First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Acquires 1,820 Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. increased its position in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) by 2,935.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,882 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,820 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Booking were worth $8,670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in Booking during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Booking in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new position in Booking in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. 92.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BKNG. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Booking from $5,000.00 to $4,800.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Booking from $4,567.00 to $4,692.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities boosted their price target on Booking from $5,600.00 to $5,700.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. BTIG Research upgraded Booking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $5,500.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Benchmark upped their target price on Booking from $5,000.00 to $5,900.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Booking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,377.33.

Booking Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Booking stock opened at $5,614.61 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $4,990.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4,931.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $182.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.45, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41. Booking Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $3,180.00 and a twelve month high of $5,639.70.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The business services provider reported $24.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $17.57 by $7.24. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.58 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 159.34% and a net margin of 24.78%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $20.39 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Booking Holdings Inc. will post 209.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Booking Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $9.60 per share. This represents a $38.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Booking’s dividend payout ratio is 23.89%.

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.