Millstone Evans Group LLC Buys Shares of 77 Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 77 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $383,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Booking by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 348 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,729,000 after buying an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its position in Booking by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 110 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 4 shares in the last quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter worth about $308,000. Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in Booking by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 604 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,001,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. increased its position in Booking by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 3,226 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $16,028,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Up 0.6 %

BKNG stock opened at $4,617.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $151.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.40. Booking Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $3,180.00 and a 12-month high of $5,337.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $4,789.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4,694.74.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $35.82 by $5.73. The business had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. On average, research analysts forecast that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Booking Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $9.60 per share. This is a positive change from Booking’s previous quarterly dividend of $8.75. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on BKNG. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Booking from $4,850.00 to $5,522.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Booking from $4,600.00 to $5,000.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Booking from $5,575.00 to $5,750.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $5,400.00 price target on shares of Booking in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking 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.