Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Shares Bought by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 270 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 14 shares during the quarter. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $1,341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,295,423,000 after buying an additional 864,406 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 797,116 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,350,605,000 after buying an additional 11,211 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 492,274 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,073,508,000 after buying an additional 2,321 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 418,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,763,797,000 after buying an additional 13,429 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 296,599 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,249,311,000 after buying an additional 11,649 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BKNG shares. Baird R W raised shares of Booking to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $5,120.00 price target (up from $4,900.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Booking from $4,580.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Booking has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of Booking stock opened at $4,673.38 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $153.36 billion, a PE ratio of 27.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $4,872.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4,662.88. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. On average, equities analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 22.19%.

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.