E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Grows Stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 29.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 469 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Booking were worth $2,330,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in shares of Booking by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,321,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its position in shares of Booking by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 931 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,921,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Booking by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 179,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $896,455,000 after acquiring an additional 8,735 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of Booking by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $29,160,000 after acquiring an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Booking by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $166,787,000 after acquiring an additional 2,010 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BKNG has been the subject of several research reports. Tigress Financial increased their target price 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. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Booking from $5,005.00 to $5,800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Booking from $5,155.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America raised their price objective on Booking from $4,850.00 to $5,522.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Booking from $4,100.00 to $4,700.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG stock opened at $4,695.97 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $154.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.39. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $4,879.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $4,643.05.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. As a group, analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. Booking’s payout ratio is 22.19%.

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.