Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Booking Call Options (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 80,909 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 987% compared to the average daily volume of 7,442 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Booking news, Director Vanessa Ames Wittman sold 1,125 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total transaction of $216,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,050 shares in the company, valued at $3,081,600. The trade was a 6.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 16,726 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.36, for a total transaction of $3,100,331.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 298,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,269,532.64. This represents a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 60,876 shares of company stock worth $10,559,629 over the last ninety days. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 1.9% in the third quarter. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC now owns 110 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 4.2% in the third quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 50 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. Sachetta LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 22.2% in the third quarter. Sachetta LLC now owns 11 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 9.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 23 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $124,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Values Added Financial LLC raised its holdings in Booking by 4.8% in the third quarter. Values Added Financial LLC now owns 44 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Booking News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Booking this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 results showed double?digit growth in revenue, gross bookings and bookings; EPS and revenue generally beat Street expectations and management highlighted cost savings and conversion benefits from generative AI and record share repurchases. Booking Holdings Q1 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates, Rise Y/Y
• Positive Sentiment: KAYAK (a Booking brand) launched “Ask AI,” a conversational travel planning tool — a product move that supports the company’s AI monetization and customer?experience thesis. KAYAK Launches Ask AI to Simplify Travel Planning
• Neutral Sentiment: Some sell?side support remains (several firms reaffirmed Buy/Outperform ratings, including BTIG), leaving analyst sentiment mixed rather than uniformly negative. BTIG Reaffirms Buy
• Negative Sentiment: Management cut full?year revenue growth guidance to high?single?digits (from low?double?digits) citing the Middle East conflict, directly weighing on forward expectations. Booking Holdings Cuts Full-Year Outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple major brokers trimmed price targets (DA Davidson, HSBC, Citi, Goldman, Mizuho, Deutsche Bank, RBC and others), which increases near?term selling pressure despite many firms keeping Buy ratings. HSBC Adjusts Price Target on Booking
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large options activity: traders bought ~20,747 put contracts (a ~179% increase vs. normal daily put volume), signaling hedging/speculative bearish interest.
• Negative Sentiment: Hedge?fund activity: Lone Pine (Stephen Mandel) trimmed its BKNG stake — a high?profile investor reduction that can amplify negative sentiment. Stephen Mandel Trims Position

Booking Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG traded up $0.51 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $173.89. 8,574,234 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,443,527. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $173.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $192.54. Booking has a twelve month low of $150.62 and a twelve month high of $233.58. The company has a market capitalization of $137.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.20.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $27.56 by ($26.42). Booking had a negative return on equity of 128.99% and a net margin of 20.08%.The firm had revenue of $5.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.99 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Booking will post 10.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. Booking’s payout ratio is presently 25.26%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on BKNG. Gordon Haskett decreased their price objective on shares of Booking from $217.60 to $214.80 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on shares of Booking from $216.28 to $187.92 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Booking from $250.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $215.00 price objective (down from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark decreased their price objective on shares of Booking from $256.00 to $224.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.21.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc is a global online travel company that operates a portfolio of consumer brands and technology platforms that facilitate the search for and booking of travel services. The company’s businesses focus on accommodations, transportation and related travel services through consumer-facing websites and apps as well as partner distribution channels. Booking Holdings was originally founded as Priceline in the late 1990s and adopted the Booking Holdings name in 2018; it is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Its core offerings include online reservations for hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging; flight and car rental search and booking; and ancillary services that support travel planning and on-property experiences.