Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Shares Bought by Townsend & Associates Inc

Townsend & Associates Inc raised its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 3.9% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 73,648 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,761 shares during the quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Booking were worth $13,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 191,965.8% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 2,832,970 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,171,489,000 after acquiring an additional 2,831,495 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in Booking by 1,497.3% during the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 870,520 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,665,168,000 after purchasing an additional 816,022 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Booking by 66,209.8% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 659,783 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $117,600,000 after purchasing an additional 658,788 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in Booking by 2,548.6% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 649,602 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $115,785,000 after purchasing an additional 625,076 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Booking in the fourth quarter valued at $3,271,041,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ewout L. Steenbergen sold 20,000 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.03, for a total value of $4,220,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 59,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,618,327.82. The trade was a 25.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert J. Mylod, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,200,000. This represents a 23.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 89,625 shares of company stock valued at $15,872,675. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Down 0.6%

NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $212.06 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $150.14 and a 12-month high of $231.80. The firm has a market cap of $159.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50-day moving average is $184.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $177.04.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $7.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.19 billion. Booking had a net margin of 25.53% and a negative return on equity of 102.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $55.40 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Booking’s payout ratio is presently 18.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on BKNG shares. HSBC dropped their price target on Booking from $309.84 to $298.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Booking from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price (down from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $240.00 price target on shares of Booking in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.72.

Booking Company Profile

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel company that operates a portfolio of consumer brands and technology platforms that facilitate the search for and booking of travel services. The company’s businesses focus on accommodations, transportation and related travel services through consumer-facing websites and apps as well as partner distribution channels. Booking Holdings was originally founded as Priceline in the late 1990s and adopted the Booking Holdings name in 2018; it is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Its core offerings include online reservations for hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging; flight and car rental search and booking; and ancillary services that support travel planning and on-property experiences.