Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty-five brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $6,149.2333.

BKNG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wedbush upgraded Booking from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $6,000.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Truist Financial set a $5,810.00 price target on Booking in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Mizuho set a $6,000.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $5,433.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on shares of Booking from $5,590.00 to $5,550.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th.

Booking Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG opened at $5,406.99 on Thursday. Booking has a twelve month low of $4,096.23 and a twelve month high of $5,839.41. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $5,080.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5,372.85. The company has a market capitalization of $174.27 billion, a PE ratio of 35.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.25.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $95.56 by $3.94. Booking had a net margin of 19.37% and a negative return on equity of 134.86%. The business had revenue of $9.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $83.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Booking will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 24.96%.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, Director Robert J. Mylod, Jr. sold 40 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,000.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 960 shares in the company, valued at $4,800,000. The trade was a 4.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,414.53, for a total value of $3,091,696.63. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 21,010 shares in the company, valued at $113,759,275.30. The trade was a 2.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,324 shares of company stock valued at $17,193,557. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Booking

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,974,790 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $16,061,694,000 after buying an additional 12,083 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 854,838 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,936,132,000 after acquiring an additional 9,333 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Booking by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 405,105 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,187,269,000 after acquiring an additional 25,522 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Booking during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,210,917,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in Booking by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 377,198 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,183,690,000 after purchasing an additional 17,662 shares during the last quarter. 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.