Rakuten Securities Inc. Takes $131,000 Position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 37 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $131,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 8.8% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,301 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $47,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,236 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Booking by 0.6% in the third quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 4,390 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $13,539,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at $24,841,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 16,248 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,635,000 after buying an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisor Resource Council grew its stake in shares of Booking by 382.4% in the fourth quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 357 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,266,000 after buying an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Booking

In related news, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 59 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,700.00, for a total value of $218,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,069,300. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,534.10, for a total transaction of $2,650,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 26,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,318,211.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 59 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,700.00, for a total value of $218,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,069,300. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 5,461 shares of company stock valued at $18,815,825. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,548.00 to $3,435.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Booking in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $4,150.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,580.00 to $4,250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,855.00 to $4,285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,080.00 to $3,610.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3,723.41.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $3,443.91 on Thursday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $2,456.93 and a one year high of $3,918.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $3,586.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3,364.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $117.68 billion, a PE ratio of 29.19, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $32.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $29.72 by $2.28. The business had revenue of $4.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 751.49% and a net margin of 20.08%. Booking’s quarterly revenue was up 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $24.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 175.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $8.75 dividend. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 29.67%.

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.