5 Stocks Ray Dalio and Insiders Are Piling Into

2. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 93

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is an American company offering online travel and lodging reservations worldwide. Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates held 40,963 shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the third quarter of 2022, worth $67.3 million and representing 0.34% of the total securities. Robert Mylod Jr., a director at the company, acquired 2000 shares of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in August and September. 

On November 7, Susquehanna analyst Shyam Patil maintained a Positive rating on Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) but cut the price target on the shares to $2650 from $2800. The analyst said they had a solid Q3 with further improvement in October, though some conservatism is factored into Q4 due to macro trends.

Among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was part of 93 public stock portfolios at the end of Q2 2022, compared to 99 funds in the prior quarter. Harris Associates is a prominent position holder in the company, with 616,383 shares worth over $1 billion.  

Here is what RiverPark Large Growth Fund has to say about Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“We also bought back a small position in Booking Holdings during the quarter. Booking is the world’s leader in online travel, operating in 200 countries with brands including Booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com, Kayak, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable. The company has been a dominant on-line travel agency for more than a decade with a high margin business model (40% EBITDA margin for 2019 and 28% for 2021) that requires limited capital expenditures, typically less than 3% of revenue, producing $4.5 billion free cash flow for 2019 and $2.5 billion for 2021 (due to the vast COVID disruption). The company has used its free cash flow for episodic acquisitions as well as to return cash to shareholders. BKNG is well positioned in travel as the largest player in online lodging bookings and the second largest player in alternative accommodations. Like all travel companies, Booking was hit hard by the pandemic, but with its high international exposure, we expect the company’s recovery to be equally strong as travel returns.”