Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG) stock rose 4.90% (As on May 3, 11:25:45 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company reported first-quarter room night reservations that beat analysts’ expectations, a sign that global travel remains resilient. Room nights booked for the three months ended March 31 grew 8.5% to 297 million. That surpassed the average analyst expectation for a 6.2% increase and 290.9 million room nights sold. Gross travel bookings, which includes taxes and fees, were $43.5 billion, compared with a projection of $42.2 billion. The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization were $898 million. Wall Street was expecting $718.6 million.

Further, the growth in the US has stagnated while demand in Europe and Asia Pacific markets has been more enduring, according to analysts at Jefferies. That could bode well for Booking, which has a bigger presence in the Europe and the Middle East than US competitors like Expedia.

BKNG in the first quarter of FY 24 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $20.39, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $14.03, according to Zacks Investment Research. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 17 percent to $4.42 billion in the first quarter of FY 24, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $4.25 billion. Net income saw a dramatic rise to $776 million, which is a 192% increase from the prior year. Revenue as a percentage of gross bookings was 10.1% and improved versus the first quarter of 2023, due mostly to the Easter timing shift as well as the easier year-on-year take rate compare due to changes in the booking window last year. Adjusted EBITDA was up 53%, including about 20 percentage points of benefit from the shift in Easter timing. The first quarter ending cash and investments balance of $16.4 billion was up versus the fourth quarter ending balance of $13.1 billion due to the $3 billion debt issuance in the first quarter and $2.6 billion in free cash flow generated in the first quarter. This was partially offset by the $1.9 billion in capital return, including share repurchases and the dividend the company had initiated in the quarter, as well as $315 million in additional share repurchases to satisfy employee withholding tax obligations.

The company expects second-quarter room night growth to be between 4% and 6%, a deceleration from the first quarter as the first quarter benefited more from the year-over-year expansion of the booking window.