UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Invests $219,000 in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 44 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $876,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Booking by 10.1% in the third quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 413 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,738,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC bought a new position in Booking in the third quarter valued at about $666,000. MayTech Global Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking by 20.6% during the 3rd quarter. MayTech Global Investments LLC now owns 5,773 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $24,318,000 after purchasing an additional 988 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Booking by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 1,482 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,244,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Price Performance

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $4,752.80 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $155.96 billion, a PE ratio of 27.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4,784.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4,721.67.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. Equities research analysts expect that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is a boost from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BKNG. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $5,400.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Benchmark increased their target price on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. B. Riley lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5,370.43.

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.