Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

BKNG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Booking from $5,400.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cfra upgraded shares of Booking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Benchmark lifted their target price on shares of Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $5,250.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Booking currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5,370.43.

Booking Price Performance

BKNG opened at $4,917.46 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4,887.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4,642.68. Booking has a 1 year low of $3,180.00 and a 1 year high of $5,337.24. The firm has a market cap of $161.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.42, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.39.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Booking will post 209.92 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Booking by 621,874.8% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,295,423,000 after buying an additional 864,406 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Booking by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 803,125 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,986,244,000 after buying an additional 6,009 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Booking by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 492,274 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,073,508,000 after buying an additional 2,321 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Booking by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 418,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,763,797,000 after buying an additional 13,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Booking in the 4th quarter worth about $1,958,352,000. 92.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.