UPDATE 2-Priceline profit jumps on bookings growth

* Q4 net profit $1.55/shr

* Gross bookings up 52.9 percent

* Shares up 7 percent at $228 after-hours
(Recasts first sentence, adds CEO comments, Wall Street
forecast)

By Kyle Peterson

CHICAGO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Online travel agency
Priceline.com (PCLN.O) said on Wednesday quarterly profit more
than doubled on a 52.9 percent increase in the value of travel
bookings and predicted "excellent" but slower growth in
bookings for the first quarter.

The results topped expectations and sent shares up 7
percent in after-hours trading.

The fourth-quarter profit growth represents a stark
improvement from the year-ago period, when the travel industry
was clobbered by an economic downturn that eroded demand.

"The company had good transaction growth both in the
international business and in the domestic business," Chief
Executive Jeffery Boyd told Reuters.

"We're comping in some fairly weak performance in the
year-earlier period when the economy was really taking a leg
down," Boyd said. "The year-over-year growth rates are looking
pretty good."

The company said fourth-quarter profit rose to $78.5
million, or $1.55 per share, compared with $34.1 million, or
75 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Priceline posted a profit of
$1.99 per share. Wall Street had expected the company to earn
$1.68 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Priceline shares traded at $228 in after-hours trade, up
from their closing price of $212.87 on the Nasdaq.

The travel industry has been hit in the last year by an
economic downturn that eroded demand. Online travel companies
responded by slashing fees and offering promotions to bolster
bookings.

Priceline, best known for its name-your-own-price auction,
said the total value of its bookings rose 52.9 percent in the
quarter. Domestic bookings grew 20.6 percent. International
bookings were up 81 percent.

Priceline predicted a year-over-year increase in total
travel bookings of about 42 to 48 percent in the first quarter
of 2010.

"These are good growth numbers," Boyd said. "They represent
a slowdown in growth from the very high 52 percent growth we
had in the fourth quarter. But we are starting to compare
against relatively better business performance."
(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Richard Chang and
Matthew Lewis)