The online travel booking company, Priceline, has posted profits in Q3 2013 and the company also announced its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
For the quarter ended September 30, the company posted net income of $833 million, or $15.72 per share, which is an increase of 40 percent when compared to net income of $596.6 million, or $11.66, in Q3 2012. The company also announced that adjusted for special items, Q3 2013 profit was $17.30 a share beating analysts' prediction of $16.15 per share.
The financial results also revealed that profit, excluding some items, is expected to be $7.80 to $8.30 a share in the current quarter, or slightly lower than market analysts' estimate of $8.34 per share.
Sales for Q3 2013 rose by 33 percent to $2.27 billion, which surpasses analysts' average estimate of $2.22 billion.
The gross travel bookings for the quarter amounted to $10.76 billion, which is an increase of 37.5 percent when compared to the same quarter in 2012. The company also announced that International bookings increased by around 42 percent to $9.18 billion.
"The Priceline Group finished the summer travel season with strong growth and operating performance," said Jeffery H. Boyd, Chairman and CEO of The Priceline Group. "Booking.com and Agoda posted solid third quarter results leading to 36% room night growth for the Group, and the U.S. business of priceline.com showed positive momentum with accelerating bookings growth."
The company also took the opportunity to announce Darren Huston as the new CEO and President of Priceline. Huston is currently the head of Booking.com and will join as the CEO of Priceline from January 1, 2014. Huston has also worked for Microsoft previously and has been overseeing Priceline's internationals business since January 2013. Boyd will stay on as chairman of the board.
Priceline's shares increased by 2.9 percent to $1,052.00 in the after-hours of trading on Thursday, November 7. On Friday, the shares closed at $1073.20 or 4.92 percent higher.
