Waverly Advisors LLC Buys 115 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Waverly Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) by 33.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 456 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC's holdings in Booking were worth $2,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during 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 during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Booking in the fourth quarter worth about $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Booking by 51.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 95,308 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Booking by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 368,628 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,831,499,000 after acquiring an additional 58,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Winslow Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 132.7% during the 4th quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 88,754 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $440,967,000 after buying an additional 50,605 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. BTIG Research upgraded Booking from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $5,500.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. B. Riley increased their target price on shares of Booking from $6,000.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank cut Booking from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Booking presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5,299.29.

Booking Stock Up 0.7%

BKNG traded up $39.24 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $5,490.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 57,368 shares, compared to its average volume of 246,762. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $3,180.00 and a twelve month high of $5,505.28. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $4,856.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $4,903.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.75, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $9.60 dividend. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Booking's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.89%.

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.