BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Sells 8,052 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lowered its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 28.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 20,688 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 8,052 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Booking were worth $81,956,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking in the 1st quarter worth about $401,371,000. BlueSpruce Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $220,080,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in Booking by 4,565.4% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 62,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $227,143,000 after buying an additional 61,268 shares during the last quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC lifted its stake in Booking by 96.3% during the 4th quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 113,572 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $403,233,000 after acquiring an additional 55,716 shares during the period. Finally, Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Booking by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 193,515 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $702,049,000 after acquiring an additional 43,743 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,200.00 to $4,342.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Wedbush raised their price target on Booking from $3,850.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Benchmark dropped their target price on Booking from $4,700.00 to $4,600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $4,285.00 to $4,580.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $4,064.21.

Booking Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $4,097.08 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $139.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $3,772.27 and a 200 day moving average of $3,733.66. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $2,733.04 and a 52 week high of $4,144.32.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $39.22 by $2.68. Booking had a negative return on equity of 200.87% and a net margin of 22.46%. The company had revenue of $5.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $37.62 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 176.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.25%.

Insider Activity at Booking

In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4,067.65, for a total transaction of $3,050,737.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $100,556,375.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4,067.65, for a total value of $3,050,737.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 24,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $100,556,375.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total value of $388,761.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,722,379.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.