Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Receives $3,697.38 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-nine brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $3,723.41.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BKNG. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $3,850.00 target price on shares of Booking in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Booking from $3,580.00 to $4,250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Booking from $3,250.00 to $4,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,493.71, for a total transaction of $2,620,282.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,888 shares in the company, valued at $121,888,554.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Booking news, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 28 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,497.80, for a total value of $97,938.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 348 shares in the company, valued at $1,217,234.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,493.71, for a total value of $2,620,282.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $121,888,554.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,467 shares of company stock worth $22,299,114 over the last ninety days. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Booking

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Booking by 37.2% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 64,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $151,044,000 after acquiring an additional 17,432 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Booking by 18.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 613 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,440,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Booking in the first quarter valued at $387,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Booking by 2.0% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,585 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,767,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Booking by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 12 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG opened at $3,521.93 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $3,592.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3,333.46. Booking has a one year low of $2,456.93 and a one year high of $3,918.00. The firm has a market cap of $120.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $32.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $29.72 by $2.28. The firm had revenue of $4.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.71 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 751.49% and a net margin of 20.08%. The company’s revenue was up 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $24.74 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Booking will post 175.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $8.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.99%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.67%.

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.