Glenn D. Fogel Sells 750 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Stock

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,534.10, for a total value of $2,650,575.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 26,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $95,318,211.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Booking Stock Performance

Booking stock opened at $3,430.14 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $2,456.93 and a 52 week high of $3,918.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $117.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.08, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $3,578.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3,364.71.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $32.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $29.72 by $2.28. Booking had a negative return on equity of 751.49% and a net margin of 20.08%. The company had revenue of $4.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $24.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 18.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 175.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.67%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Booking

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,068,137,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Booking by 3,557.5% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 142,166 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $333,870,000 after buying an additional 138,279 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of Booking by 61.6% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 295,891 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $596,303,000 after buying an additional 112,831 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Booking by 2,479.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 116,777 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $414,234,000 after buying an additional 112,249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the first quarter valued at approximately $401,371,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on BKNG shares. B. Riley started coverage on Booking in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $4,400.00 price objective on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Booking in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Booking from $3,600.00 to $4,100.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $3,850.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price target on Booking from $3,600.00 to $3,950.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Booking has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3,723.41.

About Booking

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.