Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) by 51.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 244 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 260 shares during the quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC's holdings in Booking were worth $1,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BKNG. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 864,406 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Booking by 51.4% during the fourth 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. Winslow Capital Management LLC increased its position in Booking by 132.7% during the fourth quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 88,754 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $440,967,000 after purchasing an additional 50,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Booking during the fourth quarter worth about $207,089,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BKNG shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $5,900.00 price target on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Booking from $5,750.00 to $4,850.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Booking from $5,000.00 to $4,800.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on Booking from $5,540.00 to $4,330.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Cfra raised shares of Booking from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5,262.41.

Booking Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:BKNG traded down $11.68 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $5,191.12. 192,512 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 250,588. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,337.24. The company has a market capitalization of $169.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4,655.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4,830.86.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $17.57 by $7.24. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.58 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $20.39 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $9.60 dividend. This is an increase from Booking's previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Booking's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.89%.

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.