3. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG)
King Street Capital’s Stake Value: $83,560,000
Percentage of King Street Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 7.05%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 96
Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is a travel company that owns and manages multiple travel fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines, including Booking.com, Kayak.com, and Cheapflights, among others. Higgins holds an $83.5 million stake in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), which accounts for 7.05% of his Q3 investments.
As of September this year, 96 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey were long Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), down from 100 funds in the preceding quarter. The total stakes reported by the Q3 hedge funds amounted to $8.42 billion. Harris Associates is the leading stakeholder in the company, with 668,053 shares valued at $1.58 billion.
Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) announced Q3 results on November 3. EPS in the period totaled $37.70, outperforming estimates by $4.67. Revenue for the quarter came in at $4.68 billion, up 77.12% year-over-year, exceeding estimated revenue by $385.44 million.
Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth on November 23 reiterated a Strong Buy rating on Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) and a target price of $3,150. The price target represents a potential return of over 35% from current levels.
Here is what L1 Capital has to say about Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“We reinvested the proceeds from our successful investment in Thermo Fisher in Booking Holdings (Booking). Booking was an investment in the Fund at Inception and was featured in our inaugural June 2019 Quarterly Report. The company owns the world’s largest online travel agent (OTA), Booking.com. To say the past 2.5 years has been volatile for Booking is a major understatement. Booking’s management has had to address the COVID-19-driven collapse in demand for travel accommodation, as well as to manage volatile demand as the world gradually recovers, interrupted by second and third waves of COVID-19 as variants arise.
Throughout these volatile market conditions, Booking’s management has executed against a consistent strategy, investing in its platform and network of accommodation providers, and expanded its associated services while improving efficiencies. We believe Booking will come out of the COVID-19 environment a stronger business, with less competition and consumers more predisposed to booking their travel accommodation online. Travel is recovering strongly as vaccination rates increase and COVID-19 related restrictions are lifted, and we expect Booking’s earnings and cash flow to also recover strongly over the coming years.”
