Why Airbnb Stock Jumped on Friday

Shares of travel booking platform Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) jumped on Friday after the company reported financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024. As of 9:45 a.m. ET, Airbnb stock was up 13%.

Another quarter of growth and profits

In Q4, Airbnb's financial results beat expectations on the top and bottom lines. The company enjoyed a 12% jump in nights and experiences booked on its platform, with December capping off its best growth of the year. Average daily rates were up slightly as well. And this resulted in 12% year-over-year growth for revenue, which came in at $2.5 billion.

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On the bottom line, Airbnb had a net income of $461 million, up dramatically from its net loss of $349 million in the prior-year period. Additionally, the company had a full-year operating income of nearly $2.6 billion, up 68% from 2023 and good for a fantastic margin of 23%.

In short, these are incredibly strong numbers from Airbnb, giving investors plenty of confidence in its ability to compete in its space over the long term.

What's the plan for Airbnb?

I believe that Airbnb is really striking a great balance with its business. It's clearly still investing for growth -- specifically, it's trying to better localize its brand to grow in certain international markets, and it plans to invest $200 million to $250 million in 2025 to develop new businesses. But management is obviously also interested in profits (as evidenced by its high margins in 2024) as well as returning capital to shareholders. For example, it bought back over $800 million of its stock in Q4 alone.

With so many things going right and such a vision to keep taking steps forward, I understand why the market celebrated its 2024 results today.

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Jon Quast has positions in Airbnb. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Airbnb. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.