Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Shares Bought by L1 Capital International Pty Ltd

L1 Capital International Pty Ltd increased its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 366.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,665 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,597 shares during the period. Booking accounts for about 6.6% of L1 Capital International Pty Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. L1 Capital International Pty Ltd’s holdings in Booking were worth $126,734,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in Booking by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 121 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $700,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Monetary Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in Booking by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 188 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,015,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Elgethun Capital Management lifted its stake in Booking by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Elgethun Capital Management now owns 97 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $517,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. First Western Trust Bank lifted its stake in Booking by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. First Western Trust Bank now owns 60 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Finally, CGN Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Booking by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. CGN Advisors LLC now owns 57 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BKNG shares. Evercore set a $245.00 target price on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $215.00 target price on shares of Booking and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Susquehanna set a $260.00 target price on shares of Booking in a report on Friday, February 20th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $259.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Booking from $226.00 to $223.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.14.

Booking Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $164.94 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $169.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.81 billion, a PE ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.08. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $150.14 and a fifty-two week high of $233.58.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $5.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.52 billion. Booking had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 117.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.99 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 22.11%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $216,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,050 shares in the company, valued at $3,081,600. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.36, for a total transaction of $3,100,331.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 298,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,269,532.64. This trade represents a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 97,076 shares of company stock worth $16,417,121 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.16% 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.