Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-two ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $4,130.18.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BKNG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Booking from $4,025.00 to $3,860.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Booking from $4,150.00 to $4,100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of Booking from $4,700.00 to $4,600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Booking from $4,285.00 to $4,580.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Booking in a research note on Friday, September 6th. They set a “hold” rating and a $4,100.00 price target on the stock.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of Booking stock opened at $4,350.82 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $3,980.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3,820.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.46, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.40. Booking has a one year low of $2,733.04 and a one year high of $4,394.95.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $39.22 by $2.68. Booking had a net margin of 22.46% and a negative return on equity of 200.87%. The business had revenue of $5.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $37.62 EPS. Booking’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Booking will post 176.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Booking news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,722,379.07. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Booking

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Booking during the 1st quarter worth approximately $401,371,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its position in Booking by 20.5% in the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 2,348 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,518,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Booking in the 1st quarter valued at $537,000. BDF Gestion purchased a new stake in Booking in the 2nd quarter valued at $6,897,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new stake in Booking in the 1st quarter valued at $519,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

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.