Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN) recently reported third quarter results that beat big for the fourth consecutive quarter. Analysts expect earnings growth of 35.34% in 2009.

Priceline.com provides online travel services in 78 countries in 29 different languages. The company owns several web sites including booking.com, which offers over 73,000 participating hotels to customers worldwide, priceline.com and Agoda.com, which handles the Asian online hotel reservation business.

Gross Travel Bookings Jump 32.8% in the Third Quarter

On Nov 9, Priceline.com reported its third quarter results and easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 30.19%. Earnings per share were $3.45 compared to the Zacks Consensus of $2.65. The company reported $1.74 in the year ago period.

Gross travel bookings rose 32.8% to $2.7 billion compared to the year ago period. Revenues also climbed by 30.1% to $730.7 million. The international segment continued to see growth, contributing $316.9 million to the quarter, a 41.7% increase over a year ago.

The company saw a strong summer travel season and growth rates picked up quarter over quarter in both the international and domestic segments. The overall online travel industry also saw improvement year-over-year as there were fee reductions and supplier discounting in the industry.

Fourth Quarter Outlook

The company is projecting revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 24% to 28% which isn’t surprising given the downturn in travel in the fourth quarter of 2008. Total gross travel bookings are expected to jump 30% to 40%.

Analysts are moving to revise their estimates. The fourth quarter Zacks Consensus Estimate is up 12 cents to $1.33 in the past week with 4 out of 9 analysts revising in that time.

For 2009, estimates are up 30 cents to $6.89 with only 2 analysts raising in the last 7 days. Analysts are also bullish on 2010, as the Zacks Consensus has jumped almost 8% in the last week to $8.47 from $7.86. That is year over year earnings growth of 22.97%.

The 5-Year Chart

Priceline.com, a Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) stock, has been on fire in recent months and is now trading at a multi-year high last seen during the end of the dot-com boom. You can see the 5-year chart below.

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