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Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG), headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a leader in online travel and hospitality services, operating well-known brands such as Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak, and OpenTable. Valued at $181.5 billion by market cap, the company offers a platform that allows users to make travel reservations, as well as accommodation reservations, rental cars, airline tickets, and vacation packages.
Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as “large-cap stocks,” and BKNG perfectly fits that description, with its market cap exceeding this mark, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the travel services industry. Booking Holdings has solidified its market leadership in online travel with a strong portfolio of its brands.
Despite its notable strength, BKNG slipped 4.1% from its 52-week high of $5,839.41, achieved on Jul. 8. Over the past three months, BKNG stock gained 1.8% underperforming the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLY) 7.8% gains during the same time frame.
In the longer term, shares of BKNG rose 12.7% on a YTD basis and climbed 43.6% over the past 52 weeks, outperforming XLY’s YTD gains of 3.3% and 25.9% returns over the last year.
To confirm the bullish trend, BKNG has been trading above its 200-day moving average over the past year, with slight fluctuations. Despite the positive price momentum since late April, the stock has been trading below its 50-day moving average recently.
On Jul. 29, BKNG shares closed down more than 1% after reporting its Q2 results. Its adjusted EPS of $55.40 surpassed Wall Street expectations of $50.91. The company’s revenue was $6.8 billion, topping Wall Street forecasts of $6.6 billion.
In the competitive arena of travel services, Expedia Group, Inc. (EXPE) has taken the lead over BKNG, showing resilience with a 15.3% gain on a YTD basis and a 53.7% uptick over the past 52 weeks.
Wall Street analysts are reasonably bullish on BKNG’s prospects. The stock has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating from the 37 analysts covering it, and the mean price target of $6,083.67 suggests a potential upside of 8.7% from current price levels.
On the date of publication, Neha Panjwani did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
