Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. Makes New $89,000 Investment in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 25 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $89,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 5,513 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $19,556,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 89.3% in the fourth quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 265 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $933,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth $642,000. Trust Co of Kansas purchased a new position in shares of Booking in the fourth quarter worth $3,608,000. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of Booking by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 69 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $245,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BKNG traded up $70.99 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $3,533.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 151,805 shares, compared to its average volume of 270,866. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $3,560.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3,378.24. The company has a market cap of $120.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $2,456.93 and a 12-month high of $3,918.00.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $32.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $29.72 by $2.28. Booking had a net margin of 20.08% and a negative return on equity of 751.49%. The company had revenue of $4.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $24.74 earnings per share. Booking’s quarterly revenue was up 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 175.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $8.75 per share. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BKNG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,548.00 to $3,435.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,900.00 to $3,800.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,900.00 to $3,800.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Booking from $3,855.00 to $4,285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3,723.41.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total transaction of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,548 shares in the company, valued at $114,826,417. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 4,302 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,422.75, for a total transaction of $14,724,670.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,548 shares in the company, valued at $114,826,417. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Radakovich Lynn Vojvodich sold 59 shares of Booking stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,700.00, for a total transaction of $218,300.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,069,300. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,461 shares of company stock valued at $18,815,825 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

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.