Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG) had a busy Wednesday, with the travel giant’s stock closing solidly higher on December 10, 2025 – and then giving back a chunk of those gains in after-hours trading. As investors get ready for the opening bell on Thursday, December 11, the setup around BKNG is a mix of strong fundamentals, bullish Street targets, noisy options activity and slightly stretched near‑term technicals.
Here’s what actually happened after the bell – and what matters before the next one rings.
How Booking Holdings stock traded on December 10, 2025
During regular trading on Wednesday, December 10, Booking Holdings shares climbed 1.57% to close at $5,277.20, marking a second straight day of gains. The stock opened around $5,173.50, traded between roughly $5,064.69 and $5,365.59, and finished the session on well‑above‑average volume of about 458,000 shares, versus a three‑month average around 269,000. [1]
That puts BKNG:
- About 1.7% higher over the past year. [2]
- Roughly 9.6% below its 52‑week high of $5,839.41, set on July 8, 2025. [3]
According to MarketWatch, the move came on a broadly positive day for U.S. equities: the S&P 500 rose 0.67% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.05% on December 10. [4]
However, Booking underperformed key online travel peers on the day:
- Expedia Group gained about 4.9%
- Tripadvisor added roughly 3.0%
- Trip.com rose about 1.0% [5]
So Wednesday’s tape says: BKNG is grinding higher, volume is hot, but money is rotating even harder into some peers.
Zooming out a bit, BKNG has rallied nearly 8% from its December 1 close around $4,892 to Wednesday’s $5,277, part of a rebound from its November pullback. [6]
After-hours moves: profit‑taking after a two‑day rally
The more interesting part for “after the bell” watchers came once the closing auction cleared.
On the same page that shows the regular-session stats, Investing.com data indicates Booking Holdings slipped to about $5,201.23 in after‑hours trading, a decline of roughly 1.44% from the $5,277.20 close, as of around 22:07 market time. [7]
That after‑hours giveback:
- Still leaves BKNG comfortably above the intraday low near $5,065
- Moves it closer to the $5,200 area, which becomes a short‑term level to watch on Thursday morning
No major Booking‑specific news hit the tape between the close and late evening that would obviously explain a sharp repricing. The after‑hours softening looks more like normal post‑rally digestion: a two‑day rise on strong volume created room for short‑term traders to lock in gains, especially in a stock with a three‑figure handle and wide intraday ranges.
Analyst calls and price targets going into December 11
Fresh move: Gordon Haskett nudges its target higher
The main December 10 research headline for BKNG came from Gordon Haskett, which:
- Raised its price target to $5,710 from $5,620
- Reiterated a Hold rating on the shares [8]
A Hold rating combined with a higher target is a classic “we acknowledge upside, but risk/reward isn’t screamingly cheap” stance.
The broader Street view is still clearly bullish
Across the Street, Booking Holdings remains one of the more widely loved large‑cap consumer‑discretionary names:
- Average 12‑month price targets for BKNG sit in roughly the $6,150–$6,250 range, depending on the data provider, implying around 17–20% upside from Wednesday’s close. [9]
- Investing.com shows an average target of about $6,187.89 with a “Buy” consensus and estimated +17.26% upside. [10]
- Intellectia tallies an average Street target near $6,166 (low: $5,433, high: $6,850) with 20 Buys, 6 Holds and no Sells in its sample. [11]
- MarketWatch reports an average target around $6,241 based on 41 ratings, with an “Overweight” average recommendation. [12]
On top of that, recent weeks have seen a cluster of upgrades and initiations:
- BofA Securities upgraded BKNG to Buy with a $6,000 target on November 24.
- BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage at Outperform with a $6,100 target the same day.
- Wedbush upgraded the stock to Outperform with a $6,000 target in mid‑November, citing strong global travel demand, solid execution and attractive valuation versus growth prospects. [13]
Meanwhile, Simply Wall St’s valuation model pegs fair value at about $6,207, roughly 16% above the last close, and notes a consensus target around $6,100. [14]
Net takeaway: the average analyst still sees BKNG as a buy‑rated compounder with mid‑teens percentage upside over the next 12 months, even after its recent bounce.
Options market, technical picture and short interest
Whales crowding the $5,000–$5,350 zone
On December 9, Benzinga’s options scanner flagged 11 unusual BKNG options trades, with large “whale” positions clustering around $5,000–$5,350 strike prices. [15]
Key points from that read‑through:
- Sentiment among big options traders was mixed but leaning bullish: roughly 45% of the notional flow bullish, 36% bearish.
- The unusual activity included a sizable bearish short‑dated put sweep near $5,065 expiring in December, as well as larger, longer‑dated put trades around $5,300 that were interpreted as mostly bullish (e.g., hedged or put‑spread structures). [16]
In plain language: big money seems to be betting that BKNG spends a lot of time in a very expensive but not catastrophic $5,000–$5,350 neighborhood, rather than exploding higher or collapsing lower in the immediate term.
Short sellers quietly backing off
Data aggregated by Intellectia shows the short‑sale ratio in BKNG fell from about 10.45% on December 5 to 7.89% on December 9, as the share price climbed from just over $5,027 to nearly $5,196. [17]
That pattern is consistent with short‑covering into strength – skeptics using the rally to exit rather than double down.
Quant and technical signals
Quant‑driven platforms are a bit split:
- CoinCodex classifies sentiment as “bullish” but expects a short‑term pullback, forecasting:
- A move down to about $5,195.76 (‑1.5%) “tomorrow” and roughly $5,097 over the next week.
- A one‑month target around $5,760.60, implying about +10.9% upside versus the current price. [18]
- Their models show BKNG trading above its 50‑day and 200‑day moving averages, with a 14‑day RSI around the high‑50s to high‑60s, which is more “warm” than truly overbought. [19]
- Intellectia pegs BKNG’s forward P/E near 20.1, below its five‑year average forward P/E of about 24.6, suggesting valuation is not egregious relative to its own history, even if the trailing P/E around the mid‑30s looks rich versus the broad market. [20]
Put together, the technical setup heading into December 11 looks like:
- Trend: up (price above major moving averages)
- Momentum: firm but not extreme
- Short‑term models: mildly skeptical after the recent pop
- Options & shorts: more hedging and de‑risking than outright doom
Fundamentals still driven by resilient travel demand
None of this makes sense without the underlying business, and Booking’s fundamentals remain anchored in a very simple story: people are still traveling a lot.
In its Q3 2025 earnings release, Booking reported: [21]
- Room nights up 8% year over year
- Gross bookings up 14% (10% in constant currency)
- Revenue up 13% (8% in constant currency)
- Total revenue of about $9.01 billion, beating Wall Street’s expectation of roughly $8.72 billion
- Adjusted EPS of $99.50, well ahead of the ~$95.66 consensus
Shares jumped nearly 5% in after‑hours trading on that October 28 report, as management emphasized steady travel demand into Q4 despite macro and geopolitical uncertainty. [22]
Subsequent commentary from MarketWatch highlighted:
- A positive outlook for the holiday travel season
- Ongoing resilience in travel demand, including from higher‑income consumers seeking “affordable luxuries”
- A cost‑reduction program being accelerated, with targeted annual savings raised to roughly $500–$550 million, up from a prior $400–$450 million range [23]
On a trailing basis, InvestingPro / Investing.com data show: [24]
- Revenue around $26.0 billion over the past year, growing roughly 13% year over year
- Gross margins near 87% and net margins around the high‑teens
- Market cap roughly $170 billion
- A small but real dividend of $38.40 per share (about 0.7% yield)
So from a fundamentals lens, you’re looking at a dominant online travel agency with double‑digit top‑line growth, very high margins, and an asset‑light model – which is why valuation arguments tend to revolve around “how much is too much,” not “is this business broken.”
Forward‑looking estimates remain upbeat:
- The consensus EPS for the current quarter has edged up from about $48.41 to $48.62 over the past week, per Nasdaq data. [25]
- Zacks / Yahoo Finance note that this implies roughly 17% year‑over‑year earnings growth for the quarter. [26]
- Intellectia’s compiled estimates point to Q4 revenue around $6.11 billion (+11.7% YoY) and EPS about 48.3 (+16.2% YoY). [27]
Strategic themes: AI, the “Connected Trip” and new partnerships
Beyond the immediate numbers, a lot of recent commentary around BKNG – including at the Nasdaq 53rd Investor Conference in London on December 9 – has focused on strategy rather than quarterly noise.
A few threads worth knowing before Thursday’s open:
- AI and “agentic” travel experiences
At the Nasdaq conference and in subsequent coverage, Booking’s CFO Ewout Steenbergen framed AI as an offensive opportunity, not just a defensive tool. Management talks about keeping users inside one integrated “agentic experience environment” – essentially, a smart travel assistant that can orchestrate flights, hotels, cars, restaurants and activities inside a single ecosystem. [28] - The Connected Trip and payments
Analysis on platforms like Seeking Alpha and Simply Wall St has highlighted Booking’s merchant payments business as a key pillar of its “Connected Trip” strategy, making it easier to bundle travel components and capture more economics per traveler. [29] - AI partnerships through OpenTable
On December 10, SoundHound AI announced an integration with OpenTable – Booking’s restaurant‑tech subsidiary – to enable in‑car voice reservations via automakers that use SoundHound’s voice AI. [30]
That won’t move the needle on revenue tomorrow, but it fits squarely into the narrative of Booking embedding itself deeper into everyday travel moments.
Combine those with prior presentations (e.g., at a Goldman Sachs conference) where Booking emphasized growth in alternative accommodations and AI‑driven personalization, and you get a company trying to own the entire travel funnel, not just sell hotel nights. [31]
Key things to watch before the market opens on December 11, 2025
Heading into Thursday’s session, here are the main lenses through which many traders and investors are likely to view BKNG:
- Price levels and near‑term technicals
- $5,200: After‑hours price and immediate support zone. A firm open above this level would suggest the pullback was routine profit‑taking. A decisive break below could invite more short‑term selling. [32]
- $5,365 area: Wednesday’s intraday high and first resistance. A push through that level on strong volume would reinforce the uptrend. [33]
- 50‑ and 200‑day moving averages: Both sit below the current price, with technical models still largely in “buy” mode, but quant forecasts flag a modest probability of a near‑term dip after the recent run. [34]
- Volume follow‑through
Wednesday’s trading volume was well above its three‑month average, and MarketWatch also flagged a spike relative to Booking’s 50‑day average. [35]- If Thursday opens with similarly elevated volume, any move (up or down) will carry more informational weight.
- A quiet, low‑volume drift would suggest the market is content to wait for the next macro or company‑specific catalyst.
- Analyst and options chatter
- After Gordon Haskett’s tweak higher, investors will watch for any follow‑on target moves or fresh initiations, especially from houses that haven’t yet updated post‑Q3 earnings. [36]
- Options traders will be watching whether new large trades extend that $5,000–$5,350 “options gravity well” identified earlier in the week, or whether the center of activity migrates higher. [37]
- Travel sector tone
MarketBeat’s December 10 travel‑stocks screen underscored that Booking, Expedia, Travelers, MakeMyTrip and Trip.com are attracting heavy dollar volume as a group. It also reminded investors that travel stocks are cyclical and highly sensitive to consumer confidence, fuel and labor costs, and geopolitical risk. [38]- Any overnight headlines about macro growth, fuel prices, or geopolitical flare‑ups could ripple into BKNG at the open.
- Earnings countdown and guidance expectations
- The next earnings date is currently estimated around February 19, 2026, so investors are roughly two months from the next big data dump. [39]
- With Q4 and full‑year estimates drifting higher, markets may start to focus more on 2026 commentary – especially around AI investment, margins, and the pace of share repurchases. [40]
Bottom line
After the bell on December 10, 2025, Booking Holdings looked like a classic “strong stock catching its breath”:
- Up 1.57% on the day to $5,277.20, on heavy volume and with a second straight daily gain. [41]
- Down about 1.4% after hours to $5,201.23, as traders trimmed risk following that mini‑rally. [42]
- Still well below its 52‑week high, but backed by resilient travel demand, rising earnings estimates, and broadly bullish analyst coverage. [43]
Before the market opens on December 11, the key questions aren’t “Is Booking’s business real?” – that’s been answered by billions in high‑margin revenue – but rather:
- How much near‑term volatility will the stock need to digest its recent move?
- Where does the market want to price a very profitable, AI‑hungry, globally dominant travel platform in a world that still really likes going places?
References
1. www.investing.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.marketwatch.com, 4. www.marketwatch.com, 5. www.marketwatch.com, 6. markets.financialcontent.com, 7. www.investing.com, 8. www.marketscreener.com, 9. www.investing.com, 10. www.investing.com, 11. intellectia.ai, 12. www.marketwatch.com, 13. intellectia.ai, 14. simplywall.st, 15. www.benzinga.com, 16. www.benzinga.com, 17. intellectia.ai, 18. coincodex.com, 19. coincodex.com, 20. intellectia.ai, 21. s201.q4cdn.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.marketwatch.com, 24. www.investing.com, 25. www.nasdaq.com, 26. finance.yahoo.com, 27. intellectia.ai, 28. www.phocuswire.com, 29. seekingalpha.com, 30. investors.soundhound.com, 31. www.investing.com, 32. www.investing.com, 33. www.investing.com, 34. coincodex.com, 35. www.marketwatch.com, 36. www.marketscreener.com, 37. www.benzinga.com, 38. www.marketbeat.com, 39. www.investing.com, 40. intellectia.ai, 41. www.investing.com, 42. www.investing.com, 43. www.reuters.com
