Grimes & Company Inc. Purchases Shares of 57 Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Grimes & Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 57 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in shares of Booking by 20.5% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 2,348 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,518,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Booking during the first quarter valued at approximately $537,000. BDF Gestion acquired a new position in shares of Booking during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,897,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new position in shares of Booking during the first quarter valued at approximately $519,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Booking by 41.9% during the first quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 1,084 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,933,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on BKNG. Benchmark lowered their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,700.00 to $4,600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,150.00 to $4,100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $3,900.00 target price on shares of Booking in a report on Monday, August 5th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Booking from $4,285.00 to $4,580.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Booking from $4,250.00 to $4,800.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Booking currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $4,183.75.

Booking Stock Up 0.6 %

BKNG stock opened at $4,338.73 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $2,733.04 and a 12-month high of $4,395.00. The company has a market cap of $145.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.38, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50 day moving average of $4,029.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3,838.71.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $39.22 by $2.68. Booking had a net margin of 22.46% and a negative return on equity of 200.87%. The company had revenue of $5.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $37.62 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 177.17 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $8.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.50%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total transaction of $388,761.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 3,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,722,379.07. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.