Stratos Investment Management LLC Buys 135 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Stratos Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 8.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,659 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. Stratos Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $6,992,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Booking in the 1st quarter valued at about $401,371,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 20.5% in the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 2,348 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,518,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Booking during the first quarter worth approximately $537,000. BDF Gestion acquired a new position in Booking in the 2nd quarter valued at $6,897,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new stake in shares of Booking during the 1st quarter valued at $519,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on BKNG. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,900.00 to $4,500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Booking from $4,275.00 to $4,105.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. JMP Securities upped their price objective on Booking from $3,950.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $3,590.00 target price on shares of Booking in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Booking from $4,000.00 to $4,200.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $4,130.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,887.61, for a total transaction of $388,761.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,722,379.07. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Booking Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $4,350.82 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $3,980.33 and a 200-day moving average of $3,820.86. The company has a market cap of $145.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $2,733.04 and a 52 week high of $4,394.95.

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

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.50%.

Booking Company 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.