Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 2,071.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,406 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,157 shares during the period. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $964,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG purchased a new stake in shares of Booking in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,687,000. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 2,860.8% during the 2nd quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 12,554 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,238,000 after acquiring an additional 12,130 shares during the period. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $361,463,000. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 1,663.9% in the 2nd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 28,698 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,115,000 after acquiring an additional 27,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rit Capital Partners PLC bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth $51,396,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial set a $242.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Booking from $266.00 to $274.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $234.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 target price (up from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Booking from $175.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.70.

Booking Stock Down 0.9%

Booking stock opened at $193.29 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $150.14 and a 52 week high of $226.10. The firm has a market cap of $145.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $194.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $178.43.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $7.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.19 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 102.96% and a net margin of 25.53%.Booking’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $55.40 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.48 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.48, for a total value of $610,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 73,400 shares in the company, valued at $14,935,432. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Ewout L. Steenbergen sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.03, for a total transaction of $4,220,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 59,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,618,327.82. This trade represents a 25.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 81,550 shares of company stock valued at $16,922,744. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Booking 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.