Tripadvisor’s strategic plan, along with its recent outperformance, alienated Bernstein. Analyst Richard Clarke downgraded the stock from Outperform based on the market’s performance. Clarke also cut his price target from $2 to $26. That price target means the stock could rise 3.2% over the next year from where it closed Wednesday. The travel platform on Tuesday reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter. However, looking ahead, the company expects flat adjusted EBITDA in 2023, despite nearly 20% growth over the past year. The stock was down 2.9% in premarket trading on Thursday. Management laid out what Clark called a “highly sensible” strategic plan for its core business during the fourth-quarter earnings call. This includes retrenching sectors such as media and entertainment to focus on better performing units. But Clark said the plan’s guided results still keep its core revenue under 2019 levels, while investments will offset any cost savings measures. This led Clark to revise down its EBITDA forecasts to 11% in 2023 and 20% in 2024. “This is going to be a steady multi-year roll-out and the end result will be ‘long-term steady profitable growth’, which is largely in line with the consensus outlook and below our previous expectations,” he said in a note to clients on Thursday. said in. He also said that the investment move has chipped away at the profits from the company’s “spirited” start. The stock is up 40.2% since the start of 2023, hitting ground again in 2022 after a 34% decline. The recent outperformance makes the stock less attractive, Clark said. But the company still has long-term monetization opportunities, with Clark noting that the company has a low market cap-to-users ratio and the potential for increased monetization. Clarke also noted that Viator and Fork remain the top brands within Tripadvisor, with the former still considered the best experience brand and the latter performing better in the European restaurant market. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.