Hartford Investment Management Co. Decreases Stake in Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE)

Hartford Investment Management Co. reduced its stake in shares of Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,600 shares of the online travel company’s stock after selling 252 shares during the period. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Expedia Group were worth $1,416,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in EXPE. Windacre Partnership LLC boosted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 49.5% in the 3rd quarter. Windacre Partnership LLC now owns 4,323,700 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $639,994,000 after buying an additional 1,431,500 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,250,710 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $481,170,000 after buying an additional 596,510 shares in the last quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 46.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,576,472 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $233,349,000 after buying an additional 498,934 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 326.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 293,482 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $54,685,000 after buying an additional 224,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Expedia Group by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,689,485 shares of the online travel company’s stock worth $250,078,000 after buying an additional 144,579 shares in the last quarter. 90.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on EXPE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Expedia Group from $135.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Expedia Group in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. HSBC raised shares of Expedia Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Expedia Group from $168.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on shares of Expedia Group in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 target price for the company. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Expedia Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.64.

Expedia Group Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EXPE opened at $202.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.73. Expedia Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $107.25 and a 1 year high of $207.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.82. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $183.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $162.44.

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) last released 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 return on equity of 55.42% and a net margin of 9.01%. Equities analysts forecast that Expedia Group, Inc. will post 10.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Expedia Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This is a boost from Expedia Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Dara Khosrowshahi sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.79, for a total transaction of $1,697,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 158,505 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,912,563.95. This represents a 5.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert J. Dzielak sold 1,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.00, for a total value of $351,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 85,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,345,000. This trade represents a 2.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,951 shares of company stock worth $3,900,580 in the last 90 days. 6.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Expedia Group Profile

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.