Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Cuts Position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 24.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,187 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 20,646 shares during the quarter. Booking accounts for about 2.2% of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Booking were worth $318,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BKNG. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Booking by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,321,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Booking by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 179,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $896,455,000 after purchasing an additional 8,735 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Booking by 20.3% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 905 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,495,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its position in Booking by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,160,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Booking by 5.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $166,787,000 after buying an additional 2,010 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Erste Group Bank lowered Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $5,575.00 to $5,750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Benchmark boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,634.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $152.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $3,180.00 and a 52-week high of $5,337.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $4,779.09 and a 200-day moving average of $4,727.45.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. As a group, analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.19%.

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.