Metropolis Capital Ltd Buys 12,589 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Metropolis Capital Ltd grew its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 36.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 46,991 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,589 shares during the quarter. Booking accounts for 8.0% of Metropolis Capital Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Metropolis Capital Ltd’s holdings in Booking were worth $216,483,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in Booking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in shares of Booking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on BKNG. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $5,900.00 target price on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,600.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. DA Davidson increased their price target on Booking from $5,005.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Booking from $5,960.00 to $5,557.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Ten equities research 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,388.37.

Booking Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $5,298.38 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $3,180.00 and a 12-month high of $5,639.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $5,098.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4,944.08. The company has a market capitalization of $172.41 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $17.57 by $7.24. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $20.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be given a $9.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Booking’s payout ratio is presently 23.89%.

Booking 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.