Does Priceline (PCLN) Deserve to Be $1,000?

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) hasn’t done it. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) never came close. Few stocks in history have ever made it there.

Yet Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN), an online travel-booking company with a market cap of $49 billion, is on the brink of becoming a $1,000 stock.

The company reported strong second-quarter earnings Thursday evening, sending the stock up 36 points today. At $970 per share, Priceline is just a tick below its all-time high and threatening to become a $1,000 stock.

A year ago, I doubt many people would have put money on Priceline to beat Apple or Google to $1,000. What’s more amazing is that even at such a lofty share price, the stock is trading at less than 34 times trailing earnings. That’s not necessarily cheap. But when you consider that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has a P/E of 174 and LinkedIn’s (NYSE: LNKD) P/E is a whopping 895.

That said … would you pay close to $1,000 for one share of an online travel company? Psychologically, Priceline may be entering dangerous territory. There’s a reason not many stocks make it to $1,000 a share. You can buy either 26 shares of Facebook, 11 shares of Exxon (NYSE: XOM) or 31 shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) with $1,000.

We’ll see if Priceline makes it to four figures. If it does, don’t expect it to stay there for long.