Since November 2025, Sabre has been in a holding pattern, posting a small return of 4.3% while floating around $1.68. The stock also fell short of the S&P 500’s 9.8% gain during that period.
Is there a buying opportunity in Sabre, or does it present a risk to your portfolio? Get the full breakdown from our expert analysts, it’s free.
Why Do We Think Sabre Will Underperform?
We don’t have much confidence in Sabre. Here are three reasons we avoid SABR, plus one stock we’d rather own.
1. Weak Growth in Total Bookings Points to Soft Demand
Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (for companies like Sabre, our preferred volume metric is total bookings). While both are important, the latter is the most critical to analyze because prices have a ceiling.
Sabre’s total bookings came in at 101.3 million in the latest quarter, and over the last two years, averaged 11% year-on-year growth. This performance was underwhelming and suggests it might have to lower prices or invest in product improvements to accelerate growth, factors that can hinder near-term profitability. 
2. Cash Burn Ignites Concerns
If you’ve followed StockStory for a while, you know we emphasize free cash flow. Why, you ask? We believe that in the end, cash is king, and you can’t use accounting profits to pay the bills.
Over the last two years, Sabre’s demanding reinvestments to stay relevant have drained its resources, putting it in a pinch and limiting its ability to return capital to investors. Its free cash flow margin averaged negative 4.9%, meaning it lit $4.92 of cash on fire for every $100 in revenue.
3. High Debt Levels Increase Risk
As long-term investors, the risk we care about most is the permanent loss of capital, which can happen when a company goes bankrupt or raises money from a disadvantaged position. This is separate from short-term stock price volatility, something we are much less bothered by.
Sabre’s $4.27 billion of debt exceeds the $664.6 million of cash on its balance sheet. Furthermore, its 7× net-debt-to-EBITDA ratio (based on its EBITDA of $528.1 million over the last 12 months) shows the company is overleveraged.
At this level of debt, incremental borrowing becomes increasingly expensive and credit agencies could downgrade the company’s rating if profitability falls. Sabre could also be backed into a corner if the market turns unexpectedly – a situation we seek to avoid as investors in high-quality companies.
We hope Sabre can improve its balance sheet and remain cautious until it increases its profitability or pays down its debt.
Final Judgment
We cheer for all companies serving everyday consumers, but in the case of Sabre, we’ll be cheering from the sidelines. With its shares trailing the market in recent months, the stock trades at 6.8× forward EV-to-EBITDA (or $1.68 per share). While this valuation is fair, the upside isn’t great compared to the potential downside. There are better investments elsewhere. Let us point you toward the most entrenched endpoint security platform on the market.
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