarter, net income rose 94.5% and in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, the figure rose 73%.

The company has now topped analyst estimates for the last four quarters. It beat the mark by 27 cents in the first quarter, by 24 cents in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, and by 25 cents in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

Competitors to Watch: Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:OWW), Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), Travelzoo Inc. (NASDAQ:TZOO), Universal Travel Group (NYSE:UTA), Ctrip.com Intl., Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTRP), Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), Green Globe Intl. Inc (GGII), Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IILG), OneTravel Holdings Inc. (OTVLQ), and hotel.de AG (HTL).

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(Source: Xignite Financials)

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