Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Shares Sold by Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec trimmed its holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) by 31.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,711 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 14,462 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned 0.10% of Booking worth $157,554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $4,295,423,000 after acquiring an additional 864,406 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Booking in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Booking by 51.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Booking by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 368,628 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,831,499,000 after purchasing an additional 58,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Winslow Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Booking Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG traded down $11.68 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $5,191.12. The company had a trading volume of 190,433 shares, compared to its average volume of 250,580. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $4,652.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4,824.98. The stock has a market cap of $169.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.37.

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. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $20.39 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BKNG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Booking from $4,567.00 to $4,692.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Booking from $5,550.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Benchmark raised their price objective on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, BTIG Research upgraded shares of Booking from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $5,500.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5,262.41.

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.