Insider Selling: Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) VP Sells 62,500 Shares of Stock

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) VP Peter Millones sold 62,500 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.67, for a total value of $10,229,375.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 425,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,572,025.25. This represents a 12.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG traded up $5.07 on Wednesday, reaching $168.37. 9,235,986 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,132,051. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $170.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $187.01. Booking Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $150.14 and a fifty-two week high of $233.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.47 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.10.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.06. Booking had a negative return on equity of 117.14% and a net margin of 22.23%.The company had revenue of $5.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 22.11%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BKNG. KERR FINANCIAL PLANNING Corp purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Guerra Advisors Inc purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Daytona Street Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Camelot Portfolios LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on BKNG shares. Susquehanna set a $260.00 price target on Booking in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Booking from $234.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective (down from $240.00) on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen cut Booking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 29th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective (up from $244.00) on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Booking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.14.

Booking Company Profile

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.