Expedia Is Cheap and Oversold

Trefis submits: Priceline’s (NASDAQ:PCLN) stock gained around 85% last year raising some concerns on whether its business could keep up with its stock price.

By Matt Schilling:On Friday, September 21st, analysts at Deutsche Bank (DB) upgraded shares of Expedia, Inc. (EXPE). The firm raised its rating on the stock from a Hold to a Buy and set a $51.00/share price target.

By Trefis: Hard to believe? Most would expect the leading online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) and Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) to rejoice due to improving demand for both business and leisure travel following the horrific downturn in 2007-09.

Trefis submits: Expedia’s (NASDAQ:EXPE) stock took a hit in the markets dropping almost 17% on the release of its FY 2010 earnings on February 10. The response was largely on account of the overall decline in the company’s EBITDA margin from over 32% in 2009 to around 25% by the end of 2010. Clearly the market is concerned about Expedia’s outlook on the heels of this.

Mark Krieger submits:Why is there such a massive valuation "disconnect" between the two leading travel sites? After all, you wouldn’t think a company that actually has higher sales would possess a market cap so low in comparison, yet Priceline’s (PCLN) market cap of $21 billion is triple that of Expedia’s (EXPE) $7 billion valuation.

ByNick Chiu:Priceline.com (PCLN) is an online travel aggregator that offers booking services for hotel rooms, airline tickets, rental cars, cruises, and other vacation packages. PCLN operates under the Priceline.com name in the U.S., Booking.com in Europe, and Agoda in Asia, and recently re-branded its car rental business as rentalcars.com.

By SA Editor Miriam Metzinger: Stocks discussed on the in-depth session of Jim Cramer's Mad Money TV Program, Thursday March 22.

By Trefis: City officials for some large U.S.