Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 265 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Retirement Systems of Alabama reduced its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 1.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 18,219 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 265 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned approximately 0.06% of Booking worth $105,474,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Booking by 79.5% in the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 10,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $58,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,461 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Booking by 5.6% in the second quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 151 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $874,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares during the period. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Booking by 1.0% in the second quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 207 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,200,000 after purchasing an additional 2 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors boosted its position in shares of Booking by 22.7% in the second quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 1,238 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,168,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. Finally, Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Booking by 100.0% in the second quarter. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 6 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Booking

In other Booking news, Director Larry Quinlan sold 64 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,511.80, for a total transaction of $352,755.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 131 shares in the company, valued at $722,045.80. This trade represents a 32.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,516.92, for a total transaction of $5,588,639.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 23,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,237,930.44. This trade represents a 4.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 3,197 shares of company stock worth $17,260,963 over the last 90 days. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BKNG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Booking from $5,640.00 to $6,050.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wedbush set a $6,000.00 price target on shares of Booking and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Booking from $6,450.00 to $6,630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Gordon Haskett dropped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,680.00 to $5,620.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho set a $6,000.00 target price on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6,132.29.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $5,075.86 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $5,406.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $5,386.27. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $4,096.23 and a fifty-two week high of $5,839.41. The firm has a market cap of $164.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.35.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $95.56 by $3.94. Booking had a net margin of 19.37% and a negative return on equity of 129.67%. The firm had revenue of $9.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $83.39 earnings per share. Booking’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. Booking has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.71%.

Booking Profile

Booking Holdings Inc, formerly The Priceline Group Inc, is a provider of travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The Company, through its online travel companies (OTCs), connects consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services across the world. It offers consumers an array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through its Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands.