Net Worth Advisory Group Makes New Investment in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 174 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $802,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BKNG. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Booking by 521,609.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,363,345 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,887,718,000 after purchasing an additional 2,362,892 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,295,423,000 after purchasing an additional 864,406 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Booking during the 4th quarter worth about $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Booking by 51.4% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 280,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,394,283,000 after purchasing an additional 95,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Booking by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 368,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,831,499,000 after purchasing an additional 58,357 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on BKNG shares. Erste Group Bank downgraded Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Booking from $5,500.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Booking from $5,360.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Booking from $5,600.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Cfra raised Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5,388.37.

Booking Stock Down 0.4%

BKNG stock opened at $5,466.28 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $5,051.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $4,941.07. The stock has a market cap of $177.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,639.70.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $17.57 by $7.24. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $20.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.89%.

Booking Company 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.