Legal & General Group Plc Sells 56,736 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 20.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 217,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 56,736 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.66% of Booking worth $1,081,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new position in Booking during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Booking during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Promus Capital LLC bought a new stake in Booking in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Booking by 600.0% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 7 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of Booking stock opened at $4,284.02 on Monday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $3,180.00 and a 12-month high of $5,337.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $4,757.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4,760.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.76, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.37.

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

Booking Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is an increase from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted 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 note on Friday, February 21st. Mizuho lifted their price target on Booking from $5,400.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. B. Riley raised their price target on Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, BTIG Research raised shares of Booking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $5,500.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Booking has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,374.90.

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.