Morgan Stanley raised its price target on The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN) to $1,800.00 (from $1,750.00) while maintaining a Overweight rating.

Following The Priceline Group's strong Q4 beat Monday after hours, analyst Brian Nowak distributed the following comments to clients:

"Looking at the details, PCLN delivered strong 4Q:16 room night and ex FX bookings growth (as both accelerated on a one- and two-year basis) and 4Q adj. EPS was 4% better than we expected. PCLN beat its own expectations by more than usual as well (notable given the high visibility in its business) as PCLN beat the top-end of its 4Q adj EPS guidance by 11%, the second largest beat in 2 years (trailing only the ~11.5% beat in 2Q:16). 1Q topline looks strong too, as the top-end of PCLN's 1Q:17 Y/Y room night guidance (25%) was better than us (we were at 22%). The $8.65 top-end of 1Q:17 adj EPS was 11% below our previous estimate, though we note that the big difference seems to be largely due to continued reinvestment in performance marketing to drive more room nights in 2Q, 3Q and beyond. In fact, for now, PCLN see less ROI pressure in 1Q than the last few quarters and expects performance advertising deleverage (as a percentage of gross profit) in 1H:17 to be slightly less than 2H:16...implying an improvement in 2Q:17. This, in our view speaks to PCLN's controlled investment as it grows...which leaves us bullish about the long-term earnings power."