HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Purchases 10 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 499 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $2,442,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Optimist Retirement Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Booking by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $383,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the last quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 155 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $654,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Booking by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 46 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 3 shares in the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Booking by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 89 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the period. Finally, Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Booking by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC now owns 64 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $318,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the period. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,400.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,575.00 to $5,750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Booking from $4,600.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,606.91 on Tuesday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $4,772.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4,745.26. The company has a market cap of $151.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion during 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, equities research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 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.