Public Sector Pension Investment Board Has $20.71 Million Holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Key Points

• The Public Sector Pension Investment Board has reduced its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. by 7.2%, now holding 4,495 shares valued at approximately $20.7 million.
• Several brokerages have raised their price targets for Booking shares, with JPMorgan Chase setting a new target of $6,000 and Susquehanna increasing it to $6,500.
• Booking Holdings recently reported an EPS of $55.40 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates and reflecting a 16% year-over-year revenue increase.

Public Sector Pension Investment Board trimmed its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) by 7.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,495 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 351 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board's holdings in Booking were worth $20,708,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BKNG. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 521,609.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,363,345 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $10,887,718,000 after purchasing an additional 2,362,892 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 1,411.9% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 112,201 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $516,900,000 after buying an additional 104,780 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 182.2% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 104,643 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $482,081,000 after buying an additional 67,562 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 368,628 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,831,499,000 after buying an additional 58,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 127.3% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 81,785 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $406,342,000 after buying an additional 45,808 shares in the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BKNG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,750.00 to $6,300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Booking from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,560.00 to $6,500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,360.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,900.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Booking presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5,781.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,695.00, for a total value of $5,769,035.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 26,633 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $151,674,935. The trade was a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 3,039 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,769 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG stock traded up $36.85 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $5,484.77. 179,718 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 251,150. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $5,563.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $5,110.00. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $3,592.28 and a one year high of $5,839.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $55.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $50.32 by $5.08. The company had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.54 billion. Booking had a net margin of 19.23% and a negative return on equity of 134.19%. Booking's quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $41.90 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be given a $9.60 dividend. 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 payout ratio is presently 26.71%.

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.