Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Cuts Stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. cut its holdings in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 85,353 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,434 shares during the quarter. Booking accounts for approximately 2.5% of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. owned approximately 0.25% of Booking worth $338,126,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Enterprise Financial Services Corp grew its position in Booking by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 110 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after acquiring an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 0.9% in the first quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 352 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Booking by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 358 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,270,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the period. PARUS FINANCE UK Ltd raised its holdings in Booking by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. PARUS FINANCE UK Ltd now owns 863 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,061,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 624 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,264,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BKNG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Argus boosted their price target on Booking from $4,200.00 to $4,342.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $4,350.00 to $4,200.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $3,900.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Booking in a report on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $3,590.00 target price for the company. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $4,064.21.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG opened at $3,932.59 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $131.82 billion, a PE ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $3,767.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $3,709.27. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $2,733.04 and a 52-week high of $4,144.32.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $39.22 by $2.68. The business had revenue of $5.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.77 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 200.87% and a net margin of 22.46%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $37.62 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 176.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a $8.75 dividend. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total value of $388,761.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares in the company, valued at $14,722,379.07. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4,067.65, for a total transaction of $3,050,737.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $100,556,375.65. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of Booking stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total value of $388,761.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,722,379.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.