Booking Holdings (BKNG) Stock on November 30, 2025: Analyst Upgrades, AI Deals and Big-Money Buying Shape the Outlook

Booking Holdings Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ: BKNG) has had a busy few weeks. The online travel giant has posted strong third‑quarter numbers, attracted fresh institutional money, rolled out new AI‑powered products through its brands, and announced a key leadership change at Priceline — all while the share price lags the broader market.

As of the last trading session on November 28, 2025, Booking’s stock closed around $4,914.69, near the middle of its 12‑month range of roughly $4,096 to $5,839 and implying a market cap in the $150–160 billion range. ^[1]

Below is a rundown of the most important current news and developments up to November 30, 2025, and what they mean for Booking Holdings stock.

Where Booking Holdings stock stands now

Recent analysis from Barchart underscores that the stock has underperformed the S&P 500 in 2025, even as the business reports record earnings:

Over the past year, BKNG is down about 8.6%, while the S&P 500 is up about 10.5%.
Year‑to‑date, BKNG is down roughly 7.8%, versus an S&P 500 gain of about 11.2%.
The stock has still fared slightly better than the Amplify Travel Tech ETF (AWAY), which is down about 8.6% over the same period. ^[2]

On valuation, Barchart and MarketBeat data point to:

Market cap: about $151–158 billion
P/E ratio: roughly 32x trailing earnings
PEG ratio (price/earnings‑to‑growth): about 1.6, suggesting growth roughly keeps up with the valuation multiple
Dividend: a quarterly payout of $9.60 per share, or $38.40 annually, for a yield around 0.8% at current prices. ^[3]

Institutional ownership is extremely high: around 96% of the float is in institutional hands, with short interest at only about 1.8% of shares outstanding. ^[4]

Q3 2025: big beat, bigger guidance

Booking’s third‑quarter 2025 results, reported on October 28, are the foundation for much of the recent analyst commentary:

Revenue: $9.01 billion, up about 12.7–13% year over year, and ahead of Wall Street expectations. ^[5]
Gross bookings: $49.7 billion, up 14% versus last year, reflecting resilient global travel demand and more customers bundling services (flights, stays, cars, activities) into “connected trips.” ^[6]
Adjusted EPS: about $99.50, roughly 18–19% higher than a year earlier and comfortably above consensus. ^[7]
Room nights: 323 million, up 8.2% year over year. ^[8]
Adjusted EBITDA margin: around 47%, expanding by over a full percentage point versus the prior year as marketing efficiency improved. ^[9]

The company also raised its annual cost‑savings target to $500–550 million, signaling discipline on expenses even while it invests in AI and product innovation. ^[10]

Guidance from the Q3 update remains robust:

For Q4 2025, Booking expects:
- Room nights up 4–6%
- Gross bookings up 11–13%
- Revenue up 10–12%
- Adjusted EBITDA of $2.0–2.1 billion, implying mid‑teens growth. ^[11]
For full‑year 2025, management guides to:
- Room nights up about 7%
- Gross bookings up 11–12%
- Revenue growth of around 12%
- Adjusted EBITDA up 17–18%, with margins expanding by about 180 basis points year over year. ^[12]

Despite those numbers, the stock actually slipped after earnings, as investors digested macro risks and competitive pressures — a theme several analyst notes pick up on. ^[13]

Street view: strong growth story with ~35% upside potential

Analyst sentiment is broadly positive, even if the share price has been choppy.

Consensus ratings and price targets

Barchart’s November 21 breakdown shows:

38 analysts cover BKNG.
Consensus rating: “Moderate Buy”
- 25 Strong Buy
- 2 Moderate Buy
- 11 Hold
Average 12‑month price target: about $6,174, roughly 35% above current levels.
Street‑high target: around $7,447, implying potential upside of over 60% if the bull case plays out. ^[14]

Zacks, which focuses heavily on earnings revisions, currently assigns Booking a VGM Score of “A” (Value/Growth/Momentum composite) and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), noting that estimates have generally trended upward since the Q3 report but the stock has eased about 3% in that period. ^[15]

Key upgrades: Wedbush and others

A widely cited catalyst was Wedbush’s upgrade of Booking on November 13:

Rating raised from Neutral to Outperform.
New price target: $6,000.
Wedbush calls Booking the “best‑positioned online travel agency globally”, citing its scale, geographic diversification, strong liquidity, and robust free‑cash‑flow conversion. ^[16]

The firm highlighted that in Q3:

Gross bookings reached about $50 billion.
Revenue grew 13%.
Adjusted EBITDA climbed to around $4.2 billion, up 15% year over year. ^[17]

An additional MarketBeat piece — “AI Fatigue? These 3 Analyst‑Upgraded Stocks Offer Real Growth Potential” — puts Booking alongside a small group of upgrade‑driven names that still trade at reasonable valuations. It emphasizes the same Q3 growth metrics and notes that analyst target hikes imply roughly 33% upside from recent levels. ^[18]

Other bank research (including from Bank of America) has framed recent concerns about AI‑driven competition as “overdone”, arguing that Booking’s own AI investments and data advantage make it more likely to be a beneficiary than a casualty. ^[19]

Big‑ticket institutional buying: Norges Bank and Rothschild

Fresh 13F filings show that large, long‑term institutions are adding to BKNG, a supportive signal for the stock:

Norges Bank, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, initiated a new stake of 381,901 shares in Q2 2025, worth roughly $2.21 billion. That’s about 1.18% of Booking’s outstanding shares, making it a significant shareholder. ^[20]
A separate filing shows Edmond de Rothschild Holding S.A. increased its Booking stake by 14.1%, bringing its holdings to 550 shares valued at about $3.18 million. ^[21]

MarketBeat’s coverage of these filings reiterates that over 92% of Booking’s shares are owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors, consistent with the high institutional ownership reported on Booking’s IR data (around 96%). ^[22]

These moves come alongside the board’s decision to maintain the quarterly $9.60 dividend, reinforcing the narrative that Booking is maturing into a cash‑generative compounder rather than a purely “growth at any price” story. ^[23]

AI and product news across OpenTable, KAYAK and Agoda

Recent press releases from Booking’s brands show how the company is pushing AI‑driven automation and “connected trip” experiences” deeper into its ecosystem.

OpenTable + VOICEplug AI: automating phone reservations in 20 countries

On November 24, OpenTable (part of Booking Holdings) announced a global integration with VOICEplug AI, a conversational‑AI platform for restaurants. Key details: ^[24]

The integration spans 20 countries, including the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan, Brazil, several major EU markets, and parts of the Middle East.
Restaurants using both platforms can automate phone‑based reservations, group bookings, cancellations, and waitlists using multilingual voice AI.
The AI system syncs real‑time table availability with OpenTable, offers 24/7 coverage, handles multiple calls simultaneously, and provides call analytics.

For Booking, this is a classic “software + network” play: it deepens OpenTable’s value proposition to restaurants, potentially boosts booking conversion, and reduces friction for diners.

KAYAK holiday trends: demand up, prices softer, AI Mode launched

On November 21, KAYAK released its 2025 Holiday Travel Forecast, which is as much a macro signal for Booking as it is a consumer guide: ^[25]

Holiday travel searches are up 10% year over year.
International airfares are down 7%, and U.S. domestic airfares down 1%.
U.S. rental car prices are down 6%, while hotel rates are roughly flat (+2% domestic, +5% international).

KAYAK also launched “AI Mode”, a conversational planning tool where users can type natural queries (“Find me a Christmas week getaway for under $500 from LAX…”) and get bundled flight, hotel and car rental suggestions. ^[26]

This plays directly into Booking’s “connected trip” strategy: lower prices plus better AI curation should increase search‑to‑booking conversion across the group’s brands.

OpenTable’s 2026 Dining Trends and AI “Concierge”

On November 18, OpenTable published its 2026 Dining Trends Report, revealing that: ^[27]

Seated dining is up 8% year over year in 2025.
Americans expect to dine out 10 times per month on average in 2026.
Usage of OpenTable’s “Notify Me” feature is up 84%, while experiential dining (pop‑ups, collaborations, chef’s tables) is up 46%.

OpenTable also introduced “Concierge”, a generative‑AI assistant that helps diners discover and book among the 60,000 restaurants on the platform. Survey data in the same report suggests that 44% of Americans plan to use AI more often to find and book restaurants in 2026 — an encouraging sign for Booking’s AI bets in dining. ^[28]

Rocket Travel by Agoda + WestJet: expanding the “connected trip”

On November 13, Rocket Travel by Agoda (Booking’s B2B arm) unveiled WestJet Hotels, a hotel‑booking platform built for Canada’s second‑largest airline. ^[29]

The platform offers over 500,000 hotel options worldwide.
WestJet Rewards members can earn at least 2 points per dollar spent on hotel bookings.
Rocket Travel by Agoda operates the platform end‑to‑end, integrating search, booking, and customer service.

This deal is a concrete example of Booking’s strategy to embed its inventory and technology inside airline and loyalty ecosystems, increasing distribution without always competing head‑on at the consumer brand level.

Leadership change: Priceline gets a new CEO in 2026

On November 12, Booking announced that Brigit Zimmerman will become Chief Executive Officer of Priceline effective January 1, 2026. ^[30]

Key points:

Zimmerman has been Chief Commercial Officer at Priceline since 2022 and joined the company in 2013.
She succeeds Brett Keller, who has been Priceline CEO since 2016 and is staying on as Special Advisor to the CEO until May 1, 2026.
Booking CEO Glenn Fogel framed this as a planned, internal succession, emphasizing continuity in Priceline’s commercial strategy. ^[31]

For investors, this is not a shake‑up, but it does matter: Priceline remains one of the group’s most recognizable brands in North America, and an internally promoted CEO signals confidence in the existing roadmap.

Upcoming catalyst: Nasdaq 53rd Investor Conference

Another near‑term event on the calendar:

CFO Ewout Steenbergen will present at the Nasdaq 53rd Investor Conference in London on December 9, 2025.
The company will host a live audio webcast and keep a replay available for 12 months on its investor relations site. ^[32]

Investors will be listening for:

Any update to Q4 booking trends, especially around the holiday season.
More detail on AI investments, cost‑savings progress, and marketing efficiency.
Commentary on competitive dynamics versus Google, Airbnb, and other OTAs.

Competitive overhang: Google, macro risks and margins

Not all recent news has been positive for the stock price.

A Yahoo Finance headline on November 22 noted that Booking shares dropped about 5.5% after Google announced a global expansion of its AI‑driven travel booking tools, feeding fears that AI assistants embedded in search could siphon demand away from traditional online travel agencies. ^[33]

At the same time, economic and geopolitical uncertainties — which Booking itself flagged in its Q3 commentary — continue to hang over the travel sector. ^[34]

From a margin perspective, Zacks’ breakdown of the Q3 report shows:

Marketing expense rose 8.8% year over year, but fell slightly as a percentage of gross bookings (4.7% vs. 5.0%), providing operating leverage.
Adjusted fixed operating expenses grew about 10%, partly due to higher cloud costs and personnel expenses. ^[35]

So far, strong revenue and booking growth have more than offset these headwinds, but the combination of rising costs and powerful new AI‑enabled competitors explains why the stock has not re‑rated to growth‑stock multiples despite its earnings trajectory.

How the pieces fit together for BKNG stock today

Pulling it all together as of November 30, 2025:

Fundamentals: Double‑digit growth in revenue, bookings and EPS, expanding margins, and raised cost‑savings targets point to a business that is both growing and becoming more efficient. ^[36]
Sentiment: Wall Street’s consensus remains constructive, with a “Moderate Buy” rating and average price targets more than 30% above recent trading levels; recent upgrades (like Wedbush’s) emphasize Booking’s dominant OTA positioning. ^[37]
Ownership: The entrance of Norges Bank and additional buying by Edmond de Rothschild and others reinforce the view that long‑term institutional capital sees value at current prices. ^[38]
Strategic momentum: AI‑powered features at KAYAK, OpenTable and partners like VOICEplug AI — plus B2B deals such as WestJet Hotels — show Booking moving quickly to own the AI and loyalty layers of travel, rather than being pushed aside by them. ^[39]
Risks: Intensifying competition from Google and other tech giants, macro‑sensitive travel demand, rising cloud and personnel costs, and regulatory risks in large markets all remain real constraints on the valuation. ^[40]

For now, Booking Holdings Inc. Common Stock sits in an interesting spot: fundamentally strong, strategically busy, and widely owned — but not loved by the market the way the headline AI names are. That disconnect between earnings power and share performance is exactly what many of the latest analyst notes, institutional purchases and AI‑related product launches are implicitly trying to close.