Priceline Is Due for a TRIP

Priceline Group is a huge internet company that continues to grow, is immensely profitable and usually over-delivers on its forecasts. Yet cutthroat competition in the online travel industry has left its stock looking dull lately.

The $64 billion behemoth and its fiercest rival, $16 billion Expedia, have been going head to head for the best assets, as newer vacation-rental entrants like HomeAway and Airbnb -- valued at almost $26 billion in its latest funding round -- take some market share. Most of the big takeover candidates have already been bought up: Kayak and Booking.com are owned by Priceline, which has also been investing in businesses abroad such as China's Ctrip.com, while Travelocity, Orbitz and HomeAway have all sold to Expedia. In fact, the September completion of the Orbitz deal allowed Expedia to reclaim the No. 1 position in online bookings.