Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed Wall Street forecasts, yet its shares slipped 6% in premarket trading Thursday as investors reacted cautiously to the company’s outlook on room night growth for the current quarter.
The online lodging platform posted earnings of $1.03 per share for Q2, beating analyst estimates of $0.93. Revenue came in at $3.1 billion, higher than the expected $3.03 billion.
For the third quarter, Airbnb forecasted revenue between $4.02 billion and $4.1 billion, compared to analyst expectations of $4.05 billion.
Additionally, Airbnb announced a new $6 billion stock buyback program, adding to the $2.5 billion of shares repurchased over the past year.
Monthly booked nights accelerated during the quarter ending in June, bolstered by strong U.S. domestic travel despite global economic uncertainties. Airbnb and competitors have been counting on a recovery in travel demand, despite President Donald Trump’s trade policies unsettling consumer confidence.
However, Airbnb cautioned that growth in night bookings is expected to slow into the fourth quarter compared to last year, with the implied take rate — the ratio of revenue to gross bookings — projected to remain flat in Q3.
Barclays analysts commented, “’relatively stable’ third quarter room night growth was in-line with pre-print consensus but might disappoint some bulls anchoring to a few recent data points on improving domestic lodging trends.”
They added: “It isn’t clear to us that there is a ton of conservatism baked in here either, as the positive of accelerating room night growth through the quarter into the third quarter is tempered a bit by tougher comparisons later in the quarter and into fourth-quarter.”
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