Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG) stock rose 0.45% (As on February 24, 11:50:30 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company set a new record in January for monthly room night bookings, with travelers booking vacations further out than they did during the pandemic. The Booking.com and KAYAK operator’s revenue rose 36% year-over-year to $4 billion for the quarter, exceeding Wall Street’s estimates for $3.89 billion in revenue, according to Refinitiv data. Gross bookings for the quarter rose 44% from the year-ago period to $27.3 billion.=Booking Holdings booked over 95 million room nights in January 2023 up 10 million room nights from the previous record set in May 2022. Booking Holdings said gross travel bookings for fiscal year 2022 increased 58% to $121.3 billion. Total revenues for the full year increased 56% to $17.1 billion. January 2022 room nights were 21% below 2019, but has quickly improved and February, was in line with February 2019. When comparing January 2023 with January 2019, room nights were up 26%, a very nice improvement from the 10% growth in the fourth quarter of 2022. Non-GAAP net income in the 4th quarter of 2022 was $957 million, an increase of 46% from the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the 4th quarter of 2022 was $1.2 billion, an increase of 32% from the prior-year quarter. Q4 ending cash investment balance of $15.2 billion was up versus our Q3 ending balance of $11.8 billion primarily driven by the $3.6 billion bond offering we completed in Q4. The $2.1 billion of free-cash flow generated in the quarter and about $600 million in proceeds from the sale-leaseback transaction

BKNG in the fourth quarter of FY 22 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $24.74, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $20.97, according to Zacks Investment Research. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 36 percent to $4.05 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 22, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $3.86 billion.

Additionally, the company  has approved a new share repurchase authorization of $20 billion.

BKNG expects Q1 revenue as a percentage of gross bookings to be about 10.3%, a 40 basis point improvement from Q1 2019 due to a less negative impact on timing, partially offset by increased investments in merchandising and a higher mix of clients. The company expects Q1 adjusted EBITDA to be over $600 million, which will represent a more than 93% increase versus Q1 2022.