Argus analyst John Staszak initiated coverage of Expedia Inc with a Buy rating and $178 price target. Expedia shares were trading around $150 mid-day Wednesday. “We expect Expedia to benefit from growth in online travel bookings for air, rail, cruise, hotel, rental car and vacation packages in Asia, Europe and the U.S.,” said Staszak in a note (see his track record here). The analyst’s confidence in the company stems largely from the strong growth figures reported in its first quarter 2017 earnings report. The company owns several online booking platforms, several of which showed strong double-digit earnings growth over the last year, including Trivago NV - ADR TRVG, up 62 percent, and HomeAway, up 30 percent. Both saw especially strong growth in Asia.Read more