Abacus FCF Advisors LLC Acquires 108 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Abacus FCF Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 2.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,077 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the period. Booking makes up about 2.9% of Abacus FCF Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $22,013,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Aprio Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Booking by 2.3% during the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 88 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $406,000 after buying an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. GSG Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Booking by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC now owns 108 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust increased its position in shares of Booking by 3.2% in the second quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 65 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 2 shares during the period. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Booking by 0.4% in the second quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 488 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,825,000 after purchasing an additional 2 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BKNG. Morgan Stanley set a $6,150.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research note 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 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 24th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $6,450.00 to $6,630.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their target price on Booking from $6,000.00 to $6,250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $5,810.00 price target on Booking in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. One investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Booking has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6,149.23.

Booking Stock Up 0.0%

NASDAQ BKNG opened at $5,441.33 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $175.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.25. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $4,096.23 and a twelve month high of $5,839.41. The business’s fifty day moving average is $5,113.56 and its 200 day moving average is $5,370.05.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $9.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.71 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $83.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $9.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 24.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robert J. Mylod, Jr. sold 40 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,000.00, for a total transaction of $200,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 960 shares in the company, valued at $4,800,000. This trade represents a 4.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,414.53, for a total transaction of $3,091,696.63. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 21,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,759,275.30. This represents a 2.65% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,324 shares of company stock valued at $17,193,557. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

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.