Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Shares Bought by Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 6.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,781 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 691 shares during the quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Booking were worth $49,715,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in Booking in the first quarter valued at about $41,000. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Booking in the first quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Mechanics Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Booking during the first quarter worth about $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BKNG. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,900.00 to $6,100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,750.00 to $6,500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $5,650.00 price target on shares of Booking and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6,700.00 price target (up from $6,100.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Booking presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,781.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Booking

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 1,013 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,695.00, for a total value of $5,769,035.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,633 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $151,674,935. This represents a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 3,039 shares of company stock valued at $16,963,769 over the last three months. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Booking Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of BKNG opened at $5,364.25 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $5,566.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $5,105.18. The company has a market capitalization of $173.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.41. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $3,399.27 and a 52-week high of $5,839.41.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The business services provider reported $55.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $50.32 by $5.08. The firm had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.54 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.19% and a net margin of 19.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $41.90 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $9.60 dividend. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.71%.

Booking 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.