Montag A & Associates Inc. Purchases 8 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Montag A & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 590 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8 shares during the quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Booking were worth $2,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Van Leeuwen & Company LLC grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Van Leeuwen & Company LLC now owns 487 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,727,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. US Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter worth about $252,000. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in Booking by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 143 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $507,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc grew its holdings in Booking by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 3,739 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,074,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its holdings in Booking by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 72,336 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $256,592,000 after acquiring an additional 1,889 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Booking

In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total transaction of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 33,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,826,417. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total transaction of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 33,548 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,826,417. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paulo Pisano sold 300 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,485.00, for a total value of $1,045,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,752,005. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,651 shares of company stock valued at $19,485,975 in the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of BKNG traded up $120.03 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $3,780.03. 437,013 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 272,135. The company has a market cap of $128.25 billion, a PE ratio of 28.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $2,456.93 and a 52 week high of $3,918.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $3,532.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3,420.07.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $20.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $14.03 by $6.36. Booking had a negative return on equity of 288.35% and a net margin of 21.81%. The business had revenue of $4.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $11.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 176.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 26.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BKNG. HSBC increased their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,220.00 to $4,230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Booking from $3,600.00 to $4,100.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Booking from $3,580.00 to $4,250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Booking from $4,000.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Booking has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3,876.96.

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.