Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) Stock

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) had its price target boosted by Citigroup from $5,500.00 to $5,800.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Bank of America boosted their target price on Booking from $4,850.00 to $5,522.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Booking from $3,900.00 to $5,250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Booking from $5,500.00 to $6,000.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Argus lowered shares of Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Booking from $5,100.00 to $5,600.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5,370.43.

Booking Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of BKNG opened at $4,989.22 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.39. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $4,903.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4,551.96. Booking has a twelve month low of $3,180.00 and a twelve month high of $5,337.24.

Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $41.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $35.82 by $5.73. The company had revenue of $5.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.18 billion. Booking had a negative return on equity of 166.06% and a net margin of 21.85%. On average, analysts predict that Booking will post 181.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Garner Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of Booking by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,087,000 after purchasing an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC grew its position in Booking by 2.2% during the third quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $383,000 after buying an additional 2 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in Booking by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 31 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 2 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Booking by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 124 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $616,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Booking by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 95 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $472,000 after acquiring an additional 2 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

About Booking

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.