Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG Shares Sold by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. by 1.1% during the first quarter, maintaining 5,590 shares valued at approximately $25.75 million.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their holdings in Booking, with GAMMA Investing LLC expanding their position by 521,609.7% to own about $10.89 billion worth of shares.
• Booking reported a strong quarterly earnings result with an EPS of $55.40, exceeding expectations, and declared a dividend of $9.60 per share, with a low payout ratio of 26.71%.

Baird Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) by 1.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,590 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 60 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Booking were worth $25,754,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Booking by 27.3% in the 1st quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 182 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $844,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Europe London LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $15,054,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the first quarter valued at about $203,000. Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 9.4% in the first quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 278 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,281,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 13.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 513 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,363,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on BKNG. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,720.00 to $5,630.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley set a $5,650.00 target price on shares of Booking and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,250.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Booking to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,750.00 to $6,500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5,808.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at Booking

In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,476.89, for a total transaction of $5,548,089.57. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 24,620 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $134,841,031.80. This represents a 3.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 4,052 shares of company stock worth $22,511,858 over the last 90 days. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Booking Price Performance

NASDAQ:BKNG traded down $80.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $5,505.80. The stock had a trading volume of 202,400 shares, compared to its average volume of 166,659. The company has a market capitalization of $178.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.39. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $3,700.97 and a 1-year high of $5,839.41. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $5,615.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5,198.14.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $55.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $50.32 by $5.08. The business had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.54 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.19% and a net margin of 19.23%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $41.90 earnings per share. Booking has set its Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. Booking's dividend payout ratio is 26.71%.

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.