Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $18.96 Million Position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 2.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,500 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Booking were worth $18,955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Booking by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,954,450 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,718,390,000 after acquiring an additional 12,456 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Booking by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 514,336 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,865,949,000 after purchasing an additional 21,969 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in Booking by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 358,720 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,421,069,000 after purchasing an additional 10,889 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Booking by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 193,515 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $702,049,000 after purchasing an additional 43,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Booking by 22.1% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 159,956 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $584,492,000 after purchasing an additional 28,904 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Booking

In other news, insider Paulo Pisano sold 100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 3,787 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,722,379.07. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKNG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Booking in a research note on Friday, September 6th. They set a “hold” rating and a $4,100.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $4,200.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $4,200.00 to $4,300.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Booking from $4,500.00 to $4,200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $4,256.89.

Booking Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,347.82 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $145.74 billion, a PE ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $2,733.04 and a 52 week high of $4,395.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $4,043.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $3,842.18.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The business services provider reported $41.90 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 the consensus estimate of $5.77 billion. Booking had a net margin of 22.46% and a negative return on equity of 200.87%. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $37.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 177.17 EPS for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a $8.75 dividend. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Booking’s payout ratio is 24.50%.

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.