L1 Capital International Believes in the Strong Prospects of Booking Holdings (BKNG)

L1 Capital International, an investment management company, released its second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund returned -10.1% net of fees in the second quarter compared to the benchmark return of -8.5%. Current macroeconomic issues and geopolitical situations affected the fund’s performance in the quarter. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2022.

L1 Capital International discussed stocks like Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in the second quarter investor letter. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is an online travel and restaurant reservation services providing company. On September 6, 2022, Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) stock closed at $1,814.85 per share. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) had a return of -7.21% for the past month and its shares lost 21.25% of their value in the last 52 weeks. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) has a market capitalization of $72.061 billion.

Here is what L1 Capital International specifically said about Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“We have been increasing our investment in Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) which now lies on the edge of the top 10 holdings. The investment thesis for Booking, the world’s largest online travel agent (OTA), was outlined in our inaugural June 2019 Quarterly Report. Back then, no-one could have envisaged the subsequent disruption to the travel industry caused by COVID-19. Today the world, outside of China, has adjusted to COVID-19 and life has largely returned to normal. Travel is rapidly normalising with domestic travel ahead of 2019 levels and international travel recovering strongly (see Figure 9).

Yet Booking’s share price is lower than where it was trading post the onslaught of COVID-19 and pre the widespread approval of vaccines. Yes, travel is discretionary, and yes more challenging economic conditions and higher fuel costs will have a negative impact on the travel industry. However, we consider travel activity recovering to prior trend levels is a question of when, not if. Consumers will adapt to economic circumstances – travelling to cheaper destinations, going on holiday for a shorter period or staying at a lower cost hotel, but we still expect travel activity to rapidly recover.

Post COVID-19, Booking is a stronger business. Many competitors, particularly small travel agents, have not survived the downturn. Hotels are increasingly reliant on Booking to source customers, and Booking has continued to invest, expanding its range of products and services and breadth of accommodation options, leading to market share gains…” (Click here to read the full text)

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Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) is in 21st position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 93 hedge fund portfolios held Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) at the end of the second quarter which was 99 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG) in another article and shared the list of stocks that billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller is decreasing stakes in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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