The travel giant set a new record for monthly room bookings
Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG) yesterday announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, with the latter seeing a 36% year-over-year pop on strong travel demand. Plus, the company set a new record for monthly room bookings in January, as travelers planned ahead for their vacations. At last check, BKNG is up 2.2% at $2,480.01.
The security has attracted no fewer than 11 price-target hikes this morning, including one from Citigroup to $2,975 from $2,800. This is impressive because analysts are already bullish on BKNG, with 14 of the 22 in question calling it a "strong buy."
The shares tested a floor at the $2,400 level this week, after slipping below it before staging a rally to their Feb. 16, one-year high of $2,537. The 30-day moving average has been a staunch supporter of the security since the beginning of the year, though, containing multiple pullbacks. So far in 2023, BKNG has added 21.9%.
At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), Booking stock sports a 50-day put/call volume ratio of 1.92 that ranks in the 87th percentile of readings from the past 12 months. This means that options traders have been particularly bearish of late.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 1,477 calls and 989 puts have crossed the tape, or triple the intraday average volume. Most popular is the 2/24 2,700-strike call, followed by the 2,550-strike call in the same weekly series, with new positions currently opening at the latter.