Machina Capital S.A.S. Invests $280,000 in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Machina Capital S.A.S. bought a new position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 79 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Booking by 8.8% during the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,301 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $47,188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,236 shares in the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. grew its position in Booking by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 4,390 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,539,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its position in Booking by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $57,635,000 after purchasing an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp bought a new stake in Booking in the 4th quarter worth about $24,841,000. Finally, Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new stake in Booking in the 4th quarter worth about $879,000. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Booking Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG traded up $7.00 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $3,605.41. The company had a trading volume of 260,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 270,182. The company has a fifty day moving average of $3,526.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3,412.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $122.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $2,456.93 and a 12 month high of $3,918.00.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $20.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $14.03 by $6.36. Booking had a net margin of 21.81% and a negative return on equity of 288.35%. The company had revenue of $4.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $11.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 176.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a $8.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $35.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 26.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 22 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,583.07, for a total transaction of $78,827.54. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 211 shares in the company, valued at $756,027.77. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 22 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,583.07, for a total transaction of $78,827.54. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 211 shares in the company, valued at $756,027.77. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total value of $14,724,670.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 33,548 shares in the company, valued at $114,826,417. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,483 shares of company stock worth $18,891,445 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BKNG. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $3,950.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,800.00 to $4,500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,220.00 to $4,230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Booking from $4,000.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Booking from $3,435.00 to $3,494.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Booking has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3,844.48.

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.