Waterloo Capital L.P. Boosts Stock Position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 176 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7 shares during the quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Booking were worth $875,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. IHT Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Booking by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 156 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $678,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Booking by 30.6% in the third quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,498 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,522,000 after buying an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Booking by 92.3% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,600 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,739,000 after buying an additional 768 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its position in Booking by 1.2% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 2,125 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,951,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC increased its stake in Booking by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 155 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $654,000 after acquiring an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKNG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Booking from $5,575.00 to $5,750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Benchmark boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,250.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. B. Riley upped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Booking from $4,850.00 to $5,522.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5,374.90.

Booking Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of BKNG opened at $4,284.02 on Monday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $3,180.00 and a 1-year high of $5,337.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $4,757.12 and its 200-day moving average price 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 data 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. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.18 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $9.60 dividend. This is an increase 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 0.90%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 22.19%.

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.