Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-seven ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $227.1388.

BKNG has been the subject of several research reports. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Booking from $260.00 to $237.40 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of Booking from $256.00 to $224.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Booking in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. HSBC dropped their price target on shares of Booking from $309.84 to $298.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Argus increased their target price on Booking from $188.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th.

Booking Stock Down 2.3%

NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $171.63 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $169.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.77. The company has a market cap of $132.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. Booking has a 52 week low of $150.14 and a 52 week high of $233.58.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $5.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.52 billion. Booking had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 117.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.99 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Booking will post 10.44 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 22.11%.

Insider Activity at Booking

In related news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.36, for a total value of $3,100,331.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 298,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,269,532.64. This represents a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $216,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,050 shares in the company, valued at $3,081,600. This trade represents a 6.55% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 80,351 shares of company stock valued at $13,545,706 over the last quarter. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BKNG. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter worth about $361,463,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 7.2% during the third quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 22,669 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $122,396,000 after purchasing an additional 1,514 shares during the last quarter. Rit Capital Partners PLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter worth about $51,396,000. Longbow Finance SA grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 121.9% during the third quarter. Longbow Finance SA now owns 1,875 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,124,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 64,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $347,604,000 after purchasing an additional 11,042 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Company Profile

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel company that operates a portfolio of consumer brands and technology platforms that facilitate the search for and booking of travel services. The company’s businesses focus on accommodations, transportation and related travel services through consumer-facing websites and apps as well as partner distribution channels. Booking Holdings was originally founded as Priceline in the late 1990s and adopted the Booking Holdings name in 2018; it is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Its core offerings include online reservations for hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging; flight and car rental search and booking; and ancillary services that support travel planning and on-property experiences.