Aubrey Capital Management Ltd Grows Stock Position in Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Aubrey Capital Management Ltd grew its holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 800 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Booking makes up 1.4% of Aubrey Capital Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Aubrey Capital Management Ltd’s holdings in Booking were worth $4,318,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC grew its position in Booking by 150.0% during the 3rd quarter. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC now owns 5 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Booking by 400.0% in the 2nd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 5 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 4 shares during the last quarter. Davis Capital Management purchased a new stake in Booking during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 100.0% in the second quarter. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 6 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the period. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the second quarter worth about $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their target price on Booking from $6,000.00 to $6,250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Booking in a report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Booking from $6,450.00 to $6,630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Booking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $6,000.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $6,150.00 price target on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6,229.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 953 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,181.34, for a total transaction of $4,937,817.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 19,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,631,984.10. This represents a 4.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 15 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,191.15, for a total transaction of $77,867.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,566,320.05. This represents a 2.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 3,324 shares of company stock valued at $17,190,323 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Up 2.7%

BKNG stock opened at $5,163.61 on Thursday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $4,096.23 and a 12-month high of $5,839.41. The business’s 50-day moving average is $5,188.49 and its 200 day moving average is $5,346.25. The stock has a market cap of $166.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.56, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.23.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $95.56 by $3.94. The business had revenue of $9.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.71 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.86% and a net margin of 19.37%.The business’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $83.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th were issued a $9.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.96%.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel company that operates a portfolio of consumer brands and technology platforms that facilitate the search for and booking of travel services. The company’s businesses focus on accommodations, transportation and related travel services through consumer-facing websites and apps as well as partner distribution channels. Booking Holdings was originally founded as Priceline in the late 1990s and adopted the Booking Holdings name in 2018; it is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Its core offerings include online reservations for hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging; flight and car rental search and booking; and ancillary services that support travel planning and on-property experiences.