Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Shares Bought by Banco Santander S.A.

Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 52.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,061 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,734 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Booking were worth $25,145,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in shares of Booking by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 31,817 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $169,598,000 after buying an additional 2,517 shares during the last quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,133,000. Haven Private LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $308,000. Andra AP fonden raised its position in shares of Booking by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 6,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,811,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Booking by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 992 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,930,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BKNG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Booking from $4,600.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,470.00 to $5,248.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,250.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,900.00 to $5,540.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,673.38 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $4,872.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4,649.79. Booking Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $3,180.00 and a one year high of $5,337.24. The firm has a market cap of $153.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.01, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. Booking had a net margin of 24.78% and a negative return on equity of 159.34%. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Equities analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $9.60 dividend. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.19%.

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.