Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Shares Acquired by Fountainhead AM LLC

Fountainhead AM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 57.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the quarter. Fountainhead AM LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $413,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Booking in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. acquired a new stake in Booking in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Booking by 400.0% in the second quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 5 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 4 shares during the period. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Booking in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking during the second quarter worth $35,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on BKNG. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $6,250.00 to $6,400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group set a $6,806.00 price target on shares of Booking and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Benchmark upped their price objective on Booking from $6,200.00 to $6,400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Booking in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6,121.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 625 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,141.53, for a total value of $3,213,456.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,982 shares in the company, valued at $118,162,642.46. This trade represents a 2.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Larry Quinlan sold 64 shares of the business’s 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 directly owned 131 shares in the company, valued at $722,045.80. This represents a 32.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 3,197 shares of company stock valued at $17,260,963 over the last three months. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Booking Stock Performance

NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,940.00 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $159.24 billion, a PE ratio of 32.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.34. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $4,096.23 and a one year high of $5,839.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $5,311.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5,412.28.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $95.56 by $3.94. The firm had revenue of $9.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.71 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.86% and a net margin of 19.37%.The business’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $83.39 earnings per share. Booking has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 24.96%.

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.