Street View: Booking Holdings may be shielded from AI disruption noise

Booking Holdings

19/02/2026 12:44

** Online travel agency Booking Holdings BKNG.O beat Wall Street's Q4 profit estimates on Wednesday, supported by steady international travel demand

STILL WINS THE AI SEARCH

** RBC Capital Markets ("outperform," PT: $6,100) says strong room-night growth and a pickup in U.S. trends give AI skeptics less evidence of disruption

** Improving loyalty and direct customer relationships offer additional protection against potential AI risks - RBC

** B. Riley ("buy," PT: $6,800) says the risk of agentic AI cutting out OTAs (online travel agencies) is unwarranted given BKNG's differentiated, complex offering

** Morningstar (fair value: $5,300) says "we think agentic AI will draw the trusted data of BKNG aggregated platforms and are unlikely to offer payment and service capabilities themselves, which the firm's boutique and rentals suppliers often lack"

** Evercore ISI ("outperform," PT: $6,250) believes that BKNG will be an AI winner and will manage the shift to agentic travel as well as it handled the move to search-based travel

 (Reporting by Kanishka Ajmera in Bengaluru)

 ((Kanishka.Ajmera@thomsonreuters.com))