Patron Partners LLC Purchases New Shares in Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Patron Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 5,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $970,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking during the 2nd quarter worth about $302,000. OneAscent Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in Booking in the 2nd quarter worth about $667,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Booking in the 2nd quarter worth about $546,000. Bowie Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Booking in the second quarter worth about $68,004,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in Booking in the second quarter worth about $2,100,000. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In related news, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was 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 16,508 shares in the company, valued at $3,169,536. The trade was a 6.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Peter J. Millones sold 62,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.67, for a total transaction of $10,229,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 425,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,572,025.25. This trade represents a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 140,050 shares of company stock worth $26,341,680 over the last quarter. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Booking Stock Performance

Booking stock opened at $209.62 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $188.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $177.19. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $150.14 and a fifty-two week high of $231.80. The company has a market capitalization of $157.50 billion, a PE ratio of 23.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.07.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.11. Booking had a negative return on equity of 102.96% and a net margin of 25.53%.The firm had revenue of $7.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $55.40 earnings per share. Booking’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BKNG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on Booking from $266.00 to $274.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $240.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Booking from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $230.00 price objective on Booking in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.72.

Booking 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.