Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Stake Trimmed by Freedom Investment Management Inc.

Freedom Investment Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 23.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 318 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 95 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Booking were worth $1,578,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,295,423,000 after acquiring an additional 864,406 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter valued at $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 51.4% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 280,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,283,000 after purchasing an additional 95,308 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Booking by 132.7% in the fourth quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 88,754 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $440,967,000 after buying an additional 50,605 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth $207,089,000. 92.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank downgraded Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. BTIG Research raised shares of Booking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $5,500.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $4,800.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Eleven 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,278.66.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG stock opened at $4,573.31 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $4,689.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4,774.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.37. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $3,180.00 and a 52-week high of $5,337.24.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. The firm 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%. Equities analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $9.60 dividend. This is an increase from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.84%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.19%.

About Booking

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.