DA Davidson has revised down its one-year price objective for Airbnb Inc. to $150.00 from $155.00, while continuing to carry a Buy rating on the shares. The new target implies roughly 25% upside from the cited reference price of $120.40, and comes as Airbnb shares are noted to be nearly 15% lower year-to-date.
The firm characterized Airbnb's fourth-quarter performance as "solid," saying that essentially all primary financial metrics beat expectations and that growth accelerated across geographic regions. Management's results reflected strong profitability - the company retained an approximately 83% gross profit margin - and an annualized revenue run-rate of $11.9 billion over the last twelve months.
DA Davidson said Airbnb expects the acceleration to persist into 2026. The company is guiding to first-quarter growth of about 15% at the midpoint and targets "at least low double digits" for the full year. By contrast, the consensus forecast that preceded the earnings release had projected 10.2% growth.
Following the quarter, DA Davidson modestly increased its 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA estimates by about 3%, reflecting the stronger-than-expected top-line momentum and operating performance. Despite those upward estimate revisions, the firm lowered its price target, attributing the change to what it described as broader AI-related multiple compression across the market. DA Davidson's $150 target corresponds to an implied 17x enterprise value to EBITDA multiple based on the firm's 2026 projections for Airbnb.
The quarterly results were mixed at the profit-and-loss level. Airbnb missed consensus earnings per share expectations, reporting $0.56 in EPS versus a forecast of $0.66, a shortfall of 15.15%. Revenue, however, exceeded estimates, with $2.8 billion reported compared with the expected $2.71 billion, a 2.58% surprise to the upside.
Analyst responses to the quarter and near-term prospects have varied. Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its price target to $121.00 from $141.00 and maintained a Neutral rating, citing flat margins despite the company beating street estimates for bookings and EBITDA. Bernstein upheld an Outperform rating and a $162.00 target, pointing to solid growth and a 10% increase in nights booked. Evercore ISI upgraded Airbnb to Outperform with a $145.00 price target, highlighting product improvements alongside the strong quarterly showing. These divergent analyst stances underscore differing views on how to weight near-term execution, margin dynamics, and valuation pressures.
In sum, the combination of robust top-line growth and high gross margins in the quarter has led some forecasters to increase forward revenue and EBITDA assumptions, while a wider recalibration of valuation multiples has prompted at least one prominent firm to lower its price objective. The result is a consensus landscape of mixed signals: operating momentum on one hand and compressed market multiples on the other.