Insider Selling: Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) Insider Sells $244,590.00 in Stock

Key Points

• Booking insider Paulo Pisano sold 1,500 shares for $244,590 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing his holdings by 2.09% to 70,400 shares.
• BKNG traded at $163.45, near its 52-week low, while the company reported quarterly revenue of $7.35 billion and earnings of $2.54 per share, exceeding analyst expectations.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with a $233.95 target price; Booking also pays a $0.42 quarterly dividend, representing a 1.0% yield.

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) insider Paulo Pisano sold 1,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.06, for a total value of $244,590.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 70,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,479,424. The trade was a 2.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Paulo Pisano also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 15th, Paulo Pisano sold 1,500 shares of Booking stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.02, for a total value of $259,530.00.
• On Monday, August 31st, Paulo Pisano sold 3,000 shares of Booking stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.48, for a total value of $610,440.00.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG stock traded down $2.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $163.45. 6,370,086 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,169,595. The company has a market capitalization of $122.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.13. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $150.14 and a 52-week high of $220.81. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $183.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $177.55.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.11. Booking had a negative return on equity of 102.96% and a net margin of 25.53%. The firm had revenue of $7.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $55.40 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.48 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th were issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Booking's dividend payout ratio is presently 18.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Booking in the second quarter worth $11,646,302,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in Booking by 2,674.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,420,711 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $7,026,348,000 after acquiring an additional 37,999,915 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Booking during the second quarter valued at about $1,691,186,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Booking during the second quarter valued at about $1,370,455,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Booking by 2,525.5% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,101,866 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,087,597,000 after purchasing an additional 5,869,459 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen upgraded Booking to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Booking from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $188.00 target price on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Truist Financial set a $216.00 target price on Booking and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Booking from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $233.95.

Booking Company Profile

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel and restaurant reservation company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Through its digital platforms, the company helps consumers search for, compare and reserve accommodations, flights, rental cars, vacation packages, attractions and restaurant reservations.

Its portfolio includes Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, OpenTable, Rentalcars.com and the travel metasearch brands Momondo and Cheapflights. Booking.com is primarily known for lodging reservations, while Priceline focuses on travel deals, Agoda serves customers across international markets with a strong presence in Asia, KAYAK and its related brands provide travel search and comparison services, and OpenTable operates a restaurant reservation platform.

The company was founded in 1997 as Priceline.com and was later renamed The Priceline Group before adopting the Booking Holdings name in 2018.

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