By Adriano Marchese

Booking Holdings Inc. on Wednesday reported a much-narrowed loss in the first quarter, despite a fall in revenue in the period.

The travel technology company said loss per share was $1.34, compared with a loss of $17.01 in the comparable quarter a year ago.

Net loss was $55 million, compared with $699 million a year ago. The company said that the results for this quarter include net gains on marketable equity securities of $32 million while the results for the first quarter of the prior year include net losses on marketable equity securities of $307 million.

Adjusted loss was $5.26 a share, beating analyst forecasts, polled on FactSet, anticipating a loss of $5.97.

Revenue fell to $1.14 billion from $2.29 billion.

"We saw encouraging signs of improving booking trends in the first quarter that continued into April with notable strength in the U.S.," Chief Executive Officer Glenn Fogel said.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-05-21 1636ET