Phoenix Financial Ltd. Acquires 372 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Phoenix Financial Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 332.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 484 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 372 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd.’s holdings in Booking were worth $2,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Drive Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 6 shares during the period. Firetrail Investments PTY Ltd. lifted its holdings in Booking by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Firetrail Investments PTY Ltd. now owns 3,239 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $15,083,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Booking by 1,411.9% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 112,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $516,900,000 after purchasing an additional 104,780 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd lifted its holdings in Booking by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd now owns 136,309 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $627,963,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Booking by 11.6% in the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,611 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,848,000 after acquiring an additional 584 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKNG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,120.00 to $5,077.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. BTIG Research raised Booking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $5,500.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Booking from $5,550.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Booking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5,454.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,695.00, for a total transaction of $5,769,035.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,633 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $151,674,935. The trade was a 3.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,039 shares of company stock worth $16,963,769. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Booking Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $5,632.27 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $3,180.00 and a twelve month high of $5,839.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $5,546.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5,048.68.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $17.57 by $7.24. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.58 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 143.67% and a net margin of 22.58%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $20.39 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were issued a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 6th. Booking’s payout ratio is presently 23.89%.

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.