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Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (ZBH) Presents at Bank of America Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript

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What are the Zacks Style Scores? The Zacks Style Scores, developed alongside the Zacks Rank, are complementary indicators that rate stocks based on three widely-followed investing methodologies; they also help investors pick stocks with the best chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.

Each stock is given an alphabetic rating of A, B, C, D or F based on their value, growth, and momentum qualities. With this system, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on, meaning the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.

The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:

Value ScoreValue investors love finding good stocks at good prices, especially before the broader market catches on to a stock's true value. Utilizing ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and many other multiples, the Value Style Score identifies the most attractive and most discounted stocks.

Growth ScoreGrowth investors are more concerned with a stock's future prospects, and the overall financial health and strength of a company. Thus, the Growth Style Score analyzes characteristics like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will see sustainable growth over time.

Momentum ScoreMomentum investors, who live by the saying "the trend is your friend," are most interested in taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Utilizing one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, among other factors, the Momentum Style Score can help determine favorable times to buy high-momentum stocks.

VGM ScoreIf you like to use all three kinds of investing, then the VGM Score is for you. It's a combination of all Style Scores, and is an important indicator to use with the Zacks Rank. The VGM Score rates each stock on their shared weighted styles, narrowing down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.

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With more than 800 top-rated stocks to choose from, it can certainly feel overwhelming to pick the ones that are right for you and your investing journey.

That's where the Style Scores come in.

You want to make sure you're buying stocks with the highest likelihood of success, and to do that, you'll need to pick stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B. If you like a stock that only has a #3 (Hold) rank, it should also have Scores of A or B to guarantee as much upside potential as possible.

Since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank, the direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy.

Here's an example: a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one with Style Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings outlook, and a bigger chance its share price will decrease too.

Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.

Stock to Watch: Zimmer Biomet (ZBH - Free Report) Headquartered in Warsaw, IN, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. is a leading musculoskeletal healthcare company that designs, manufactures and markets orthopedic reconstructive products; sports medicine, biologics, extremities and trauma products; spine, bone healing, craniomaxillofacial and thoracic products; dental implants; and related surgical products. With operations in over 25 countries, Zimmer markets products in more than 100 countries.

ZBH is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.

It also boasts a Value Style Score of A thanks to attractive valuation metrics like a forward P/E ratio of 9.89; value investors should take notice.

Nine analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.04 to $8.46 per share. ZBH boasts an average earnings surprise of +4.9%.

With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Value and VGM Style Scores, ZBH should be on investors' short list.

It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Zimmer Biomet (ZBH - Free Report) . Shares have added about 3.1% in that time frame, underperforming the S&P 500.

But investors have to be wondering, will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Zimmer due for a pullback? Well, first let's take a quick look at its latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent drivers for Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late.

ZBH Q1 Earnings & Revenues Top EstimatesZimmer Biomet posted first-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $2.09, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12.6%. The adjusted figure rose 15.5% year over year.

The quarter’s adjustments included certain amortization, restructuring and other cost reduction initiatives, inventory and manufacturing-related charges and European Union Medical Device Regulation-related charges, among others.

GAAP earnings per share were $1.22 compared with 91 cents in the year-ago period. 

RevenuesNet sales of $2.09 billion increased 9.3% (up 6.8% on a constant currency basis) year over year. The figure also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.8%.

Revenues by GeographySales generated in the United States totaled $1.21 billion (up 8.6% year over year) for the quarter, while International sales grossed $877.4 million (up 10.3% year over year on a reported basis and 4.2% at CER).

Segmental AnalysisThe company currently reports under four product categories — Knees, Hips, S.E.T. (Sports Medicine, Extremities, Trauma, Craniomaxillofacial and Thoracic) and Technology & Data, Bone Cement and Surgical.

Sales in the Knees unit improved 1.8% year over year at CER to $828.6 million. 

Hips’ sales grew 3.2% year over year at CER to $524.1 million. 

Revenues in the S.E.T. unit rose 17.4% year over year at CER to $562.2 million. 

Technology & Data, Bone Cement and Surgicalrevenues rose 11.7% to $171.8 million at CER in the first quarter. 

Margin PerformanceAdjusted gross margin, after excluding the impact of intangible asset amortization, was 72.4%, reflecting an expansion of 119 basis points (bps) year over year. Gross margin expanded despite a 4.8% rise in the cost of products sold.

Selling, general and administrative expenses rose 12% to $849.9 million. Research and development expenses declined 6.5% to $103.4 million. Adjusted operating margin expanded 104 bps to 26.7%.

Cash PositionZimmer Biomet exited the first quarter of 2026 with cash and cash equivalents of $424.2 million compared with $591.9 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025.

Cumulative net cash provided by operating activities at the end of the first quarter was $359.4 million compared with $382.8 million in the year-ago period.

2026 OutlookZimmer Biomet has updated its EPS guidance for 2026.

Revenue growth is expected to be in the band of 2.5-4.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $8.52 billion, implying 3.6% year-over-year growth. 

Adjusted earnings per share guidance for the full year is now expected to be in the range of $8.40-$8.55 (previously $8.30-$8.45). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 adjusted earnings per share is pegged at $8.37.

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?It turns out, estimates review have trended downward during the past month.

VGM ScoresCurrently, Zimmer has a average Growth Score of C, a score with the same score on the momentum front. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a grade of B on the value side, putting it in the top 40% for this investment strategy.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of B. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

OutlookEstimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions indicates a downward shift. Interestingly, Zimmer has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (ZBH) Presents at Goldman Sachs 47th Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2026 Transcript

In the latest close session, McKesson (MCK - Free Report) was down 1.48% at $822.63. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.04%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.57%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.04%.

The stock of prescription drug distributor has fallen by 3.51% in the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 0.72% and the S&P 500's gain of 12.24%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of McKesson in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on May 7, 2026. In that report, analysts expect McKesson to post earnings of $11.56 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 14.23%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $101.88 billion, indicating a 12.18% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $39.02 per share and a revenue of $409.05 billion, signifying shifts of +18.06% and +13.92%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for McKesson. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.

Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.45% higher. As of now, McKesson holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

With respect to valuation, McKesson is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.87. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 15.78 for its industry.

Investors should also note that MCK has a PEG ratio of 1.2 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Medical - Dental Supplies industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.63.

The Medical - Dental Supplies industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 55, which puts it in the top 23% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

Wall Street analysts expect McKesson (MCK - Free Report) to post quarterly earnings of $11.56 per share in its upcoming report, which indicates a year-over-year increase of 14.2%. Revenues are expected to be $101.92 billion, up 12.2% from the year-ago quarter.

Over the past 30 days, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been adjusted downward by 0.5% to its current level. This demonstrates the covering analysts' collective reassessment of their initial projections during this period.

Before a company reveals its earnings, it is vital to take into account any changes in earnings projections. These revisions play a pivotal role in predicting the possible reactions of investors toward the stock. Multiple empirical studies have consistently shown a strong association between trends in earnings estimates and the short-term price movements of a stock.

While it's common for investors to rely on consensus earnings and revenue estimates for assessing how the business may have performed during the quarter, exploring analysts' forecasts for key metrics can yield valuable insights.

With that in mind, let's delve into the average projections of some McKesson metrics that are commonly tracked and projected by analysts on Wall Street.

Analysts forecast 'Revenue- North American Pharmaceutical' to reach $84.12 billion. The estimate indicates a change of +1.2% from the prior-year quarter.

The collective assessment of analysts points to an estimated 'Revenue- Medical-Surgical Solutions' of $2.94 billion. The estimate points to a change of +3% from the year-ago quarter.

Analysts' assessment points toward 'Revenue- Prescription Technology Solutions' reaching $1.47 billion. The estimate suggests a change of +9.8% year over year.

Based on the collective assessment of analysts, 'Adjusted Operating Profit- Medical-Surgical Solutions' should arrive at $284.53 million. The estimate is in contrast to the year-ago figure of $285.00 million.

The combined assessment of analysts suggests that 'Adjusted Operating Profit- North American Pharmaceutical' will likely reach $991.34 million. The estimate is in contrast to the year-ago figure of $1.05 billion.

Analysts predict that the 'Adjusted Operating Profit- Prescription Technology Solutions' will reach $310.20 million. The estimate compares to the year-ago value of $285.00 million.

View all Key Company Metrics for McKesson here>>>

Over the past month, McKesson shares have recorded returns of -8% versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +10% change. Based on its Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), MCK will likely exhibit a performance that aligns with the overall market in the upcoming period. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .

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IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK) has released its fiscal 2026 fourth quarter financial results. Results can be accessed on McKesson’s Investor Relations website at investor.mckesson.com/financials/quarterly-results.

As previously announced, the company will host a live webcast of the earnings conference call for investors today, Thursday, May 7, at 4:30 PM ET to review its financial results. The audio webcast of the conference call will be available live and archived on McKesson's Investor Relations website, along with the company’s earnings press release, financial tables, and slide presentation. Additional information about upcoming events for the investor community can be found at investor.mckesson.com/events-and-presentations.

About McKesson Corporation

McKesson Corporation is a diversified healthcare services leader dedicated to advancing health outcomes for patients everywhere. Our teams partner with biopharma companies, care providers, pharmacies, manufacturers, governments, and others to deliver insights, products and services to help make quality care more accessible and affordable. Learn more about how McKesson is impacting virtually every aspect of healthcare at McKesson.com and read Stories & Insights.

We routinely use our website, investor.mckesson.com, to post information that may be material to investors, such as business developments, earnings, and financial performance, as well as presentation materials and details for upcoming and past events.

More News From McKesson Corporation

Back to Newsroom

McKesson (MCK - Free Report) came out with quarterly earnings of $11.69 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $11.56 per share. This compares to earnings of $10.12 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +1.14%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this prescription drug distributor would post earnings of $9.31 per share when it actually produced earnings of $9.34, delivering a surprise of +0.32%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times.

McKesson, which belongs to the Zacks Medical - Dental Supplies industry, posted revenues of $96.3 billion for the quarter ended March 2026, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.52%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $90.82 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

McKesson shares have lost about 9.3% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 7.6%.

What's Next for McKesson?While McKesson has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for McKesson was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $9.68 on $106.4 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $44.24 on $442.8 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Medical - Dental Supplies is currently in the top 21% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

One other stock from the same industry, Staar Surgical (STAA - Free Report) , is yet to report results for the quarter ended March 2026. The results are expected to be released on May 13.

This maker of implantable lenses is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.13 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +125%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days.

Staar Surgical's revenues are expected to be $91.8 million, up 115.5% from the year-ago quarter.

McKesson Corporation (MCK) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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MSA Safety Incorporporated (NYSE:MSA - Get Free Report) CFO Julie Beck bought 448 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $158.69 per share, with a total value of $71,093.12. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer owned 3,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $606,989.25. This represents a 13.27% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

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McKesson (MCK - Free Report) is one of the stocks most watched by Zacks.com visitors lately. So, it might be a good idea to review some of the factors that might affect the near-term performance of the stock.

Shares of this prescription drug distributor have returned -14.6% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +8.6% change. The Zacks Medical - Dental Supplies industry, to which McKesson belongs, has lost 10.5% over this period. Now the key question is: Where could the stock be headed in the near term?

Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.

Revisions to Earnings EstimatesHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.

We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

McKesson is expected to post earnings of $9.48 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +14.8%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed -0.7%.

The consensus earnings estimate of $44.29 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of +13.2%. This estimate has changed +0.1% over the last 30 days.

For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $49.94 indicates a change of +12.8% from what McKesson is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +0.2%.

Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, McKesson is rated Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:

12 Month EPS

Projected Revenue GrowthEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.

For McKesson, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $104.95 billion indicates a year-over-year change of +7.3%. For the current and next fiscal years, $434.7 billion and $466.78 billion estimates indicate +7.8% and +7.4% changes, respectively.

Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryMcKesson reported revenues of $96.3 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +6%. EPS of $11.69 for the same period compares with $10.12 a year ago.

Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $101.92 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of -5.52%. The EPS surprise was +1.12%.

The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates two times over this period.

ValuationNo investment decision can be efficient without considering a stock's valuation. Whether a stock's current price rightly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects is an essential determinant of its future price performance.

While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.

As part of the Zacks Style Scores system, the Zacks Value Style Score (which evaluates both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics) organizes stocks into five groups ranging from A to F (A is better than B; B is better than C; and so on), making it helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.

McKesson is graded A on this front, indicating that it is trading at a discount to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.

ConclusionThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about McKesson. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

McKesson (MCK - Free Report) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.

Shares of this prescription drug distributor have returned -9.7% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +5.1% change. The Zacks Medical - Dental Supplies industry, to which McKesson belongs, has lost 4.9% over this period. Now the key question is: Where could the stock be headed in the near term?

Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.

Revisions to Earnings EstimatesHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.

Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.

For the current quarter, McKesson is expected to post earnings of $9.48 per share, indicating a change of +14.8% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed -0.7% over the last 30 days.

The consensus earnings estimate of $44.29 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of +13.2%. This estimate has changed +0.1% over the last 30 days.

For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $49.94 indicates a change of +12.8% from what McKesson is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +0.2%.

With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is a more conclusive indicator of a stock's near-term price performance, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for McKesson.

The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:

12 Month EPS

Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.

For McKesson, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $104.95 billion indicates a year-over-year change of +7.3%. For the current and next fiscal years, $434.7 billion and $466.78 billion estimates indicate +7.8% and +7.4% changes, respectively.

Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryMcKesson reported revenues of $96.3 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +6%. EPS of $11.69 for the same period compares with $10.12 a year ago.

Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $101.92 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of -5.52%. The EPS surprise was +1.12%.

The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates two times over this period.

ValuationNo investment decision can be efficient without considering a stock's valuation. Whether a stock's current price rightly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects is an essential determinant of its future price performance.

Comparing the current value of a company's valuation multiples, such as its price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), to its own historical values helps ascertain whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, whereas comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of how reasonable its stock price is.

As part of the Zacks Style Scores system, the Zacks Value Style Score (which evaluates both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics) organizes stocks into five groups ranging from A to F (A is better than B; B is better than C; and so on), making it helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.

McKesson is graded A on this front, indicating that it is trading at a discount to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.

ConclusionThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about McKesson. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

Taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for new and old investors, and Zacks Premium offers many different ways to do both.

The research service features daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, all of which will help you become a smarter, more confident investor.

It also includes access to the Zacks Style Scores.

What are the Zacks Style Scores? Developed alongside the Zacks Rank, the Zacks Style Scores are a group of complementary indicators that help investors pick stocks with the best chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.

Based on their value, growth, and momentum characteristics, each stock is assigned a rating of A, B, C, D, or F. The better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform; an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on.

The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:

Value ScoreFor value investors, it's all about finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value before the broader market catches on. The Value Style Score utilizes ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to help pick out the most attractive and discounted stocks.

Growth ScoreGrowth investors are more concerned with a stock's future prospects, and the overall financial health and strength of a company. Thus, the Growth Style Score analyzes characteristics like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will see sustainable growth over time.

Momentum ScoreMomentum traders and investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." This investing style is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Employing factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, the Momentum Style Score can indicate favorable times to build a position in high-momentum stocks.

VGM ScoreWhat if you like to use all three types of investing? The VGM Score is a combination of all Style Scores, making it one of the most comprehensive indicators to use with the Zacks Rank. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, which helps narrow down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.

How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank is a proprietary stock-rating model that harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to help investors build a successful portfolio.

It's highly successful, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.7% average annual return since 1988. That's more than double the S&P 500. But because of the large number of stocks we rate, there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.

But it can feel overwhelming to pick the right stocks for you and your investing goals with over 800 top-rated stocks to choose from.

That's where the Style Scores come in.

To have the best chance of big returns, you'll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you're looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it's important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.

As mentioned above, the Scores are designed to work with the Zacks Rank, so any change to a company's earnings outlook should be a deciding factor when picking which stocks to buy.

For instance, a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one that boasts Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings forecast, and a much greater likelihood its share price will decline as well.

Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.

Stock to Watch: McKesson (MCK - Free Report) McKesson Corporation, headquartered in Irving, TX, is one of the largest global healthcare companies and the leading pharmaceutical distributor in North America. The company operates across four business segments: U.S. Pharmaceutical, which distributes branded, generic, and specialty drugs; RxTS, which provides patient access, affordability, and third-party logistics services for biopharma manufacturers and payors; Medical-Surgical Solutions, supplying alternate-site providers such as physician offices and home health; and International, primarily focused in Canada. Specialty pharmaceuticals, oncology services, and GLP-1 medications for diabetes and obesity are key growth engines. In FY25, GLP-1 revenues alone reached nearly $41 billion.

MCK is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of A.

Momentum investors should take note of this Medical stock. MCK has a Momentum Style Score of B, and shares are up 5.4% over the past four weeks.

Four analysts revised their earnings estimate higher in the last 60 days for fiscal 2027, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.06 to $44.28 per share. MCK also boasts an average earnings surprise of +3.1%.

With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Momentum and VGM Style Scores, MCK should be on investors' short list.

McKesson (MCK - Free Report) has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks. Therefore, you might want to consider some of the key factors that could influence the stock's performance in the near future.

Shares of this prescription drug distributor have returned +6.7% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's no change. The Zacks Medical - Dental Supplies industry, to which McKesson belongs, has gained 7.5% over this period. Now the key question is: Where could the stock be headed in the near term?

While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.

Earnings Estimate RevisionsHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.

We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

For the current quarter, McKesson is expected to post earnings of $9.63 per share, indicating a change of +16.6% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed -0% over the last 30 days.

For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $44.28 points to a change of +13.2% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has remained unchanged.

For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $49.95 indicates a change of +12.8% from what McKesson is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +0.1%.

With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is a more conclusive indicator of a stock's near-term price performance, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for McKesson.

The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:

12 Month EPS

Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.

In the case of McKesson, the consensus sales estimate of $104.39 billion for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +6.7%. The $432.83 billion and $464.69 billion estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +7.3% and +7.4%, respectively.

Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryMcKesson reported revenues of $96.3 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +6%. EPS of $11.69 for the same period compares with $10.12 a year ago.

Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $101.92 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of -5.52%. The EPS surprise was +1.12%.

The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates two times over this period.

ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.

While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.

The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.

McKesson is graded B on this front, indicating that it is trading at a discount to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.

Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about McKesson. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

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A $10 million exchange held for the full 180 days earns approximately $147,000 in interest, paid directly to the investor.

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Current 1031, a Qualified Intermediary (QI) founded by veteran real estate and finance professionals, today announced a 3% interest rate on all client exchange funds, with no size tiers or minimums. Interest is generally paid at the conclusion of the exchange.

A 1031 exchange allows real estate investors to defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting sale proceeds into a like-kind replacement property within 180 days. During that period, exchange funds are held by a Qualified Intermediary. At a 3% interest rate, a $10 million exchange held for the full 180-day period would accrue approximately $147,000 in interest; a $25 million transaction would accrue approximately $369,000 over the same window. Current 1031 charges a flat fee of $1,500 per exchange with no hidden costs.

“Every dollar sitting in an exchange account should be working for the investor, not sitting idle,” said Brad Wetherby, co-founder of Current 1031. “With 3% interest on exchange funds, we are putting real, meaningful money back into the hands of our clients.”

A Resource Built for Real Estate Brokers and Advisors

For most real estate brokers, the QI conversation happens at the end of a transaction. Current 1031 moves that conversation to the beginning. When a broker introduces a QI that provides a 3% interest rate on exchange funds, that broker provides a quantifiable benefit to the client that strengthens the broker’s advisory relationship.

About Current 1031

Current 1031, LLC is a Qualified Intermediary facilitating IRC Section 1031 like-kind exchanges nationwide. The firm holds all exchange funds in segregated accounts at a major institution and pays 3% interest on every client exchange, with no size tiers or minimums. Founded by veteran real estate and investment professionals, Current 1031 combines institutional-grade fund security, experienced guidance, and flat-fee pricing. Learn more at current1031.com.

Disclaimer: Current 1031 does not provide legal or tax advice. Investors should consult their own tax and legal advisors regarding 1031 exchanges and related matters. Interest rates are subject to change.

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Capital One Financial (COF) offers five series of preferred stocks, all rated BB, with yields around 6.6% and strong dividend coverage. COF's robust Tier 1 capital ratio and 19.8x equity-to-preferred coverage indicate minimal default or dividend risk for preferred holders. Net income covers preferred dividends by 10.3x, supporting income reliability even if net interest margins decline.

The head of one of the nation's largest auto finance lenders isn't overly concerned about rising consumer automotive debt and inflated used car prices leading to longer loans on vehicle purchases.

His main reasoning? The percentage of income consumers are spending on their vehicles has remained relatively flat compared with 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic led to inflated pricing as demand surged but inventories stayed low.

"If I just told you, 'Car prices going up, interest rates going up, insurance prices going up,' you would say, 'You know what, consumers must be paying more as a ratio to the income,'" Capital One Auto President Sanjiv Yajnik told CNBC. "However, if you look at every quintile of salary and earnings of people, the payment-to-income ratio has remained fairly flat."

While Capital One reports median monthly car ownership payments have jumped from $390 to $525 since 2019, data provided exclusively to CNBC from its automotive unit suggest that vehicle costs have stayed relatively stable compared with income. That's because, overall, the payment-to-income ratio has remained flat at approximately 10% since 2019, according to the automotive arm of the American bank.

Capital One Auto found 80% of car purchasers who finance a vehicle are below the generally recognized payment to income threshold of 15%.

"The consumer is being cautious. They're being responsible. This is a much healthier way to do things than the alternative, because it's not a discretionary spend," said Yajnik, referring to consumers prioritizing vehicle payments for transportation, including work.

To get to that goal, however, more consumers are taking on longer loans to keep payments affordable.

The auto finance veteran's view contrasts with others in the industry who view the longer term loans as a detriment to consumers' pocketbooks.

They argue that so-called "forever loans" of six years or more have led to many buyers, particularly of new vehicles, being underwater on the equity of their cars and trucks. That means they owe more than their vehicle is worth when they decide to trade it in.

Edmunds reports roughly 26% of used vehicles purchased that involved a trade-in vehicle had negative equity this year through April. The amount of negative equity averaged $5,105, a 35% increase from 2019.

"As loan term lengths increase on average, the pace at which consumers make progress paying down their balance slows," Jessica Caldwell, head of insights for CarMax's Edmunds, wrote in a recent online post. "If consumers then trade in their vehicle too soon for any reason, they are increasingly left holding more loan debt."

Regarding financing for new vehicles during the first quarter, 90.2% of new vehicle loans involving trade-ins with negative equity carried terms of at least 72 months, and 43% extended to 84 months, according to Caldwell. The average negative equity trade-in was $7,183 during the quarter for new vehicles, according to Edmunds.

Those figures have been climbing since 2022, when inflated used vehicle values caused by a pandemic-fueled chip shortage insulated more shoppers from carrying debt into their next vehicle.

Consumers need to keep their vehicles for more time to make the long loans worth it, according to Yajnik. But that can also cause increases in maintenance costs as well as the likelihood that a vehicle needs repairs that exceed its value or has to be scrapped altogether.

"Yes, it takes longer to get your equity, but in the meantime, you get a use of the car, and you're earning money," said Yajnik, a 28-year veteran of Capital One who has led the automotive lending division since 2008.

The average listed price of a used vehicle was $25,390 in March, according to Cox's most recent data. That compares to new vehicles, which depreciate faster, at $48,667.

Cox Automotive reports if all other things are equal on a loan, financing for a $30,000 vehicle at a 9% annual percentage rate would cost $3,100 more on an 84-month term than a 48-month loan. However, there's a $264 difference in the monthly payments, which Yajnik said makes it more affordable for many consumers, especially those in lower income brackets.

"There's obviously going to be pockets that have problems, but one has to start from a different place, which is, for which reason are people buying cars, and are they doing so irrationally?" Yajnik said.

© Pormezz / Shutterstock.com

A listener named Suzanne from Austin wrote into the How to Money podcast with a question I think a lot of points-and-miles people quietly wrestle with: she earns “several thousand dollars every year” from cashback cards, signup bonuses, drugstore and grocery store points, and loyalty programs. She views the haul as “windfalls earned through organic spending” but admits the “combined monetary influx seems significant from a budgetary standpoint.” So should she pencil it into her monthly budget as income?

The hosts gave a clean answer, and I agree with it: track your rewards obsessively, but do not budget them as income. Those are two different jobs. Conflating them is how people end up spending more than they earn while feeling like savvy optimizers.

The verdict: rewards are a rebate on spending you already did A credit card reward is a discount on money you already spent. It works differently from a side hustle or a dividend payment, which generate new income. A paycheck arrives whether or not you go shopping. Rewards only show up because you went shopping. Treating them as income flips the causality and quietly nudges you to spend more to “earn” more, which is exactly backward.

Here is the trap in plain numbers. One of the hosts mentioned earning a $1,000 bonus on Capital One (NYSE:COF | COF Price Prediction)’s Business Spark Cash Card by spending $10,000 on his coffee bar project, including an expensive Italian espresso machine. That is a real reward on real spending he was going to do anyway. The bonus functioned as a 10% rebate on a planned purchase. Perfect use of a card.

Now imagine the inverse. You see a 2% cashback promo and tell yourself you will “earn” $2 back on a $100 purchase. If you did not need the $100 item, you just wasted $98 to earn $2. The math does not become friendlier as the numbers scale. 2% back on a $1,000 impulse buy is $980 you set on fire. Once rewards become a line item you are trying to hit, manufactured spending is the inevitable next step.

The macro backdrop makes this more urgent. The U.S. personal savings rate sits at 4% in the first quarter of 2026, down from 6% in early 2024. Households are already spending a higher share of their disposable income than they were two years ago. Wiring rewards into the budget as income gives you psychological permission to spend even more.

The variable that decides whether a card earns its keep The variable is the annual fee, and the tracking habit is what tells you whether you are winning or losing on it. One host walked through a clean example: he dropped his American Express (NYSE:AXP) Blue Cash Preferred card after realizing he could not overcome the $95 annual fee since he was shopping more at Costco (NASDAQ:COST). Without tracking, that fee would have just kept renewing in the background.

Run the math on any fee card. If a card charges $95 a year and offers 6% back on groceries up to $6,000, you need to run enough qualifying grocery spend through it to clear the fee before the rewards start working for you. Below that threshold, the rewards-as-income illusion is masking a net loss. Above it, the card is genuinely paying you. Many card backends automatically track your earnings (Fidelity and Costco cards both do this), so the tracking work is often already done for you.

I have been optimizing cards for years now, and the cards I keep are the ones I can defend on a spreadsheet. The ones I cancel are the ones where I caught myself rationalizing the fee.

What to do this week Three concrete actions:

Tally last year’s rewards per card. Most issuers show a year-end summary. Subtract any annual fee. If the net number is negative or barely positive, the card is a candidate for cancellation or a product change to a no-fee version. Keep rewards out of your income column. Park them in a separate sinking fund labeled travel, holiday gifts, or a brokerage deposit. The hosts call rewards “semi-volatile” and note that many come as hotel and flight points rather than literal cash, which makes them unreliable as monthly income anyway. Apply the $98 test before any purchase. Ask whether you would buy this item if the card offered zero rewards. If the answer is no, the rebate is just making you poorer more slowly than paying cash would. Rewards are icing. Budgets are the cake. Confuse the two and you end up with a lot of icing and no cake.

Capital One (COF +1.15%) is changing its business model in a significant way following its acquisition of Discover. The key shift is that it will now issue credit cards and process credit card transactions, which generates reliable fee income. Other than that, the company's core focus on lending to lower-credit-quality customers remains in place. But as this big business shift is underway, Capital One's auto lending trends are surprisingly positive news.

Capital One: High risk and high reward Lower-credit-quality customers are willing to pay higher interest rates for access to debt. That is true with both credit cards, which are effectively revolving credit facilities, and with car loans, which are longer-term asset-backed loans. Auto loans have a history of being particularly risky during recessions, when customers' finances are stretched.

Image source: Getty Images.

Since a large chunk of money is already out the door, the only option to recoup losses is to repossess the car. That is not an easy or pleasant experience for anyone involved, since the repossessed car will need to be resold to extract any value it may have. Credit card balances generally aren't as large as those for a car loan, so individually they don't pose the same risk.

Watching Capital One's car loans Essentially, Capital One's car loans can serve as an important leading indicator of credit risk. This is why the business, while smaller than its credit card operation, is worth watching very closely. Right now, the risk doesn't seem all that high, even though consumers are tightening their budgets amid rising inflation. And the fact that high oil prices have some on Wall Street worried about a global recession.

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In the first quarter of 2026, auto charge-offs fell 18 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2025. While they were up nine basis points year over year, they were still a fairly reasonable 1.64%. In April, the figure was even better at 1.2%. So even when there is a problem with an auto loan, the company is managing to recoup much of its loss. Non-performing auto loans, meanwhile, amounted to just 0.55% of its loan book, down from the fourth quarter and the year-ago period. That figure held steady in April.

All in, Capital One's auto loan portfolio isn't screaming that the bank's credit risks are rising. That's a positive sign for investors, but one that you should continue to monitor. When the economy turns south, which it will eventually do at some point, the bank's auto loans could be where the impact starts to hit first. A good indicator of that risk would likely show up first in the 30-day delinquency rates, but those were down sequentially and year over year for auto loans in the first quarter, as well, with an even further decline in the Month of April.

Capital One Software Announces New Observability and AI-Powered Optimization Capabilities for Slingshot to Drive System-Wide Data Efficiency Capital One Software, the enterprise B2B software business of Capital One, today announced intelligent optimization features for Capital One Slingshot, designed to improve performance and quickly detect and resolve data infrastructure issues. By utilizing context across a user's environment, Slingshot will identify opportunities to improve workload performance in Snowflake that go beyond basic SQL syntax and storage costs.

These features reflect a fundamental shift in how enterprises can approach data efficiency: not just tuning individual resources in isolation, but understanding and optimizing the entire system, including code, pipelines, infrastructure and the teams running them.

“Enterprise data infrastructure is a complex web of inter-dependencies that requires a context-first approach for optimization at scale,” said Jeff Chou, VP, Slingshot Product Management, Capital One Software. "Slingshot’s intelligent optimization capabilities can help businesses understand what their queries are actually doing, what their tables are built for, and where their teams are unknowingly duplicating work. That's how we help enterprises get efficient at the system level.”

Upcoming Slingshot features include:

Context-Aware AI Query Optimization: Enterprise Snowflake environments generate staggering query volumes that no team can manually evaluate at scale. Slingshot will automatically identify top queries by cost, runtime, and frequency in Snowflake environments. It will generate AI-powered optimization recommendations that surface clear, actionable steps and project cost and runtime improvements for both Snowflake admins and data engineers. Context-Aware AI Table Optimization: Query inefficiency often doesn’t stem from the query itself, but from poorly configured tables. Slingshot’s Table Optimization capability will analyze the top 50 tables by query impact and surface multi-dimensional infrastructure fixes. Slingshot will also validate that proposed table changes will not negatively impact the top queries already running against that table, before surfacing the recommendation. Duplicate Pipeline Detection: Large enterprises have full pipelines that are unknowingly redundant. Slingshot's AI-powered duplicate pipeline detection will identify these redundancies by looking at common patterns of data usage to find potential overlap. Slingshot uses AI to compare many potentially-similar workloads to evaluate functional equivalence. Data Explorer: This interactive, drill-down analytics interface will allow data teams to investigate root causes. Users can interactively slice Snowflake costs across various dimensions (accounts, users, query hashes, Slingshot tags, service types) with synchronized filtering. Drill-downs offer rich object detail pages for individual warehouses, databases, and queries, collapsing the gap between cost visibility and actionable change. Data rich before-and-after impact analysis pages provide historical context for any changes made to a Warehouse. Learn more about the latest Slingshot innovations by visiting Capital One Software at these upcoming events:

Booth #1211 at Snowflake Summit, June 1-4, 2026 in San Francisco, CA Booth #223 at Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit, June 1-3, 2026 in National Harbor, MD About Capital One Software
Capital One Software, the enterprise B2B software business of Capital One, enables organizations to scale their data management capabilities and better harness the power of AI. Backed by 25 years of data innovation, Capital One Software solutions are helping customers overcome key data management challenges in the cloud, including cost performance, infrastructure management, and data security. Capital One Software is based in McLean, Virginia, at Capital One's headquarters. To learn more, go to: www.capitalone.com/software

About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) is a leading technology-based financial services company with $475.8 billion in deposits and $669.0 billion in total assets as of December 31, 2025. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, the company operates as a premier global payments provider and diversified financial institution, delivering a broad suite of products and consumer lifestyle and shopping experiences through its Credit Card, Consumer Banking including its Global Payment Network, and Commercial Banking lines of business. As the only major U.S. bank to migrate entirely to the public cloud, Capital One leverages proprietary data and advanced analytics to democratize financial tools across its primary markets in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Capital One Software’s strategy and future product features. These statements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors such as technical challenges, market shifts, or changes in resource allocation may result in some features being delayed, modified, or not released at all. Capital One Software assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements as circumstances change.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260601466677/en/

Capital One Financial Corporation (COF) Presents at Morgan Stanley US Financials Conference 2026 Transcript

On May 11, 2026, Expedia Group Inc EXPE shares fell 3.6% to a current price of $221.46. This decline adds to a challenging year for the stock, which has experienced a year-to-date drop of 21.7% and traded within a 52-week range of $148.55 to $303.80.

GF Value™ verdict: Current price is $221.46 vs GF Value™ of $202.26, indicating the stock is 9.5% overvalued.GF Score™: 87/100, suggesting strong overall performance.Notable signal: Insiders sold $1.8 million in the last three months, indicating potential caution among company executives. Is EXPE Overvalued or Undervalued? The current price of Expedia Group Inc EXPE at $221.46 is above the GF Value™ estimate of $202.26, which categorizes the stock as 9.5% overvalued. This overvaluation presents a risk for potential investors as the price may not adequately reflect the company's intrinsic value. The GF Valuation label indicates that the stock is fairly valued, which means that while it may not be a bargain, it is also not significantly overpriced based on the company's fundamentals. GF Value™ is GuruFocus' proprietary measure of intrinsic value, calculated from historical trading multiples, past business growth, and future performance estimates.

Investors should be cautious given the overvaluation signal, as it suggests that the stock may not provide sufficient margin of safety for new buyers. A significant correction could occur if market conditions change or if the company fails to meet growth expectations. In contrast, if the stock were undervalued, it could present an opportunity for long-term gains, but such a scenario is not currently applicable to EXPE.

How Does EXPE's Valuation Compare to Its History? Metric Current Historical P/E (TTM) 19.5x 24.6x Forward P/E 11.5x N/A Currently, EXPE's P/E (TTM) of 19.5x is significantly below its 5-year median P/E of 24.6x, indicating that the stock is trading at a discount relative to its historical valuation. The forward P/E of 11.5x further highlights this disparity. This P/E analysis aligns with the GF Value™ verdict of overvaluation, suggesting that even though EXPE might appear cheaper relative to its past, it is still above the GF Value™ estimate and may not present a compelling buying opportunity at this time.

What Does EXPE's GF Score™ Tell Us? Metric Rating GF Score™ 87 Financial Strength 5/10 Profitability 8/10 Growth 8/10 Valuation 6/10 Momentum 8/10 The GF Score™ of 87/100 indicates that Expedia Group Inc has strong overall performance potential. The strongest areas are in profitability and growth, both rated at 8/10, suggesting that the company has been able to maintain healthy margins and show promising growth prospects. However, financial strength is a concern, rated only 5/10, which may indicate vulnerabilities in its balance sheet or capital structure. This mixed picture highlights the need for caution among potential investors despite the overall high GF Score™.

What Are Insiders Doing with EXPE Stock? In the last three months, insiders at Expedia Group Inc have sold approximately $1.8 million worth of shares with no recorded buying activity. This trend of selling could suggest a lack of confidence among executives regarding the company’s short-term outlook or valuation. When insiders sell shares, it can often signal that they believe the stock price may not appreciate in the near future, which warrants attention from potential investors.

What This Means for Investors Based on the current valuation metrics and the GF Value™ estimate, Expedia Group Inc EXPE is overvalued at this time. The price is trading above the intrinsic value calculated by GF Value™, indicating potential risks for investors looking to enter the stock.

For the complete analysis, visit the Expedia Group Inc EXPE stock page. You can also explore the GF Value™ page for detailed valuation methodology, or use the GuruFocus Stock Screener to find similar opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions What is EXPE's GF Score™?

EXPE's GF Score™ is 87/100, indicating strong overall performance potential based on multiple financial metrics.

Is EXPE overvalued or undervalued?

EXPE is currently overvalued, as its stock price of $221.46 is above the GF Value™ estimate of $202.26.

What is EXPE's P/E ratio?

EXPE's P/E (TTM) is 19.5x, which is significantly lower than its 5-year median P/E of 24.6x, indicating it is trading at a discount relative to its historical valuation.

This stock alert was generated using automated technology and GuruFocus financial data to provide readers with timely and accurate market reporting. This content was reviewed by GuruFocus editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

From left: Expedia Group chairman Barry Diller, CEO Ariane Gorin, former CEO and current Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and founder Rich Barton at Expedia’s Explore partner conference in Las Vegas this week. (Expedia Group Photo) From her office overlooking the atrium at Expedia Group’s sunlit headquarters campus on the Seattle waterfront, CEO Ariane Gorin puts the online travel giant’s 30-year history into three chapters, each tied to a major inflection point in the evolution of technology.

Chapter 1 was the internet itself: the 1996 launch of Expedia inside Microsoft, when a small team bet that consumers could benefit from technology previously exclusive to travel agents.

Chapter 2 was mobile: as travelers migrated from desktop to smartphone, Expedia rebuilt itself for the small screen and assembled a collection of brands through a wave of acquisitions. 

Chapter 3, Gorin says, is artificial intelligence, and it’s only starting to unfold. Expedia is now positioning itself for a new reality in which different types of agents — machines, not humans — will play a role in booking travel, in some cases making the decisions entirely on their own.

“It’s exciting to get to write the future of AI and travel,” Gorin said.

Expedia is marking its 30th year in business this week with the launch of the Expedia Trails Fund, a philanthropic initiative to restore outdoor trails across the U.S., backed by an initial $4.3 million in grants. 

The company is also bringing top executives from throughout its history — founder Rich Barton, chairman Barry Diller, and former CEO Dara Khosrowshahi — together with Gorin for its partner conference in Las Vegas. Collectively, they grew Expedia from internal division to corporate spinout to online travel giant. 

What happens next, under Gorin, will depend on Expedia’s ability to reinvent itself for a fundamentally new relationship between travelers and technology — attempting to continue a pattern that has repeated itself throughout the company’s history.

Chapter 1: ‘Power to the people’ Expedia started with a question: why shouldn’t everyone see what travel agents do? 

In 1994, Rich Barton was a 27-year-old Microsoft employee, working on a CD-ROM travel guidebook — an Encarta for travel — when he learned about the airline reservation systems that travel agents used to book flights. The systems were accessible electronically, but only to industry insiders. He started to imagine regular people using them directly.

Rich Barton speaks at Seattle University’s Albers Executive Speaker Series in 2016. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) “The idea was simple and almost obvious once you said it out loud: give consumers the same information the professionals have, and get out of their way,” recalled Barton, now a well-known entrepreneur and investor, who shared new details of the Expedia story for this piece. 

His term for this approach would ultimately define his career: “Power to the People.”

Barton pitched the idea directly to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and President Steve Ballmer, who gave him the green light.

Secretly building for the web The team initially started building the product for Microsoft’s proprietary online service, MSN 1.0, a would-be competitor to AOL, which had a proprietary multimedia development environment called Blackbird. Then the web gained steam, with its open protocols and universal reach. 

That’s when Greg Slyngstad, the original general manager of what was then called Microsoft Travel, made a pivotal call: develop the product for the open web instead of Microsoft’s walled garden. 

Slyngstad “knew the web would win,” Barton said. “Because of this, we secretly built for the web, which was brilliant. Expedia would not be what it is today if not for that decision.” 

An early version of Expedia from the Internet Archive. Before it was called Expedia, the project had a very different interface. In the early days of Microsoft Travel, the hot trend in software was the social user interface, personified most memorably by the widely mocked Microsoft Bob. Barton’s team had its own version: a parrot that served as a travel planning guide.

“I can’t remember the name of the parrot now,” he said, “but I faked a travel planning scenario talking to a robot parrot in front of the whole Consumer Division — which was a hit!”

‘We had massive ambition’ A plaque still on the Microsoft campus in Redmond marks what came next: “Microsoft Expedia, Version 1.0, Shipped October 22, 1996.”

A marker commemorating the Expedia launch in a courtyard at Microsoft. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft’s annual report for 1997 described Expedia as “a free travel service on the World Wide Web and MSN which enables users to find low fares, book flights, make hotel reservations, and rent cars.”

Barton and team had a much bigger vision. “We had massive ambition,” he said. Their BHAG — or “big, hairy, audacious goal,” the term popularized by author Jim Collins around the same time — was to become “the largest seller of travel in the world.”

Expedia’s revenue went from zero to $38.7 million by 1999. At the time, it was still about half the size of Travelocity, which had gotten to market first. 

‘Go do this on your own!’ But Barton was already seeing a future for Expedia outside the software giant. 

“One of my core arguments was that Expedia, in success, would become a travel company first and a tech company second,” he explained. “Therefore, we simply wouldn’t fit inside a giant tech company, and that by setting us free, it would dramatically improve our chances of fulfilling our giant global dreams.”

So Barton made the case to Ballmer, his boss at the time, to let him and his team of “internet adventurers” spin out through an initial public offering, with Microsoft retaining a stake.

He pasted a printout of Ballmer’s headshot onto an IATA card, the credential issued by the International Air Transport Association to licensed travel agents. “Steve, do you want to be a travel agent?” Barton remembers asking. “Do you want to run the largest travel agency in the world?”

Ballmer recoiled at the idea and yelled, “No, you guys should go do this on your own!” Then he asked if he could keep the card.

And with that, the spinout was set in motion.

The IPO prospectus in September 1999 described Expedia’s value proposition: “one-stop travel shopping and reservation services, providing reliable, real-time access to schedule, pricing and availability information.” Travel, it said, was uniquely suited to the internet: a global market with millions of buyers, and purchases “involving large amounts of information from multiple sources.”

‘Whoops and hollers’ Expedia went public on Nov. 10, 1999. The company had 138 employees. The stock, initially priced at $14 a share, soared more than 260% on its first day of trading. 

“We’re feelin’ pretty good,” said Suzi Levine, who led Expedia’s IPO communications, in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story about the Nasdaq debut, admitting “there may have been one or two whoops and hollers” around the office. Levine went on to become the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland under President Obama, among other high-profile government positions. 

Another newspaper clipping from that week shows Barton and his wife Sarah holding their newborn son William, born the same day as the IPO. The headline: “Initial public offspring.”

Rich and Sarah Barton with newborn son William in November 1999, the week of Expedia’s IPO. (AP / Daytona Beach News-Journal) Within two years, Expedia had surpassed Travelocity to become the largest online travel company. Barton left in 2003, eventually going on to co-found ventures including Zillow and Glassdoor, applying the same “power to the people” philosophy — giving consumers access to data that industries had previously kept behind walls — to real estate and the job market.

Before Barton left, controlling interest in Expedia had passed to a new owner. But the deal that made it happen nearly didn’t survive the worst moment in the history of modern travel.

Chapter 2: ‘If there’s life, there’s travel’ Barry Diller was a Hollywood legend who had built Fox Broadcasting and launched the Home Shopping Network when he turned his attention to the internet in the late 1990s. 

Through his company, USA Networks, he was assembling a portfolio of online brands, and he saw travel as the biggest opportunity. Travel, he wrote in his 2025 memoir, Who Knew, looked like “the perfect business to be colonized by the internet.” He had already acquired Hotels.com when he approached Microsoft about buying its controlling stake in Expedia. 

Expedia Group’s then-Vice Chairman Peter Kern, Chairman Barry Diller, and future Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin, then president of Expedia Business Services, on stage at a company Town Hall meeting in December 2019. (Expedia Photo) Expedia was still losing money, and Ballmer had concluded that Microsoft shouldn’t be in internet verticals anyway, as Diller recalled in the book. With relatively little negotiation, Microsoft agreed to a deal worth about $1 billion in USA Networks stock.

They were set to close the deal in October 2001. Then, on September 11, the travel industry shut down in an instant. The deal included a material adverse change clause — a legal escape hatch that would have let Diller walk away. For weeks, his team debated whether to use it. 

How could they pay $1 billion for a travel company when no one was traveling?

“Some people said, you shouldn’t do it, it’s too dicey, there’s no travel, the world is ending,” Diller told GeekWire in 2016, on the company’s 20th anniversary.

But then, someone in the room said, “If there’s life, there’s travel.”

“Yeah, that’s what we’ll do,” Diller recalled saying. “We’ll bet on life.”

The next transition The deal closed in February 2002. Diller folded Expedia into a division of his company called IAC Travel. When the head of that division resigned, a young executive named Dara Khosrowshahi raised his hand. Khosrowshahi had first crossed paths with Diller as a junior analyst at the investment bank Allen & Company, and had been in the room during the 9/11 deliberations. 

“Barry was desperate. He had no one else,” Khosrowshahi recalled on the Diary of a CEO podcast. 

In 2005, Diller spun IAC Travel back out as a standalone public company — Expedia, Inc. — with Khosrowshahi as CEO. He moved to what he later called “the Netherlands of Seattle.” He would hold the role for 12 years, longer than any leader in the company’s history.

It was under Khosrowshahi that Expedia navigated the shift from desktop to mobile. As travelers migrated to smartphones, the company rebuilt its products for the small screen.

Khosrowshahi also led an acquisition spree that transformed Expedia from a single brand into a travel conglomerate, adding Orbitz, Travelocity, Trivago, and others along the way. 

Competition from all corners Even as Expedia consolidated its position in online travel, a different kind of threat was emerging. Google was pushing into travel directly through Google Flights and Google Hotels, and its search algorithm had become the dominant gateway to travel shoppers — making the search giant Expedia’s biggest advertising channel and one of its largest competitors.

Google’s position is “a reality of e-commerce,” Khosrowshahi said in a 2016 interview with GeekWire, on the company’s 20th anniversary, in the conference room at its Bellevue, Wash., headquarters. “It’s reality of the Internet, and it’s certainly a reality of this category in general. That’s not going to stop.

Then-Expedia Group CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at the company’s Bellevue HQ in 2016. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) The bigger direct threat, though, was emerging from across the Atlantic. The Priceline Group — later renamed Booking Holdings — had acquired Booking.com out of Amsterdam in 2005, building a business that would eventually surpass Expedia in gross bookings.

“Priceline is our toughest competitor,” Khosrowshahi said at the time, calling it a great company that had quickly expanded its international reach. “They’re more global than we are.”

And then there was a competitive threat that nobody at Expedia had anticipated: the rise of vacation rentals as a category, led by Airbnb. Expedia’s response was its biggest deal yet: the 2015 acquisition of HomeAway, which would later be rebranded as Vrbo — a $3.9 billion bet on the category.

“I think the growth of Airbnb has been pretty extraordinary, and I think anyone who would say today, ‘Oh, we expected it,’ would be lying,” Khosrowshahi said in the interview. 

The one exception, he acknowledged, was Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, who was known for transforming the world of lodging just as Uber’s Travis Kalanick had upended transportation.

‘You’re f’ng crazy’  The next year, Uber came calling for Dara. 

At the time, the ride-hailing company was in turmoil — embroiled in scandals, burning billions, and in need of a leader who could steady the ship. When Khosrowshahi told Diller he’d been offered the job as Uber’s CEO, the chairman’s first reaction was to hang up on him.

“He’s like, you’re f’ng crazy,” Khosrowshahi said on the Acquired podcast. 

But Diller called back the next day. “Speaking as the chairman of Expedia, it will be a real mistake,” Khosrowshahi recalled him saying. “But speaking as a friend, I understand why you’re interested. How can I help?” Diller then helped him prepare his presentation for the Uber board.

In a farewell email to Expedia staff, obtained by GeekWire at the time, Khosrowshahi called Diller “the toughest, smartest, most demanding, and most human boss I’ve ever had.” 

Ketchup and mustard One of the company’s rising executives at the time was Ariane Gorin. A Berkeley, Calif., native who grew up in a French-American family, she had moved to France in 2001 and lived in Europe for more than two decades, eventually becoming a dual French-American citizen. 

The future Expedia CEO had joined the company in 2013, and her first encounter with Expedia’s leadership set the tone: she met Khosrowshahi and CFO Mark Okerstrom on Halloween, when they were dressed as ketchup and mustard. “This is the best company,” she recalls thinking.

Expedia chairman Barry Diller, center, speaks with then Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, right, and CFO Mark Okerstrom at an event marking the company’s 20th anniversary in Bellevue in 2016. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Okerstrom succeeded Khosrowshahi as CEO in August 2017. By comparison, his tenure was brief, most notable for Expedia’s move from downtown Bellevue to a picturesque former biotech campus on the Seattle waterfront, and an ambitious effort to unify its technology across its growing collection of brands.

After a strategy disagreement with the board over the pace and direction of the tech revamp, Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill both resigned on the same day: Dec. 4, 2019. Diller, as chairman, asserted direct operational control alongside vice chairman Peter Kern, a longtime Expedia board member. 

‘I’m on the edge of revolt’ Eight days later, on December 12, 2019, Diller put his frustration with Google in writing. In an email to Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler — which later surfaced in the U.S. government’s antitrust case against Google — the chairman wrote that “much of Expedia’s trouble is due to an increasingly aggressive Google.” 

Diller cited Vrbo’s payments to Google, which had risen from $21 million in 2015 to nearly $300 million in 2019, even as the traffic Google sent to VRBO stayed roughly flat.

“Google has systematically moved every lever in its hegemony over search to disembowel our businesses,” Diller wrote, describing himself as “on the edge of revolt.”

It wouldn’t be the last time Expedia found itself subject to forces beyond its control.

‘Buy the thing’ In the meantime, Diller had been shaping the company’s new home. In the mid-2010s, he had pushed Expedia to acquire a 40-acre site on Elliott Bay, formerly occupied by Immunex, maker of the arthritis drug Enbrel. The site was vacated after Amgen bought the Seattle biotech.

“Once I saw it, I just said, ‘buy the thing,’” Diller said at a 2023 company event. He wanted a campus that felt horizontal, not vertical, with what he called “a lot of ability to breathe.” 

Expedia Group’s Seattle waterfront campus. Barry Diller personally shaped details of the design. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Over five years of planning, Diller personally shaped details down to the geometric paving stones that radiate outward from the main building like airport runways. The campus included 1,000 trees, an on-site soccer pitch, and a meeting pavilion called “the Prow,” designed to rise out of the landscape like the bow of a ship. 

Beyond the property line, Expedia funded improvements to a portion of the Elliott Bay Trail running alongside the campus. That gave the company a sense for how it could invest in outdoor public spaces — an early version of the work it’s now expanding nationwide. 

The first of Expedia’s employees began moving into the campus in October 2019. By February 2020, the move was complete, at a final cost of more than $1.1 billion. 

‘Travel finds a way’ In April 2020, when Kern was formally named CEO, COVID-19 had brought the industry to a halt. He used the moment to complete the overhaul of Expedia’s technology platform, unifying the patchwork of systems that had accumulated through years of acquisitions. 

“Travel finds a way,” Kern said in a virtual appearance at the 2020 GeekWire Summit, predicting that cities would come “roaring back,” and the industry would ultimately rebound. 

Peter Kern, then Expedia Group’s CEO, speaking at the company’s 2023 partner conference. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) In the meantime, Gorin had been building what would become one of Expedia Group’s most important business lines. In 2014, Khosrowshahi had asked if she was interested in running the company’s affiliate network, which licensed the company’s travel technology and inventory to outside partners, letting them offer Expedia-powered bookings under their own brands. 

It was less than 10% of the company’s business, and nobody else wanted the job.

“B2B was not seen as a sexy part of the company,” she recalled recently.

Gorin jumped in with passport in hand. She spent her initial months in the job talking to partners around the world, developing a strategy of going where Expedia’s own consumer brands couldn’t or didn’t go, including offline retail, corporate travel, emerging markets, and anywhere else there were untapped pools of travel demand. 

Over the next decade, she grew the B2B division from a small afterthought into one of the company’s most important businesses. Today it accounts for roughly a third of Expedia’s overall business, powering travel programs for companies like Marriott, Hilton, United, Delta, and Capital One. 

It was, in retrospect, perfect preparation for what would come next. 

Chapter 3: ‘The agent that roams with you’  Long before ChatGPT became a household name, the head of OpenAI was already sitting on Expedia’s board. Sam Altman joined Expedia Group’s board of directors in 2019, recruited at a time when his AI research lab was still better known in Silicon Valley than in living rooms. 

In November 2022, weeks before ChatGPT was unveiled to the world, Altman appeared on stage with Diller at a private executive event for IAC, the parent media company in Diller’s portfolio. Altman demonstrated what was coming by typing a prompt asking ChatGPT about Diller’s relationship with his wife, the fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.

What the AI produced was “extremely creative” and “somewhat salacious,” Diller recalled at Expedia’s 2023 partner conference. “Because we do have a history.” 

More than that, it was a glimpse of the future. Diller said the preview gave Expedia an early jump on generative AI. The company was one of the first travel firms to integrate ChatGPT — both as a plugin on OpenAI’s platform and as a travel-planning assistant in its own app. 

It actually wasn’t a surprise to Diller. Speaking with GeekWire back in 2016, Mr. Diller (as we were advised to call him) had described AI as “another form of magic.” Asked whether it would influence travel, he said at the time: “Of course it will. It will influence everything.” 

Altman left the board in June 2023, as OpenAI consumed his full attention.

From B2B to B2A  When Kern stepped down in May 2024, Ariane Gorin — the executive who had been steadily expanding the company’s business-to-business reach — became Expedia Group’s CEO.

She soon had a phrase for what the AI era would require: B2A, for business to agent. But there’s a risk in this new world: a human traveler might choose Expedia out of loyalty, or brand recognition, but an AI agent making the same decision might not care about any of that.

Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin at the company’s Explore partner conference last year. (Expedia Group Photo) In a recent interview at Expedia headquarters, Gorin said the company now has teams looking at what it means to market to machines: how to make sure an AI agent understands that an Expedia Gold member gets a VIP perk at a particular hotel, or that a traveler has One Key points to apply toward a trip.

Expedia has been building AI into its own products for years now. But more recently, it has been looking outward: embedding its service inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Amazon’s Alexa+, buying ads inside AI chatbots, and signing a deal to power Uber’s hotel bookings. (Khosrowshahi, who remains on the Expedia Group board, recused himself from the negotiations over that partnership.)

“I think that’s the future,” Gorin said. “It’s the agent that really roams with you.”

A competitive moat It’s still early. AI-native platforms like ChatGPT account for less than 1.5% of Expedia’s overall traffic, Gorin said. But the company said on its recent earnings call that getting its brands to show up in AI responses has become its fastest-growing marketing channel.

As demonstrated by Diller’s past frustrations with Google, these external dependencies can be a double-edged sword. But there are early signs that Expedia won’t be cut out of the picture. In March, OpenAI scaled back plans to let users book travel directly inside ChatGPT. 

Gorin said she wasn’t surprised, given the complexities of travel. “Trust me, it’s pretty complicated to be able to go from shopping to booking to servicing,” she said. Expedia handles 250 million customer service interactions a year, across more than 30 languages. 

“I see them as partners,” more than competitive threats, she said of the major AI platforms. “I see them as an opportunity for us to attract new travelers into our ecosystem.” 

Illustrating the ongoing importance of industry partnerships, Expedia struck a deal this spring to power hotel bookings inside the Uber app, with Vrbo vacation rentals coming later this year. Khosrowshahi, who still sits on Expedia’s board, recused himself from the deal.

Growth and challenges The company that began in 1996 as a small team inside Microsoft is now on a different scale entirely. When Expedia went public in November 1999, it had fewer than 150 employees, about $700 million in gross bookings, and a presence in four countries. 

Fast forward nearly 30 years, to the end of 2025, and Expedia had roughly 16,000 employees across nearly 50 countries, $119.6 billion in gross bookings, and a marketplace of 3.6 million lodging properties, including 2.4 million vacation rentals.

The company’s evolution has also brought challenges, including executive turnover and job cuts — with the latest round impacting 162 tech positions at the company’s headquarters earlier this year.

‘More travel equals more memories’ Gorin, meanwhile, has been putting her own stamp on the company. 

To mark its 30th year, Expedia is launching the Expedia Trails Fund, a philanthropic initiative to restore outdoor trails and protect natural landscapes across the United States. 

The initial $4.3 million will go to 11 projects, spanning destinations from Yellowstone’s Paradise Valley to Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay, covering areas that draw more than 1 million visits annually. Expedia is partnering with The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and Trust for Public Land, and with AllTrails to match support for the hiking app’s stewards fund. 

The effort reflects growing demand among travelers for outdoor experiences, particularly among younger generations. Gorin said the company’s earlier trail work alongside its Seattle campus helped to show what could be possible at a larger scale.

“If our trails fund really works the way we want it to, the impact we’re going to have on trails across the U.S. and elsewhere is going to be huge,” she said.

For Gorin, the initiative connects to something deeper. A few years after she joined Expedia, her sister was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Before she died, she offered Gorin a piece of advice: travel more, because more travel equals more memories.

“And then she said, ‘Oh, wait a minute. You work in travel. One day, you should use that story on stage,'” Gorin recalled. She told it at her first town hall as CEO.

“We are in the business of helping people make memories,” Gorin said. The common thread among all of Expedia’s CEOs over the years, she said, is a belief in the benefits of travel for people and the world, and in the potential of technology to achieve it.

‘Original vision … fully realized’ But if Expedia’s founding vision was to remove the barriers to travel, isn’t there a risk of people losing control when AI puts a new intermediary into the process? Barton, the person who started it all, doesn’t buy that. He draws a direct line from the original idea to the present moment.

“Round one was radical transparency,” he said. “We blew the doors open and gave everyone access to information that used to live only in a computer on the desk of a professional.”

AI agents, Barton asserts, are “the next unlock.” Rather than replacing the human in the loop, he said, they give every traveler “the equivalent of a brilliant, tireless expert in their corner.” That makes AI an accelerant for the concept of “Power to the People,” not a replacement.

“I don’t see it as a threat. I see it as the original vision, finally fully realized,” he said. “We started by turning the screen around. Now we’re handing people the whole toolkit.”

New AI capabilities, expanded ground mobility, and merchandising capabilities help brands add and scale end-to-end travel experiences

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Expedia Group B2B today announced a new set of AI-powered products and partnerships that make it easier for companies in any sector to build travel into their customer experiences.

“For decades we’ve built the plumbing behind the scenes that makes travel work more connected, seamless, and trusted, bringing together supply, pricing, payments, service and more,” said Alfonso Paredes, President B2B & Chief Commercial Officer Expedia Group. “Now we’re making that infrastructure even easier for partners to plug into. With one connection, partners can build more complete travel experiences for their customers, capture more of the trip, and do it with less complexity.”

Expedia Group B2B today serves 75,000 partners across industry verticals and 200,000 travel advisors, and its platform processes 21 billion API calls a day (Expedia Group internal data, 2025).

AI toolkit for partners + new travel platform

At the Explore 26 partner conference, Expedia Group B2B previewed its new, in-development AI toolkit, which rolls out with select partners in the coming months. It simplifies how B2B partners connect Expedia Group capabilities into AI experiences across APIs, interfaces, and agent workflows.

At the core is the Intelligent Experience Platform, a set of composable AI components designed to help partners launch branded travel experiences powered by Expedia Group intelligence. Expedia Group B2B aims to reduce the time and investment required for partners to launch travel experiences and help them prepare for a future where travelers increasingly expect AI-assisted trip planning.

Expanding ground mobility to complete more trips

To help partners capture more of the end-to-end journey, Expedia Group B2B is expanding its car rental, ground transport and Insurtech solutions.

In a separate announcement today, Expedia Group shared it has entered into an agreement to acquire CarTrawler, an Ireland-based B2B platform powering leading travel brands.

CarTrawler follows Expedia Group’s recent acquisition of Tiqets, the Amsterdam-based activities and experiences platform, and together the acquisitions advance the growth strategy the company outlined to expand its Rapid API beyond lodging to include car, flights, activities and trip protection.

CarTrawler’s capabilities, coupled with Expedia Group’s extensive scale, technology and partner network, unlock several new growth opportunities for partners as well as unrivaled choice and value for travelers. The transaction, which remains subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second half of 2026.

Marketing and media capabilities to reach more travelers

At Explore ‘26, Expedia Group also announced marketing and media network enhancements that help partners reach more travelers in more places.

For Rapid API partners, two new merchandising solutions can help drive demand and improve conversion:

The B2B Partner Portal account can now be used to plan and track marketing strategies. The new Merchandising API can now be tapped to build compelling marketing experiences across platforms and channels. Expedia Group Advertising also shared advances to its Travel Media Network, including:

An enhanced AI-powered advertising portal, with strategies like Max Room Nights bidding. Richer ad formats across search results, property pages, Trips, and checkout. Broader reach via DSPs and exclusive media partnerships. Trust and support built in

Across these launches, Expedia Group emphasized the governance and infrastructure behind its B2B platform:

A Responsible AI Council that reviews high-risk AI deployments before they scale. Servicing remains a core strategic priority, with continued investment in people, processes, and AI as the B2B network grows. Expedia Group B2B currently: Handles more than 7 million servicing calls a year for partners. Provides 24/7 native voice support across 25 languages. “Partners want growth, but they also want to know their brand and their customers are in safe hands,” Paredes said. “A year ago, we said we would build a broader platform for partners, and we did. Today, we’re helping partners sell more, serve better, and capture more of the trip, using infrastructure that’s been tested at scale for decades.”

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the global travel marketplace with one purpose: to help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. Expedia Group™ connects travelers, partners, and advertisers through its trusted brands, leading technology, and rich first-party data, delivering predictive, personalized experiences that shape the future of travel.

Expedia Group’s ecosystem includes three flagship consumer brands – Expedia®, Hotels.com®, and Vrbo® – the largest B2B travel business, and a premier advertising network. Guided by an experienced and passionate global team, Expedia Group helps millions of travelers in more than 70 countries explore the world with confidence and ease.

© 2026 Expedia, Inc., an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Expedia Group and the Expedia Group logo are trademarks of Expedia, Inc. CST: 2029030-50.

For more information, visit www.expediagroup.com.
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Expedia Group, Inc. (EXPE) Discusses Evolution of Travel, Industry Resilience and Future Innovation Transcript