StockNews.com Lowers Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) to Hold

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

BKNG has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Booking from $4,600.00 to $4,200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Booking from $4,150.00 to $4,100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Booking from $3,976.00 to $4,173.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of Booking from $3,950.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, B. Riley dropped their target price on shares of Booking from $4,900.00 to $4,650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $4,164.11.

Booking Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $4,313.01 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $4,029.83 and a 200-day moving average of $3,838.71. The company has a market capitalization of $146.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.35, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.40. Booking has a 52 week low of $2,733.04 and a 52 week high of $4,395.00.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $39.22 by $2.68. The company had revenue of $5.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.77 billion. Booking had a net margin of 22.46% and a negative return on equity of 200.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $37.62 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Booking will post 177.05 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total transaction of $388,761.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 3,787 shares in the company, valued at $14,722,379.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Booking by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,954,450 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,718,390,000 after acquiring an additional 12,456 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Booking by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 514,336 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,865,949,000 after acquiring an additional 21,969 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in Booking by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 358,720 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,421,069,000 after acquiring an additional 10,889 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Booking by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 193,515 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $702,049,000 after acquiring an additional 43,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Booking by 22.1% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 159,956 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $584,492,000 after acquiring an additional 28,904 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

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.