Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Booking Holdings currently has an average analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 37 brokerages, with 28 buy ratings and an average 1-year price target of about $227.14.
• The company’s latest quarterly results beat expectations, with EPS of $1.14 versus the $1.08 consensus and revenue of $5.53 billion, up 16.2% year over year.
• Booking also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.42 per share payable June 30, while recent insider sales by the CEO and a director, along with heavy institutional ownership, were notable developments.

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirty-seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $227.1388.

Several research firms recently commented on BKNG. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Booking from $259.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on shares of Booking from $216.28 to $187.92 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Tigress Financial restated a "strong-buy" rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $244.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Booking from $230.00 to $220.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on shares of Booking from $244.00 to $240.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 20th.

Booking Stock Performance

BKNG stock opened at $154.13 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $119.43 billion, a PE ratio of 20.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.10. The firm's fifty day moving average is $173.10 and its 200 day moving average is $189.14. Booking has a one year low of $150.62 and a one year high of $233.58.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $5.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. Booking had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 117.14%. The firm's revenue was up 16.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.99 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Booking will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Booking's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.11%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $216,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 16,050 shares in the company, valued at $3,081,600. This trade represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.36, for a total transaction of $3,100,331.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 298,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,269,532.64. This trade represents a 5.31% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 59,626 shares of company stock worth $10,314,979. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Booking

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Booking by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,997,949 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $16,055,006,000 after purchasing an additional 23,159 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 191,965.8% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 2,832,970 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $15,171,489,000 after buying an additional 2,831,495 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,435,116 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $7,685,520,000 after buying an additional 6,976 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 15.4% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 966,121 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $5,173,899,000 after buying an additional 128,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 1,497.3% in the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 870,520 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $3,665,168,000 after buying an additional 816,022 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company's stock.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel company that operates a portfolio of consumer brands and technology platforms that facilitate the search for and booking of travel services. The company's businesses focus on accommodations, transportation and related travel services through consumer-facing websites and apps as well as partner distribution channels. Booking Holdings was originally founded as Priceline in the late 1990s and adopted the Booking Holdings name in 2018; it is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Its core offerings include online reservations for hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging; flight and car rental search and booking; and ancillary services that support travel planning and on-property experiences.

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