Cypress Capital Group Cuts Position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Cypress Capital Group lessened its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 22.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 215 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 62 shares during the quarter. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in Booking were worth $1,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,321,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 931 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,921,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 179,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $896,455,000 after purchasing an additional 8,735 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Booking by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,160,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Booking by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $166,787,000 after acquiring an additional 2,010 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on BKNG shares. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Booking from $5,560.00 to $5,960.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Booking from $4,600.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Booking to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $4,917.46 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $161.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.39. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,337.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $4,887.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4,642.68.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.18 billion. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. This is a boost from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Booking’s payout ratio is 22.19%.

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.