E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB Purchases 26,606 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB boosted its position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 1,824.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,064 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,606 shares during the period. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB’s holdings in Booking were worth $5,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of Booking by 191,965.8% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 2,832,970 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,171,489,000 after buying an additional 2,831,495 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its position in Booking by 1,497.3% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 870,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,665,168,000 after buying an additional 816,022 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Booking by 66,209.8% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 659,783 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $117,600,000 after buying an additional 658,788 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in Booking by 2,548.6% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 649,602 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $115,785,000 after buying an additional 625,076 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Booking in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,271,041,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKNG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus upped their price target on Booking from $210.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective (down from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Booking and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Evercore set a $245.00 target price on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Booking from $211.00 to $247.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.72.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert J. Mylod, Jr. sold 1,000 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.70, for a total transaction of $206,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,100,500. The trade was a 6.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Peter J. Millones sold 62,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.67, for a total value of $10,229,375.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 425,075 shares in the company, valued at $69,572,025.25. The trade was a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 69,625 shares of company stock valued at $11,652,075 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Booking Price Performance

Booking stock opened at $212.88 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $180.30 and its 200-day moving average is $176.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.95 billion, a PE ratio of 23.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.07. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $150.14 and a fifty-two week high of $231.80.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.11. Booking had a net margin of 25.53% and a negative return on equity of 102.96%. The business had revenue of $7.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.19 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $55.40 EPS. Booking’s revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.43 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.58%.

Booking Profile

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel company that operates a portfolio of consumer brands and technology platforms that facilitate the search for and booking of travel services. The company’s businesses focus on accommodations, transportation and related travel services through consumer-facing websites and apps as well as partner distribution channels. Booking Holdings was originally founded as Priceline in the late 1990s and adopted the Booking Holdings name in 2018; it is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Its core offerings include online reservations for hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging; flight and car rental search and booking; and ancillary services that support travel planning and on-property experiences.