6,359 Shares in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Purchased by Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super

Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super bought a new stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 6,359 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $31,594,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Booking by 621,874.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,295,423,000 after acquiring an additional 864,406 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,958,352,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Booking by 51.4% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 280,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,283,000 after purchasing an additional 95,308 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Booking by 132.7% during the fourth quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 88,754 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $440,967,000 after buying an additional 50,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter worth approximately $207,089,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BKNG shares. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Booking from $5,005.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. JMP Securities dropped their price target on Booking from $6,100.00 to $5,600.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BTIG Research raised shares of Booking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $5,500.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Eleven 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. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5,327.28.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $4,586.53 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a 50-day moving average of $4,715.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4,769.51. 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 announced its 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. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.18 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 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.