Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) Insider Sells 1,500 Shares of Stock

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) insider Paulo Pisano sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.06, for a total value of $244,590.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 70,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,479,424. This represents a 2.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Paulo Pisano also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 15th, Paulo Pisano sold 1,500 shares of Booking stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.02, for a total value of $259,530.00.
• On Monday, August 31st, Paulo Pisano sold 3,000 shares of Booking stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.48, for a total value of $610,440.00.

Booking Stock Performance

BKNG traded down $2.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $163.45. The stock had a trading volume of 6,370,086 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,169,595. The company has a market cap of $122.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $183.10 and a 200 day moving average of $177.55. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $150.14 and a 1 year high of $220.81.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The business services provider reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $7.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.19 billion. Booking had a net margin of 25.53% and a negative return on equity of 102.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $55.40 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th were paid a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 18.58%.

Institutional Trading of Booking

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BKNG. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Booking in the second quarter worth approximately $11,646,302,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Booking by 2,674.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,420,711 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,026,348,000 after buying an additional 37,999,915 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the second quarter worth $1,691,186,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the second quarter worth $1,370,455,000. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd raised its holdings in Booking by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 6,489,929 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,057,274,000 after buying an additional 64,584 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BKNG shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $266.00 to $274.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “reduce” rating and issued a $190.00 price target (down from $220.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Booking in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Rosenblatt Securities assumed coverage on shares of Booking in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price target for the company. Finally, Benchmark raised their price objective on Booking from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Booking currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.95.

Booking Company Profile

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel and restaurant reservation company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Through its digital platforms, the company helps consumers search for, compare and reserve accommodations, flights, rental cars, vacation packages, attractions and restaurant reservations.

Its portfolio includes Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK, OpenTable, Rentalcars.com and the travel metasearch brands Momondo and Cheapflights. Booking.com is primarily known for lodging reservations, while Priceline focuses on travel deals, Agoda serves customers across international markets with a strong presence in Asia, KAYAK and its related brands provide travel search and comparison services, and OpenTable operates a restaurant reservation platform.

The company was founded in 1997 as Priceline.com and was later renamed The Priceline Group before adopting the Booking Holdings name in 2018.