Investment House LLC Purchases 3 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Investment House LLC boosted its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,804 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3 shares during the period. Booking accounts for 1.0% of Investment House LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Investment House LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $18,900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in 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 worth $9,321,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 5.1% during 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. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 905 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,495,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,010 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BKNG shares. Baird R W raised shares of Booking to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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 research note on Monday, January 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Ten equities 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $4,471.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $4,803.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $4,691.22. 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 has a market cap of $146.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. As a group, research analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is an increase from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.19%.

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.