Blair William & Co. IL Increases Holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,749 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Booking were worth $13,661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BKNG. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc purchased a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Booking by 600.0% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 7 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in Booking in the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on BKNG. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $5,400.00 target price on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,560.00 to $5,960.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,155.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of BKNG opened at $4,634.24 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,337.24. The company’s fifty day moving average is $4,779.09 and its 200 day moving average is $4,727.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.07 billion, a PE ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. Booking’s 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.