Benzinga | Sep 28, 2020 10:49AM EDT

RBC Downgrades Expedia On Rising Competitive Risk For Online Travel Agency

Proprietary surveys suggest a slow recovery in online travel and share losses for Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) amid rising competition, according to RBC Capital Markets.

The Expedia Analyst: Mark Mahaney downgraded Expedia from Outperform to Sector Perform with an unchanged $93 price target.

The Expedia Takeaways: RBC's annual U.S. survey and annual U.K. online travel survey suggest that Expedia's gross bookings are unlikely to return to 2019 levels before 2022, Mahaney said in a downgrade note.

"Brand Expedia has historically been the #1 most popular destination for planning travel in the U.S., per our survey results dating back to 2015, but this year it dropped to #3 falling behind Airbnb and Google," the analyst said.

"Looking at the multi-year trends of our U.S. survey, Expedia has slipped in terms of Best Selection, Ease of Use and Best Prices, while Booking.com reached record-high levels across all three metrics."

Referring to the competitive landscape for Expedia, Mahaney said that while Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG) is gaining market share in the U.S., Airbnb has become the "most popular destination for travel planning and booking in the U.S."

EXPE Price Action: Shares of Expedia were trading 1.25% higher at $94.74 at the time of publication Monday.