Cowen analysts name Priceline among their 'best ideas' for 2018

Share of Priceline Group Inc. rose 0.2% in midday trading after analysts at Cowen and Co. dubbed the stock one of their "best ideas" for 2018. The analysts, led by Kevin Kopelman, think there are several misconceptions on Wall Street about Priceline's stock, which has fallen 7.6% in the last three months. Kopelman doesn't think that Priceline is moving away from Alphabet Inc.'s Google with its ad spending, and he views the company as Google's "travel wingman," even as the search platform changes its ad mix. "While there are some negatives for Priceline in the mix shift within Google results from traditional search ads to meta-search ads (i.e. "Hotel Finder"), we think Priceline is structurally positioned to continue to win on the channel -- versus other online-travel agencies and the hotel chains -- given Priceline's leading conversion rates," he wrote. Kopelman also thinks that Priceline "pulled away from the competition" in the 2017 fiscal year, posting stronger growth in contribution profit than rival Expedia Inc. . Priceline shares have gained 18% so far this year, while Expedia's stock is up 4.7%. The S&P 500 has risen 19% in that time.

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