Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Shares Bought by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 131,702 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,849 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Booking were worth $654,351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BKNG. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Booking by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,321,000 after buying an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Booking by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 179,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $896,455,000 after purchasing an additional 8,735 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Booking by 20.3% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 905 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,495,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Booking by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,160,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Booking by 5.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $166,787,000 after purchasing an additional 2,010 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,400.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Booking from $4,600.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Erste Group Bank cut Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $5,120.00 target price (up from $4,900.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,634.24 on Monday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $3,180.00 and a twelve month high of $5,337.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $4,779.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4,740.07. The company has a market capitalization of $152.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. As a group, research analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.19%.

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.