Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its price target on TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) to $10.00 from $14.00 and kept an Underweight rating on the shares on Friday. The stock was trading around $9.96, roughly 50% below its 52-week high of $20.16 and down about 43% over the past six months.
TripAdvisor reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.89 billion, a result that was largely in line with consensus estimates. The company recorded EBITDA of $215 million for the quarter, which missed Visible Alpha-based Street expectations by $7 million. Despite these shortfalls, InvestingPro analysis referenced by the research note indicates that the company remained profitable over the most recent twelve-month period.
Management's outlook for the first quarter disappointed analysts. TripAdvisor projected revenue and EBITDA declines in the range of 3% to 5% year-over-year, citing persistent demand pressures in its hotels segment and ongoing, near-term investment into its Experiences business. For the full fiscal year 2026, the company forecasted modest revenue growth and mid-single-digit EBITDA growth, while also noting active discussions with large language models to deepen partnerships as it contends with traffic challenges.
Cantor Fitzgerald commented that TripAdvisor's strategic pivot toward experiences is the correct long-term direction, but added that structural headwinds in the company's core hotels business are likely to continue to weigh on financial performance in the nearer term. The analyst lowered the price target to reflect those operational pressures and the weaker guidance.
The company also released its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, which included a notable earnings-per-share miss and a slight revenue shortfall. TripAdvisor reported EPS of $0.04, well below the expected $0.17 - a surprise of approximately -76.47%. Quarterly revenue was $411 million versus a forecast of $412.33 million, a small miss versus expectations. These results highlighted the difficulties the company faced during the period and have drawn attention from investors and analysts monitoring upcoming performance and execution against the stated strategy.
Summary
Cantor Fitzgerald's downgrade of TripAdvisor's price target reflects concern that weaker hotel demand and near-term spending on Experiences will pressure margins and results. The company reported mixed fourth-quarter results and gave cautious guidance for the first quarter, while outlining modest full-year expectations and exploration of deeper partnerships with large language models amid traffic headwinds.
Key points
- Cantor Fitzgerald lowered TripAdvisor's price target to $10.00 from $14.00 and maintained an Underweight rating.
- Q4 revenue was $1.89 billion and EBITDA was $215 million, missing Street EBITDA estimates by $7 million based on Visible Alpha data.
- Management guided for a 3-5% year-over-year decline in revenue and EBITDA in Q1 and expects modest revenue growth and mid-single-digit EBITDA growth for fiscal 2026, while pursuing technology partnerships and investing in Experiences.
Risks and uncertainties
- Continued weakness in the hotels segment could further depress revenue and margins, impacting the online travel and hospitality sectors.
- Near-term investments in the Experiences business may prolong margin pressure before generating meaningful returns, affecting travel-platform profitability.
- Persistent traffic challenges, even as the company pursues partnerships with large language models, could limit revenue growth and user engagement.
Investors will likely be watching upcoming quarters closely to see whether TripAdvisor's strategic shifts can offset structural headwinds in its core hotels business and whether the company can return to stronger EBITDA growth in line with its fiscal 2026 targets.