Expedia, Restaurant Brands, Redfin: Top Stocks

Expedia (EXPE) stock closes Friday 18% higher after boasting top and bottom line earnings beat alongside a new $5 billion stock buyback program.

Restaurant Brands International (QSR) shares dip on wavering global sales from fast-food chain Burger King, falling short of expectations.

Lastly, Redfin (RDFN) shares soar by over 21% on CEO Glenn Kelman's optimism following a monumental ruling against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and other real estate brokerage firms.

Yahoo Finance Live delves deeper on several top stocks following Friday's closing bell.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

DIANE KING HALL: Shares of Expedia rallying double digits on the day, up 18% about for today's session. The online travel agency beating Wall Street expectations. Expedia announcing a $5 billion stock buyback program. The company posted revenue of more than $3.9 billion. That was up 9% from a year ago. Ahead of street estimates, profits up 33% from a year ago. So it's certainly performed well.

Oppenheimer saying that Expedia is arguably the best bargain in travel. So--

JOSH LIPTON: Look at that, oof, nearly 20%. So it was a Q3 earnings beat. The capital return news you mentioned. Just looking at the different analyst notes, B. Riley says it was a strong quarter growth and margin drivers for 2024 are on track, they say. They got to buy on that name.

I will say not everyone loved the results. Evercore's Mark Mahaney, we know Mark, well-known, well-respected analyst, says the results were mixed bookings and room nights growth were modestly below consensus. He has the equivalent of a hold. But a lot of investors have a buy instead today.

DIANE KING HALL: Yeah, indeed. I mean, some of the callouts that I saw with regard to notes is that night's book up 9% year-over-year in the quarter versus the second quarter. Lodging up 8% versus the second quarter, where that was 7%. So you're seeing just strength there in terms of where the consumer stands, right? You know, so it points to that consumers are still spending on experiences. And Expedia is representing the case of strength there, especially when you compare that to, say, Booking, which, you know, wasn't received as well as Expedia was.

JOSH LIPTON: Yep. All right. Moving on shares of QSR closed lower in today's trade. Restaurant Brands taking a hit after reporting disappointing same store sales from Burger King. Burger chain has been trying to make a comeback in the US after lagging its rivals for years. Popeyes was the only brand that beat third-quarter sales estimates. I love both, by the way.

DIANE KING HALL: Well, not--

JOSH LIPTON: Really? No?

DIANE KING HALL: Well, Popeyes, yes.

JOSH LIPTON: What are you down on?

DIANE KING HALL: Burger King?

- Really? You don't like a-- who doesn't like a Whopper?

- Come on.

- Honestly.

- Josh.

- Grew up on Whoppers. Grew up on Whoppers.

- OK.

- You can say a lot, Diane, but I'm not going to sit here and see you bad mouth Whoppers.

- OK, fine. You can have your Whopper. I'll take the chicken sandwich at Popeyes, which as we know, that did really well.

- What if you want-- I like both. Can't you just say both?

- No, I'm sorry. We'll agree to disagree on that. But, look, I mean they missed estimates on sales. They had that weakness there for Burger King. As you mentioned, Popeyes the standout there. Another thing they're getting punished for is just their talk about increasing advertising.

And just this turnaround plan that they're trying to push, but the problem with that is the cost tied to that. Now you talked about, you know, so Wall Street may be a little down on it today. I mean, it didn't finish sharply lower, but it finished lower. TD Cowen says it does increase their expectations for sales for Burger King, expecting them to see comps at 5% versus 4%.

TD Cowen says it remains encouraged about the key brand's underlying performance. So clearly it likes Burger King and maybe the Whopper as well, Josh. [LAUGHS]

- Yeah, let's get a few more fans.

- And they see that the expense guidance is just noise, really just setting them up for a stronger 2024. So it'll be interesting to watch what actually happens.

- Yes, it looks like so Popeyes beats, Tim Hortons beats. I've never been to Tim Hortons. I don't have a--

- I haven't either.

- I have no line of sight into Tim Hortons.

- But Canadians love Tim Hortons.

- The Burger King, though, so their Burger King comparable sales for Q3, that missed, right? So what is the problem with the Burger King? The team at Cowen did tell their clients the issue is not idiosyncratic. There was a market slowdown they said. It names like McDonald's too. And they said their checks indicate traffic turned positive in September. So they're optimistic about Q4 traffic prospects. Outperform, so the equivalent of a buy there, target of 77.

- Yeah, another sector we're watching, this is within housing. Shares of Redfin closing down, closing-- oh, let me see it. Actually, sorry, that was a miss on my part. Up more than 21%. Despite missing sales estimate for the quarter, Redfin making progress toward revenue growth again.

The stock also moved to the upside after CEO Glenn Kelman seemed rather optimistic, despite that jury ruling earlier this week that realtors conspired to keep commissions for home sales high. There's really just been a spotlight on that sector, because of that ruling. I know you've been talking about that this week, Josh.

And I mean, Kelman just indicating that they are positioned well, if there is a shift in the industry in terms of how payments happen.

- He says, this is an outcome that Redfin has long prepared for.

- Yeah. So, I mean, so they're ready for this upheaval, I guess. Oppenheimer put out a note on Redfin. They say, you know, this just tests the brokerage model. Like are we going to see change to that model?

But Redfin seems to be considering just a pivot with regard to that. So they were already, I guess, preparing for something like this. But the caveat that Oppenheimer giving, saying we need to see evidence of agent support before becoming more bullish on the long-term opportunity. So in other words, though there may be a change coming in terms of how the industry operates as a result of this jury ruling, is everyone on board with this, right? You know.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think what is the headline that CEO Glenn Kelman, friend of Yahoo Finance-- we love Glenn, he's kind of sounding this optimistic tone on that jury ruling. That was one issue. And as for the results, if you look at the analyst commentary, some were kind of downbeat on it.

They saw the results as kind of disappointing because they thought they were what they saw as kind of mixed underlying trends. They saw profit expectations they think continue to get pushed out, because the housing market conditions have made that goal, they think, just more difficult. Others, though, said, yes, they were mixed, which they acknowledged.

But it was better headline print than maybe some just feared they thought was coming. And that gave some optimism,

- Yeah, and then, I mean, one thing that bodes well for Redfin, website visits were up, marginally, relatively speaking, up a percent year over year. So that is a positive. That's on the plus side, when you think about the company's business and the challenges that we've seen within housing.

- Right. But by the way, this stock is up nearly 50% this year now.

- Doing well.

- Nice move.

- Yes, indeed.