LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Shore Capital reiterated its 'buy' rating and 142.0p target price on Hostelworld on Thursday following the group's H1 trading update.
Shore Capital noted that net revenue of €46.7m was flat year-on-year, with net bookings also flat at 3.7m, reflecting previously flagged headwinds of geographic mix, USD weakness and softness in European bed pricing, and compares with full year assumptions of "mid-single digit" revenue growth.

The broker stated that encouragingly, trading in June was said to have strengthened with both volume and ABV growth across all regions, including strong demand for intra-European travel.

"We are encouraged by commentary on strategic initiatives, notably the rollout of Elevate, its new marketplace monitisation tool, with H1 commission rates up 60bps to 15.8% in H1, despite only being launched in June," said the analysts.

Furthermore, Shore Capital noted that mobile app bookings grew 11% in H1 and the global marketplace for Trip Plans was also said to be gaining traction, helping to increase the proportion of booking from social members, rising a further 5% from last H1 to 85%.

"We believe that all this bodes well for the second half, with full year assumptions implying high-single digit net revenue growth in H2, and over the medium term," said Shore Capital.



Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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