Burt Wealth Advisors Purchases New Position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Burt Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 46 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,295,423,000 after buying an additional 864,406 shares during the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Booking by 342,723.5% during the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 233,120 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $981,929,000 after acquiring an additional 233,052 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter worth $207,089,000. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Booking by 3,940.8% during the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 38,428 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $190,926,000 after purchasing an additional 37,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harvard Management Co. Inc. purchased a new position in Booking during the third quarter worth about $155,427,000. 92.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Booking Trading Down 1.4 %

BKNG stock opened at $4,946.15 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $4,896.45 and its 200 day moving average is $4,631.73. The stock has a market cap of $162.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.39. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $3,180.00 and a 1-year high of $5,337.24.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. Booking’s payout ratio is 22.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKNG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $4,850.00 to $5,522.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Booking from $5,250.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,500.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Booking currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5,370.43.

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.