Is it a Good Time to Buy Booking Holdings (BKNG) Shares?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Large Cap Value Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Large Cap Value Strategy outperformed its Russell 1000 Value Index benchmark during the fourth quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains in 10 of 11 sectors in which it was invested for the quarter. The strongest contributions came from the IT, health care, industrials, and materials sectors. The communication services sector was the sole detractor. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

ClearBridge Investments Large Cap Value Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1997, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is a Norwalk, Connecticut-based travel technology company with a $90.8 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Glenn D. Fogel. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) delivered a -7.38% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -8.48%. The stock closed at $2,222.14 per share on April 06, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments Large Cap Value Strategy has to say about Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“The pandemic created opportunities for us to be more aggressive in a variety of areas of the market. We were opportunistic throughout the year, for example, in positioning the portfolio to benefit from a flush consumer eager to return to spending and traveling. New positions included Booking Holdings, an online travel agency with industry-leading margins and a dominant footprint in Europe.”

Photo by Mesut Kaya on Unsplash

Our calculations show that Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) ranks 25th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) was in 92 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 96 funds in the previous quarter. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) delivered a -8.55% return in the past 3 months.

In January 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.