Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Booking Call Options (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 66,011 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 340% compared to the average volume of 15,011 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BKNG. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $215.00 price objective (down from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target (up from $244.00) on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Booking from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Booking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.11.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were 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 directly owned 298,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,269,532.64. This trade represents a 5.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of Booking stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $216,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,081,600. This represents a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 80,351 shares of company stock valued at $13,545,706 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Booking during the fourth quarter worth about $361,463,000. Rit Capital Partners PLC acquired a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,396,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake in Booking by 862.0% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 218,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,167,890,000 after purchasing an additional 195,411 shares in the last quarter. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $210,352,000. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC raised its position in shares of Booking by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 64,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $347,604,000 after purchasing an additional 11,042 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $182.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.07. Booking has a one year low of $150.14 and a one year high of $233.58. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $168.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $182.09.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $5.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.99 EPS. Booking’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Booking will post 10.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.11%.

Booking Company 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.