Brokerages Set Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Price Target at $5,299.29

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-one brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nineteen have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5,299.29.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Booking from $4,567.00 to $4,692.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. B. Riley upped their price objective on shares of Booking from $6,000.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Cfra upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG opened at $5,262.42 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $4,689.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $4,862.12. Booking has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24. The stock has a market cap of $171.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.42.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $17.57 by $7.24. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $20.39 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Booking will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 23.89%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Booking

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in Booking by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,321,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Booking by 20.3% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 905 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,495,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in Booking by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,160,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Booking by 5.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $166,787,000 after buying an additional 2,010 shares during the period. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp boosted its stake in Booking by 160.0% during the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 1,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,459,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Booking

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.