Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Shares Sold by Howe & Rusling Inc.

Howe & Rusling Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 12.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,210 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 179 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Booking were worth $7,006,000 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 acquired a new stake in shares of Booking during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Booking during the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 5 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 4 shares during the last quarter. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Booking during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Booking in the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group set a $6,806.00 target price on shares of Booking and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their price objective on Booking from $6,000.00 to $6,250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Booking from $6,450.00 to $6,630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $5,433.00 price target on shares of Booking in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6,139.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Booking

In related news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,007.69, for a total transaction of $2,003,076.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 21,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $108,922,265.19. This represents a 1.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 15 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,030.00, for a total value of $75,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,606,510. This represents a 2.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 3,452 shares of company stock valued at $17,987,397 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of BKNG opened at $4,690.77 on Thursday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $4,096.23 and a twelve month high of $5,839.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $5,214.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5,407.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $95.56 by $3.94. The company had revenue of $9.01 billion during 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 firm’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $83.39 earnings per share. Booking has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Booking’s payout ratio is 24.96%.

Booking Company 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.