327 Shares in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Acquired by Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.

Key Points

• Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda. has acquired a new stake in Booking Holdings Inc., purchasing 327 shares valued at approximately $1.5 million, making it the 15th largest position in their portfolio.
• CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares valued at about $5.77 million, reflecting a 3.66% decrease in his ownership, while insiders have sold a total of 3,039 shares worth approximately $17 million in the last three months.
• Booking recently reported $55.40 earnings per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, along with a quarterly dividend of $9.60 to be distributed on September 30th.

Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda. bought a new stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 327 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,506,000. Booking accounts for 1.0% of Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Booking by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 251 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,249,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $209,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 210 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,043,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 176 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $875,000 after buying an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in Booking by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 11,366 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $55,398,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BKNG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $5,900.00 target price on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,900.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $6,000.00 price objective (up previously from $5,700.00) on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $6,200.00 price objective (up from $6,000.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Booking to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $5,781.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Booking

In related news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the 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 value of $5,769,035.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,633 shares in the company, valued at approximately $151,674,935. This represents a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,039 shares of company stock worth $16,963,769. Insiders own 0.16% of the company's stock.

Booking Stock Performance

BKNG traded down $104.21 during trading on Thursday, hitting $5,432.10. The stock had a trading volume of 200,111 shares, compared to its average volume of 197,521. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $5,571.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5,090.75. The company has a market capitalization of $176.05 billion, a PE ratio of 37.78, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.41. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $3,307.90 and a twelve month high of $5,839.41.

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

Booking Announces Dividend

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