Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Shares Bought by Howard Financial Services LTD.

Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 3.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 139 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Booking were worth $805,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BKNG. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 251 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,249,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter valued at $209,000. Fire Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter valued at $248,000. Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter valued at $224,000. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 5,178 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,726,000 after acquiring an additional 712 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on BKNG shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $5,750.00 price objective (up previously from $5,077.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Booking from $5,900.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on Booking from $5,820.00 to $5,850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $6,000.00 target price (up from $5,700.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Booking from $5,750.00 to $6,300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,808.81.

Booking Price Performance

Booking stock opened at $5,458.32 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $5,594.00 and its 200-day moving average is $5,214.50. The company has a market cap of $176.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.39. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $3,894.51 and a 12 month high of $5,839.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $55.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $50.32 by $5.08. The company had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.54 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.19% and a net margin of 19.23%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $41.90 EPS. Booking has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $9.60 dividend. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.71%.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, Director Larry Quinlan sold 64 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,587.11, for a total value of $357,575.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 195 shares in the company, valued at $1,089,486.45. This trade represents a 24.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,476.89, for a total value of $5,548,089.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 24,620 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,841,031.80. This trade represents a 3.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,116 shares of company stock worth $22,869,434. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Booking 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.