HS Management Partners LLC Sells 4,808 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

HS Management Partners LLC lowered its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 18.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,903 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 4,808 shares during the quarter. Booking comprises about 5.9% of HS Management Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. HS Management Partners LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $92,258,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Booking by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,954,450 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,718,390,000 after purchasing an additional 12,456 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Booking by 4.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 514,336 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,865,949,000 after buying an additional 21,969 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in shares of Booking by 3.1% during the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 358,720 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,421,069,000 after buying an additional 10,889 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Booking by 29.2% during the first quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 193,515 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $702,049,000 after buying an additional 43,743 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Booking during the third quarter worth approximately $5,322,600,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BKNG. Argus lowered shares of Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Booking from $5,050.00 to $5,550.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Booking from $3,976.00 to $4,173.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $4,600.00 price target on shares of Booking in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $4,680.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Booking news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total transaction of $388,761.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,722,379.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Booking Price Performance

NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $4,749.11 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $4,136.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $3,886.98. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $2,756.39 and a 1-year high of $4,856.60. The firm has a market cap of $157.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.38.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $39.22 by $2.68. The company had revenue of $5.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.77 billion. Booking had a net margin of 21.85% and a negative return on equity of 166.06%. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $37.62 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 177.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $8.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $35.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 23.75%.

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.