Airbnb stock is down below consensus analyst price targets.
The company has a long opportunity to grow internationally.
Management is expanding its product offerings and utilizing artificial intelligence (AI).
10 stocks we like better than Airbnb ›
The investing world is enamored with artificial intelligence (AI). It seems like every stock deemed an AI “winner” is soaring to all-time highs, with trillions upon trillions of dollars in market value added to these stocks in the last two years. Not every AI stock is soaring, though.
Enter Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB). The online travel portal’s stock is trading down 43% from all-time highs set in early 2021, even though the business continues to expand and should see increased opportunities and efficiencies from deploying AI tools. Wall Street has a consensus price target of $139 versus Airbnb’s stock price of $123 (as of Oct. 15), but I think the stock is going much higher over the long term.
Here’s why Airbnb is an unstoppable stock for investors to buy and hold for the next decade and beyond.
For those living in the United States or other English-speaking markets, Airbnb may seem like a mature service. Last quarter, the platform generated $23.5 billion in gross booking spend from travelers, and now controls a sizable percentage of tourist lodging in these markets. The same cannot be said for non-English-speaking countries.
The majority of Airbnb’s bookings today still come from its original markets, such as the United States. While North American demand is expected to steadily grow (nights booked grew in the low single digits year over year last quarter), management believes its opportunity for outsized growth over the next few years lies in new markets. Airbnb’s presence in huge tourist areas such as Italy, Brazil, or Japan is tiny compared to its market share in North America, which it aims to fix in the coming years.
In order to take advantage of this opportunity, Airbnb is localizing its product and marketing for these specific countries, which is already bearing fruit…
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