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

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-one analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $5,044.43.

BKNG has been the topic of several analyst reports. B. Riley lifted their target price on Booking from $4,650.00 to $5,100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,500.00 to $5,100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Booking from $4,657.00 to $4,470.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,050.00 to $5,550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Baird R W raised Booking to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,295,423,000 after buying an additional 864,406 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Booking by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 803,125 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,986,244,000 after purchasing an additional 6,009 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Booking by 0.5% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 492,274 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,073,508,000 after purchasing an additional 2,321 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Booking by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 418,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,763,797,000 after purchasing an additional 13,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Booking in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,958,352,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $5,018.23 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $4,908.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4,540.81. Booking has a one year low of $3,180.00 and a one year high of $5,337.24. The firm has a market cap of $166.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.39.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. Booking had a negative return on equity of 166.06% and a net margin of 21.85%. On average, research analysts predict that Booking will post 181.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.