Wells Fargo analyst Brian Fitzgerald downgraded Booking Holdings (BKNG) to Market Perform from Outperform and while raising his price target for the shares to $2,150 from $2,000. Changes to the online marketing environment for online travel agencies have eroded Booking's competitive advantage, Fitzgerald tells investors in a research note. Further, recent management changes the company's subsidiaries and product integration challenges suggest that Booking faces "significant hurdles" in achieving its vision of the "connected trip," adds the analyst. As such, Fitzgerald views the stock as fairly valued at current levels and does not believe it deserves a valuation premium relative to Expedia (EXPE).

WEX (WEX) announced that it has reached a new long-term agreement with Booking.com (BKNG), effective April 2024. This agreement distinguishes WEX as Booking.com's preferred virtual card provider as it continues providing WEX payment solutions in support of Booking.com's payments vision to make buying and selling travel-related products and services easier for everyone. "With more than 800,000 active customer relationships worldwide, WEX is proud to work with eight of the top ten online travel agencies globally, including Booking.com," said Carlos Carriedo, WEX's Chief Operating Officer, International. "Building on years of working together, we remain committed to delivering WEX's deep expertise in both payments and travel, as well as the reliability of our technology platform, to help Booking.com power its B2B travel payment activities 24/7 and 365 days/year at scale, globally." Booking.com first became a WEX customer in 2013. Over a decade later, WEX now processes payments for Booking.com across the world.