Seven Mile Advisory Acquires 3 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Seven Mile Advisory increased its holdings in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 65 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3 shares during the period. Seven Mile Advisory’s holdings in Booking were worth $323,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BKNG. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Mogy Joel R Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,321,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Booking by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 179,902 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $896,455,000 after buying an additional 8,735 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 905 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,495,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Booking by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 5,869 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $29,160,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 5.3% in the third 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on BKNG. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Booking from $4,470.00 to $5,248.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. B. Riley raised their price objective on shares of Booking from $5,700.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Booking from $4,900.00 to $5,540.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Booking from $5,250.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Cfra raised shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Booking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG opened at $4,634.24 on Monday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $3,180.00 and a 12 month high of $5,337.24. The company has a market capitalization of $152.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $4,779.09 and its 200 day moving average is $4,740.07.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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, equities analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $9.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.19%.

About Booking

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.