4,349 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Bought by Matrix Trust Co

Matrix Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,349 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $708,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Congress Asset Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 27.3% in the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 99,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $16,215,000 after acquiring an additional 21,345 shares during the last quarter. Park National Corp OH boosted its holdings in Booking by 125.3% in the third quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 3,942 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $642,000 after purchasing an additional 2,192 shares during the period. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. increased its stake in Booking by 43.3% during the third quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 3,762 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137 shares during the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Booking by 213.4% during the third quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,839 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 2,614 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adelphi Trust Co raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 0.7% during the third quarter. Adelphi Trust Co now owns 9,660 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,574,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BKNG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $230.00 price target on shares of Booking and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Booking from $175.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (up from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $240.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $215.00 price target on Booking and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Booking has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Vanessa Wittman sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.00, for a total value of $79,125.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,133 shares in the company, valued at $3,404,063. This trade represents a 2.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Peter Millones, Jr. sold 50,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.59, for a total value of $10,389,879.50. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 375,025 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,851,439.75. The trade was a 11.77% decrease in their position. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 83,050 shares of company stock worth $17,182,274. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Booking Stock Down 0.8%

Booking stock traded down $1.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $156.44. 3,098,389 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,224,297. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $150.14 and a one year high of $220.81. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $188.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.23. The company has a market cap of $117.55 billion, a PE ratio of 17.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.13.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.11. Booking had a negative return on equity of 102.96% and a net margin of 25.53%.The company had revenue of $7.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.19 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $55.40 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th were paid a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.58%.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel and restaurant reservation company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Through its digital platforms, the company helps consumers search for, compare and reserve accommodations, flights, rental cars, vacation packages, attractions and restaurant reservations.

Its portfolio includes Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, OpenTable, Rentalcars.com and the travel metasearch brands Momondo and Cheapflights. Booking.com is primarily known for lodging reservations, while Priceline focuses on travel deals, Agoda serves customers across international markets with a strong presence in Asia, KAYAK and its related brands provide travel search and comparison services, and OpenTable operates a restaurant reservation platform.

The company was founded in 1997 as Priceline.com and was later renamed The Priceline Group before adopting the Booking Holdings name in 2018.