VeraBank N.A. Has $401,000 Stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

VeraBank N.A. grew its holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 113 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the quarter. VeraBank N.A.’s holdings in Booking were worth $401,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BKNG. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in Booking by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,301 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $47,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,236 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Booking by 0.6% during the third quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 4,390 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $13,539,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,635,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,841,000. Finally, Advisor Resource Council raised its position in Booking by 382.4% in the 4th quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 357 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,266,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total value of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 33,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $114,826,417. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of the 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 value of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 33,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,826,417. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 22 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,437.25, for a total transaction of $75,619.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 189 shares in the company, valued at $649,640.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,483 shares of company stock valued at $18,891,445 in the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Booking Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of BKNG stock traded up $104.47 on Friday, hitting $3,577.38. 534,715 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 200,734. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $2,456.93 and a fifty-two week high of $3,918.00. The business has a 50-day moving average of $3,524.43 and a 200 day moving average of $3,399.84.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $20.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $14.03 by $6.36. Booking had a negative return on equity of 433.49% and a net margin of 21.81%. The firm had revenue of $4.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $11.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 176.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $8.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $35.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BKNG shares. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Booking in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $4,205.00 target price (up from $4,150.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Friday. Seaport Res Ptn reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Booking in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Edward Jones reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Booking in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,000.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Ten investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3,823.00.

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.