Farther Finance Advisors LLC Acquires 97 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 625 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $3,373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BKNG. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in Booking by 15.6% in the second quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 511 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,958,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Booking by 18.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 75,534 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $437,284,000 after buying an additional 11,829 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 67.3% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 30,210 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $174,893,000 after acquiring an additional 12,148 shares during the period. Covey Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Covey Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,117 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,467,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of Booking by 12.7% during the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 2,291 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $13,262,000 after acquiring an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on BKNG. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Booking from $5,443.00 to $5,523.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. BNP Paribas set a $6,100.00 target price on Booking in a report on Monday, November 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $5,433.00 price target on shares of Booking in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Booking in a research report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Booking from $5,640.00 to $6,050.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $6,149.23.

Insider Activity at Booking

In related news, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 15 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,030.00, for a total value of $75,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,606,510. This trade represents a 2.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 625 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,141.53, for a total value of $3,213,456.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $118,162,642.46. This represents a 2.65% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 3,324 shares of company stock valued at $17,193,557. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG stock opened at $5,426.52 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $5,090.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $5,371.99. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $4,096.23 and a fifty-two week high of $5,839.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $174.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Booking Announces Dividend

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

Booking Company Profile

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.