Avanza Fonder AB Acquires Shares of 2,402 Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,402 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,934,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its holdings in Booking by 46.9% during the second quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 310 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,228,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Booking by 195.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 6,119 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $23,481,000 after purchasing an additional 4,047 shares in the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 37.8% in the second quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 226 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $895,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA acquired a new stake in shares of Booking in the second quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Finally, Optimist Retirement Group LLC grew its holdings in Booking by 14.1% in the 2nd quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 89 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 11 shares in the last quarter. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BKNG. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Booking from $3,900.00 to $5,250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $3,590.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $4,850.00 to $5,522.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Booking from $4,580.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Baird R W raised Booking to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $4,997.64.

Booking Stock Up 2.5 %

NASDAQ BKNG opened at $4,950.34 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $5,053.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $4,367.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.41. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $3,180.00 and a 52-week high of $5,337.24.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 23.75%.

Booking 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.