Fountainhead AM LLC Grows Position in Booking Holdings Inc. $BKNG

Fountainhead AM LLC grew its stake in shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 57.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 71 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Fountainhead AM LLC’s holdings in Booking were worth $413,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BKNG. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Booking by 3.0% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 49,952 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $289,184,000 after buying an additional 1,456 shares during the period. PFG Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Booking by 31.3% in the 2nd quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 105 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $609,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel purchased a new position in Booking in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Midwest Trust Co acquired a new position in Booking during the second quarter worth $49,909,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its position in Booking by 17.5% during the second quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 47 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $272,000 after purchasing an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Wedbush set a $6,000.00 target price on Booking and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Truist Financial set a $5,810.00 price target on Booking in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $5,750.00 price objective (up from $5,077.00) on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Seaport Global Securities increased their price objective on Booking from $6,030.00 to $6,260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6,121.23.

Booking Stock Performance

Shares of Booking stock opened at $4,940.00 on Monday. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $4,096.23 and a 1 year high of $5,839.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $5,311.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $5,412.28. The firm has a market cap of $159.24 billion, a PE ratio of 32.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.34.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $99.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $95.56 by $3.94. The firm had revenue of $9.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.71 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 134.86% and a net margin of 19.37%.The firm’s revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $83.39 EPS. Booking has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $9.60 dividend. This represents a $38.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. Booking’s payout ratio is presently 24.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 625 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5,141.53, for a total value of $3,213,456.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 22,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $118,162,642.46. This trade represents a 2.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Larry Quinlan sold 64 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5,511.80, for a total value of $352,755.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $722,045.80. This represents a 32.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 3,197 shares of company stock valued at $17,260,963. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

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.