Rit Capital Partners PLC Makes New Investment in Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Rit Capital Partners PLC bought a new position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 9,600 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,396,000. Booking makes up about 11.5% of Rit Capital Partners PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 7.7% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 6,914 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $38,132,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares during the last quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 59.6% during the third quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,042,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 124.1% during the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 354 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,911,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 4.3% during the third quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG now owns 15,525 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $83,822,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 7.2% during the third quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 22,669 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $122,396,000 after purchasing an additional 1,514 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BKNG. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Booking from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Booking from $244.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Evercore set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Booking from $216.28 to $187.92 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on shares of Booking from $244.00 to $240.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $227.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Booking news, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $216,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,050 shares in the company, valued at $3,081,600. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.36, for a total transaction of $3,100,331.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 298,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,269,532.64. The trade was a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 34,576 shares of company stock valued at $6,187,746. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $161.06 on Friday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $150.14 and a 12 month high of $233.58. The stock has a market cap of $124.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $171.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $187.47.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.06. Booking had a net margin of 22.23% and a negative return on equity of 117.14%. The business had revenue of $5.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.99 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.11%.

Booking 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.