Priceline Shares Up 58 Percent in 2013
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Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Priceline.com is back and better than ever. It’s taken more than 14 years, but shares are now back where they were during the dot-com boom.
Friday morning shares of the travel website were trading up almost $47 to $981 a share. So far this year, the company’s shares have jumped 58 percent, and over the last five years, its up 921 percent.
Priceline came within $6 of the $1000-share mark at the opening of trading on Friday.
The reason for the latest stock surge is that Priceline reported better than expected earnings after the Thursday’s closing bell on Wall Street. The travel company’s earnings were strong as a result of growth overseas.
Though this week’s news is good the company, famous Priceline pitchman William Shatner, who was paid originally in stock and cash for his role in the company’s advertising, isn’t jumping up and down with the stock at these levels — more like kicking himself.
Shatner sold his early stake in the company before it made a comeback from the dot-com bust.
He told Businessweek back in 2010, “I made some money, but nothing like what I would’ve have had I held onto it.”
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