BTIG Research Reaffirms "Buy" Rating for Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Key Points

• BTIG Research reiterated a “Buy” rating on Booking and set a $250 price target, implying about 47% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains generally positive overall: Booking has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating, with 28 Buy ratings, though some firms have recently trimmed their price targets.
• Booking recently reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $1.14 topping estimates and revenue of $5.53 billion, up 16.2% year over year.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by BTIG Research in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $250.00 price objective on the business services provider's stock. BTIG Research's target price points to a potential upside of 47.21% from the stock's previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Benchmark decreased their target price on shares of Booking from $256.00 to $224.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on shares of Booking from $244.00 to $240.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on shares of Booking from $216.28 to $187.92 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $230.00 target price (down from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $227.14.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $169.82 on Friday. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $170.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $186.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $131.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.10. Booking has a 1 year low of $150.14 and a 1 year high of $233.58.

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

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 298,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,269,532.64. The trade was a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total transaction of $216,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,081,600. This trade represents a 6.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 97,076 shares of company stock worth $16,417,121. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,914 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $38,132,000 after buying an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $6,042,000 after buying an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 124.1% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 354 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,911,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 22,669 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $122,396,000 after buying an additional 1,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Booking during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $361,463,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company's stock.

Booking Company Profile

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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