Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) Short Interest Update

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 715,700 shares, a growth of 8.1% from the January 15th total of 662,100 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 238,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on BKNG. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $5,400.00 price objective on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Argus lowered Booking from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Booking from $4,500.00 to $5,100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on shares of Booking in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $5,850.00 price target for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Booking from $3,900.00 to $5,250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Booking has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $5,044.43.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Booking

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Booking by 621,874.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 864,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,295,423,000 after acquiring an additional 864,406 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Booking during the 4th quarter worth $1,958,352,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Booking by 342,723.5% in the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 233,120 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $981,929,000 after buying an additional 233,052 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Booking in the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,322,600,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Booking by 51.4% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 280,629 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,394,283,000 after acquiring an additional 95,308 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.42% of the company’s stock.

Booking Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ BKNG traded up $35.70 on Monday, reaching $5,044.40. 202,438 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 263,793. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.97 billion, a PE ratio of 34.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.39. Booking has a fifty-two week low of $3,180.00 and a fifty-two week high of $5,337.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $4,919.75 and a 200 day moving average of $4,510.94.

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.