Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Has $318.91 Million Stock Holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. reduced its position in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 24.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 64,187 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 20,646 shares during the period. Booking makes up approximately 2.2% of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. owned 0.19% of Booking worth $318,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 621,874.8% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,295,423,000 after buying an additional 864,406 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Booking by 1.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 797,116 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,350,605,000 after acquiring an additional 11,211 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Booking by 0.5% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 492,274 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,073,508,000 after acquiring an additional 2,321 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth about $1,958,352,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Booking by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 214,185 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,064,161,000 after purchasing an additional 4,258 shares in the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on BKNG. 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 research note on Friday, December 6th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Booking from $5,155.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Booking from $5,575.00 to $5,750.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Mizuho lifted their price target on Booking from $5,400.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Booking has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,634.24 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $4,779.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4,727.45. The stock has a market cap of $152.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,337.24.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The company had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

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

Booking 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.