Swiss National Bank Sells 6,000 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Swiss National Bank trimmed its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 94,784 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned 0.29% of Booking worth $470,927,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Booking by 600.0% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 7 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Booking during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BKNG shares. Benchmark upped their price target on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Booking from $4,900.00 to $5,540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Booking from $5,005.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,400.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

BKNG opened at $4,400.52 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $4,838.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4,669.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.43, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,337.24.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.19%.

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.