Start here if you're new
what it is
Booking helps you reserve hotels, flights, cars, and restaurant tables, then takes a cut from the transaction.
how it gets paid
Last year Booking made $26.9B in revenue. Merchant bookings was the main engine at $17.7B, or 66% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew about 16% last year. Quarterly EPS history still shows strong vs. prior year improvement on an adjusted basis.
what just happened
The last print was mixed: Q4 revenue beat estimates at about $6.35B, while diluted EPS missed the Street (~$44.22 vs ~$49.24); adjusted EPS was about $48.80. Full-year revenue still hit $26.9B.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
15/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
18.4x trailing p/e — priced about right
1.2% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
70.0% return on capital — a money-printing machine
xvary composite: 58/100 — below average
What they do
Booking helps you reserve hotels, flights, cars, and restaurant tables, then takes a cut from the transaction.
This business wins because travelers go where the inventory is, and hotels go where the travelers are. Booking.com alone sits on 31 million-plus accommodation listings, according to recent company metrics cited in market coverage. Network effects (more buyers attract more sellers) → a self-feeding marketplace → so what: when you need a room, the deepest shelf usually gets your click.
How they make money
$26.9B
annual revenue · their business grew about +16% last year
Merchant bookings
$17.7B
Agency bookings
$7.8B
Advertising and referrals
$0.8B
Restaurant reservations and other
$0.6B
The products that matter
global accommodation marketplace
Booking.com
31M+ listings · 220+ countries
This is the center of gravity. It carries 31M+ accommodation listings and supports the majority of Booking's $26.9B revenue base.
core engine
discount travel booking
Priceline
part of a $26.9B platform
Priceline gives Booking another way to capture demand without needing a new industry. It sits inside the same $26.9B ecosystem and broadens the traveler funnel.
demand capture
restaurant reservations
OpenTable
adjacent to the travel stack
This is smaller and the page is thin on segment economics. What you can say with confidence: it extends Booking beyond the hotel room and keeps the platform closer to the full trip.
adjacency
Key numbers
70.0%
return on capital
Return on capital → profit generated from money invested → so what: this business turns assets into earnings far better than most companies.
32.8%
operating margin (ttm)
Operating margin → what is left after core costs → so what: Booking keeps about $0.33 from each revenue dollar before interest and taxes (trailing twelve months).
$16.0B
long-term debt
Long-term debt → money owed over years → so what: against a roughly $161B market cap and debt at 9% of capital, this is not a balance sheet drowning in leverage.
18.4x
trailing p/e
P/E → price compared with past 12 months of earnings → so what: you are not paying a wild multiple for a business with trailing operating margins near the low 30s.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 60 / 100
- long-term debt $16.0B (9% of capital)
- net profit margin 19.4% — keeps about 19 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 144% — $1.44 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in BKNG 3 years ago → it's now worth $22,590.
The index would have given you $14,770.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
mixed quarter
Q4 was a mixed print: revenue beat at about $6.35B; diluted EPS landed near $44.22 versus a consensus near $49.24, while adjusted EPS was about $48.80. Full-year revenue reached $26.9B.
vs. prior year, diluted EPS rose from $31.95 in Q4 2024 to $44.22 in Q4 2025; adjusted EPS moved from $41.55 to $48.80. Revenue beat the bar, but the diluted miss is what many headline scanners caught.
$6.35B
q4 revenue
$44.22
diluted eps
32.0%
q4 op. margin
the number that mattered
The key tension was diluted EPS missing consensus by roughly 10% even as revenue and room nights outperformed—proof that OTA prints can diverge by accounting line.
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booking holdings likely finished 2025 on a high note.
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we estimate that earnings per share climbed 23% last year, thanks to firm average daily rates and gross bookings that continue to outpace industry averages.
-
trailing 12-month ebitda as a percentage of revenues likely continued to steadily widen, as well.
-
it came in at 36.8% in the third quarter, versus 33.7% as recently as the first quarter of 2024.
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we look for the torrid earnings growth to decelerate.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top threat is AI changing the search-and-book funnel before Booking controls the next interface.
med
Generative AI disruption to trip discovery
Google's November 2025 AI update points at the real fear: travelers may increasingly search, compare, and choose rooms without ever entering a traditional OTA results page.
If that behavior sticks, it threatens the full $26.9B revenue base because the funnel itself gets weaker.
med
EU scrutiny on online fraud and platform practices
The page flags European oversight around online fraud and related compliance expectations. For a company with deep exposure to European travel flows, extra rules mean extra friction.
The current page quantifies possible revenue exposure at $4.0B–$6.7B depending on the regulatory outcome.
med
House Committee AI pricing investigation
A March 5, 2026 congressional inquiry into how platforms use AI in pricing does not hit the income statement today. It does put a flashlight on the algorithms that help run online marketplaces.
Any forced change to pricing or ranking logic could pressure how efficiently Booking converts demand across its $26.9B platform.
The quantified exposure on this page is $4.0B–$6.7B of revenue. The bigger unquantified risk is simpler: if AI owns trip discovery, Booking may have to pay more to stay in the conversation.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
earnings
Q1 2026 earnings report
May 5, 2026 is the next read on whether double-digit growth is holding and whether the margin story still has room left.
metric
merchant revenue staying ahead
Merchant revenue is $17.7B versus $7.8B for agency. If the largest segment slows first, the whole growth profile cools.
risk
AI pricing investigation updates
Any new detail from Washington matters because the market is still pricing Booking as if its algorithms remain a feature, not a liability.
trend
margin expansion from 33.7% to 36.8%
That move in trailing EBITDA margin is the cleanest proof that scale is still working. If it stalls, the multiple likely stops expanding too.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
15 / 100
A 15 / 100 score means the quarterly print is less stable than the business quality suggests. In human-speak, analysts like the economics more than they trust the exact timing of the numbers.
xvary composite
58 / 100
The company is better than the score looks. The score is lower because quality is obvious, and obvious quality rarely comes with a free valuation pass.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 838 buyers vs. 765 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 29.4M shares. net buying for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$4328
$8525
$5002
current price
$7405
target midpoint · +75% from current · 3-5yr high: $8885 (+75% · 10% ann'l return)
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