Cumberland Partners Ltd Purchases 125 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Cumberland Partners Ltd grew its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 89.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 265 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 125 shares during the quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in Booking were worth $933,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Activest Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Naples Money Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total transaction of $14,724,670.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,826,417. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total transaction of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 33,548 shares in the company, valued at $114,826,417. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,534.10, for a total value of $2,650,575.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 26,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,318,211.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,461 shares of company stock valued at $18,815,825 over the last ninety days. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Booking from $3,080.00 to $3,610.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Booking from $3,550.00 to $3,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. JMP Securities upped their price target on Booking from $3,600.00 to $3,950.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Booking from $3,450.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Booking in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $4,150.00 price target for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Booking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3,723.41.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG traded down $18.70 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $3,515.29. 84,679 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 268,469. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $3,560.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $3,378.24. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $2,456.93 and a 12 month high of $3,918.00.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $32.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $29.72 by $2.28. The company had revenue of $4.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 751.49% and a net margin of 20.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $24.74 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 175.86 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Booking’s payout ratio is 29.67%.

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.