HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 2,148 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. by 21.9%, selling 2,148 shares during the first quarter, bringing their total holdings to 7,645 shares valued at approximately $35.2 million.
• Wall Street analysts have a positive outlook on Booking, with multiple firms raising their price targets to around $6,000, and ratings ranging from "buy" to "strong buy".
• Booking announced a quarterly dividend of $9.60, set to be paid to shareholders, representing an annualized yield of 0.7%.

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) by 21.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,645 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 2,148 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Booking were worth $35,219,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in Booking during the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. North Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Booking during the 1st quarter valued at about $46,000. Mechanics Financial Corp purchased a new position in Booking during the 1st quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Booking during the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on BKNG shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,250.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Booking from $5,750.00 to $6,300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Hsbc Global Res raised Booking to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Booking from $5,360.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $5,781.04.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of Booking stock traded up $77.08 during trading on Monday, reaching $5,531.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 98,469 shares, compared to its average volume of 249,561. The business's fifty day moving average price is $5,558.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $5,126.10. The firm has a market cap of $179.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.41. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $3,610.44 and a one year high of $5,839.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.54 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.19% and a net margin of 19.23%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $41.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. Booking's payout ratio is currently 26.71%.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,695.00, for a total transaction of $5,769,035.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,633 shares in the company, valued at approximately $151,674,935. The trade was a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 3,039 shares of company stock worth $16,963,769 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

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.