Booking Holdings

Booking just posted Q1 sales of 5.53 billion dollars, up 16% from a year ago, with gross travel bookings hitting 53.8 billion. The company has spent the last 10 years buying back its own stock aggressively, shrinking shares outstanding by 37%. Management still has 18.2 billion dollars in buyback authorization left, which is about 13.5% of the entire company.

This is one of the most cash-rich businesses on the market. In the last 12 months Booking generated 9.34 billion dollars in operating cash flow against just 308 million in capital spending. They returned 7.6 billion to shareholders last year through buybacks and dividends and just split the stock 25-for-1 to make it more accessible to retail investors.

Travel is the first thing people cut when money gets tight. Conflict in the Middle East is already biting into Q2 demand, and management guided revenue growth to slow from 16% to just 4-6% next quarter. Higher oil prices and a possible recession could keep that pressure on for the rest of the year.

There is a real fear that AI assistants from Google, OpenAI, and Amazon could let travelers book hotels directly without ever visiting Booking.com. The company is investing in its own AI tools, but the threat is not theoretical. Booking is also fighting a 413 million euro fine in Spain and a fresh antitrust investigation in Italy, which could keep regulatory costs elevated.