Morgan Stanley Increases Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) Price Target to $4,000.00

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) had its price objective increased by Morgan Stanley from $3,700.00 to $4,000.00 in a research note released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on BKNG. DA Davidson upped their target price on Booking from $4,100.00 to $4,150.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Booking from $4,200.00 to $4,600.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and set a $3,950.00 target price on shares of Booking in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Booking from $4,285.00 to $4,580.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Booking from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $4,056.31.

Booking Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of BKNG stock opened at $3,700.99 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $125.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $3,887.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3,685.10. Booking has a 1 year low of $2,733.04 and a 1 year high of $4,144.32.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The business services provider reported $20.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $14.03 by $6.36. Booking had a negative return on equity of 288.35% and a net margin of 21.81%. The firm had revenue of $4.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $11.60 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Booking will post 178.55 EPS for the current year.

Booking Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a dividend of $8.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $35.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. Booking’s payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4,067.65, for a total transaction of $3,050,737.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $100,556,375.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Booking news, CEO Glenn D. Fogel sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4,067.65, for a total transaction of $3,050,737.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $100,556,375.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paulo Pisano sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,580.75, for a total transaction of $812,830.25. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,157,314.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 999 shares of company stock worth $3,939,187. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BKNG. Kintegral Advisory LLC lifted its position in Booking by 19.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kintegral Advisory LLC now owns 1,068 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,231,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. increased its stake in shares of Booking by 39.3% during the 2nd quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. now owns 78 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Booking by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 6,561 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,993,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Lester Murray Antman dba SimplyRich purchased a new position in Booking in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new position in Booking in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 92.42% 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.