Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 248 Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. acquired a new position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 248 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $879,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Booking by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 383,996 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,184,224,000 after purchasing an additional 5,040 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Booking by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 131,052 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $466,166,000 after buying an additional 29,316 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 2,479.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 116,777 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $414,234,000 after buying an additional 112,249 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Booking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,774,850,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Booking by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 75,681 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $233,396,000 after purchasing an additional 1,106 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $4,205.00 price objective (up previously from $4,150.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Booking from $3,450.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,100.00 to $4,150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,080.00 to $3,610.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Booking from $4,000.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Ten 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3,823.00.

Insider Activity

In other Booking 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 transaction of $218,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,069,300. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 59 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 289 shares in the company, valued at $1,069,300. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,534.10, for a total transaction of $2,650,575.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 26,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $95,318,211.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,483 shares of company stock worth $18,891,445 over the last 90 days. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Booking Stock Up 3.0 %

BKNG stock opened at $3,577.38 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $3,524.43 and a 200 day moving average of $3,399.84. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $2,456.93 and a twelve month high of $3,918.00. The firm has a market cap of $121.70 billion, a PE ratio of 26.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $20.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $14.03 by $6.36. The firm had revenue of $4.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.25 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 433.49% and a net margin of 21.81%. The company’s revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $11.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 176.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $8.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $35.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

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.