Trip.com Group Ltd.’s Hong Kong-listed shares are trading lower amid a broader market selloff as investors weigh signs of potentially faster U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate increases, but analysts are largely bullish on the stock in the wake of an earnings beat this week.
Shares of the China-based online travel aggregator were down 5.7% at the mid-day break Wednesday at 290.40 Hong Kong dollars (US$36.99), making the company one of the biggest losers among constituents of the city’s Hang Seng Tech Index, which is down 3.6%. The pullback comes after Trip.com shares on Tuesday closed at their highest level since June 2021 in the wake of its fourth-quarter earnings, and pares 12-month gains to about 59%.
The broader fall in technology listings comes after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank would consider raising interest rates by a larger half percentage point this month and may lift rates higher than previously expected this year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed 1.3% lower Tuesday.
Trip.com reported an earnings beat earlier this week, with analysts largely positive on the company’s outlook amid China’s economic reopening.
Nomura analysts pointed to a “sharp rebound” in Trip.com’s overseas business so far in the first quarter, which the Japanese bank reckons will sustain throughout the year.
“We expect [Trip.com’s] outbound travel revenue to steadily recover to around 48% of the 2019 level by the end of this year, from about 16% in late 2022, backed by a ramp-up in airlines’ capacity,” the analysts said in a research note. They kept a buy rating on the stock and raised their target price on US-listed ADRs to US$47.00 from US$43.00. ADRs last closed at US$37.53.
Jefferies analysts also kept a buy rating, saying in a note that they expect Trip.com’s “long-term secular story to be intact after bottoming out from the pandemic.” Jefferies lifted its target price on Hong Kong-listed shares to HK$379.00 from HK$352.00.
