Pointe Capital Management LLC Buys Shares of 44 Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Pointe Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 44 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in Booking by 16.4% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its stake in shares of Booking by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 931 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,921,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 179,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $896,455,000 after purchasing an additional 8,735 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in Booking by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,160,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Booking by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $166,787,000 after buying an additional 2,010 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Booking from $5,005.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $5,400.00 price target on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,900.00 to $5,540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,560.00 to $5,960.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, B. Riley lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $5,033.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $165.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.09, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.39. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $3,180.00 and a one year high of $5,337.24. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $4,898.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4,591.58.

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

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $9.60 dividend. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 20.23%.

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.